A Canadian dispensary owner arrested and charged with possession and drug trafficking during raids in Halifax, Nova Scotia last week hopes that the charges will be dismissed if the federal government passes cannabis legalization as planned this spring, according to a report from the CBC. Three of her employees were also arrested and charged with trafficking.
Shirley Martineau, 66, owner of Auntie’s Health and Wellness, opened up the shop despite not being granted an occupancy permit by the city and was openly selling cannabis products to anyone over the age of 19 regardless of whether they held a medical cannabis card. The shop was closed following Friday’s raids – during which police seized eight plants from her home and a few thousand dollars’ worth of stock from the shop — but was reopened by volunteers the following day. She was released from custody five hours after her arrest.
“It’s a fight between me and them. They have a job and I respect that,” she said in the report. “I don’t want to go to jail. I don’t want to sit in prison for months, but I have to be there for the patients.”
Martineau indicated that she planned on using the profits from her adult-use sales to offer products to medical cannabis patients for free.
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