Marc and Jodie Emery, the pot power couple and business partners behind Cannabis Culture, have big plans to bring their business back to life in Montreal.
Instead of storefront pot dispensaries, their franchisees will likely shift their business mandate from recreational to medicinal marijuana.
“These locations in Montreal under the Cannabis Culture name are going to consider putting doctors in these locations to sign up people for the legal Health Canada program,” Jodie Emery said. “That seems like the wisest way to go.”
But there appears to be a wave of opposition to the Cannabis Culture model on the local front.
When Marc Emery, the man known as the Prince of Pot, stormed into Montreal and got arrested and charged with pot possession and trafficking in December, it rubbed some marijuana advocates the wrong way.
“I do have a concern with the way Marc Emery goes about opening his businesses in Montreal with the media circus,” Montreal’s Compassion Centre director Marc Boris St-Maurice said.
“My concern is that people who might be afraid about legalization, who aren’t quite convinced, who are on the fence – this will turn them off.”
But Marc Emery and his team are determined to keep testing the waters in Quebec.
He’s currently living in Toronto and looking forward to his next court appearance in Montreal on Feb. 15.
“I’m anxious to go to trial as soon as possible because I believe the current laws are unconstitutional and would no longer be supported by the courts,” he said.
Local franchisees are planning to reopen the five following Cannabis Culture shops in Montreal as early as next week:
- 3804 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
- 2200 Mount-Royal Avenue
- 1431b Bishop Street
- 4123 Saint-Denis Street
- 1863 Amherst Street
“They’re going to reopen a few of the locations as head shops where people can get vaporisers and cannabis paraphernalia,” Jodie Emery said.
While the director of Montreal’s Compassion Centre welcomes the move to widen access to patients, he worries about the intention behind the recent business ventures.
“There’s always a concern when people storm into town and make a big show. It can ruffle lot of feathers,” St-Maurice said. “We don’t want to get caught in the cross-fire.”
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