Cannabis dispensary owners receive community-based sentences

Having watched his grandparents pass away, Tanner Scheidt decided he wanted to help others benefit as he had from a medical prescription for marijuana.

Using an inheritance from his grandparents, he put his idea into action, starting a head shop in Regina with a vision of providing access to a product he said “changed his life.”

He and other cannabis dispensers — those who didn’t heed warnings from the Regina Police Service prior to legalization — were later raided, their owners and employees saddled with charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Scheidt, 40, and a second cannabis dispensary owner, 56-year-old Donald Fulton, were recently sentenced at Regina Provincial Court, having pleaded guilty to drug trafficking-related charges.

Fulton — owner of Green Nation — received a 12-month conditional sentence while Smoke Inc. owner Scheidt was handed a 10-month conditional sentence.

Conditional sentences are jail terms offenders are allowed to serve in the community, although actual jail is a possibility if breaches of conditions occur.

Federal Crown prosecutor Robin Neufeld told the court the two men were among those targeted during March 2018 raids at storefronts that opted not to shut down after police issued warnings. Neufeld noted Chief Evan Bray issued one warning during a news conference, with the Regina Police Service following up with letters to unlicensed businesses and their owners.

Neufeld said most businesses closed voluntarily following the warnings, which came several months before the federal government legalized cannabis.

Scheidt’s defence lawyer Kayla DeMars-Krentz said her client didn’t close as he expected police to first come and speak with him about what to do with his cannabis stock. He locked it away in the meantime — although he continued to sell CBD products, which was also against the law.

As in Fulton’s case, an undercover agent attended Scheidt’s shop a number of times, making purchases of the illegal products. Court heard the agent noted staff at Smoke Inc. made efforts to diagnose pain issues, for the agent and other customers.

In Fulton’s case, court heard he’d tried and failed to obtain a dispensary licence, but went ahead with opening anyway following some erroneous advice.

Like Scheidt, Fulton had his own medical marijuana prescription due to anxiety and health issues, and he too wanted to help others as he had benefitted from the drug.

Scheidt, who continues to operate Smoke Inc. — though not as a cannabis dispensary — told reporters he’s glad his case has been resolved.

“It’s been a very difficult time,” he said. “It’s also very hard to be sentenced for something that you know is helping thousands of people … But in the end, the law’s the law and we have to accept what’s happened.”

While he said there was a financial aspect to being in the dispensary business, Scheidt said his bigger motive was to help people.

“In the beginning, there was monetary reasons at times, but once we discovered what we could do (with) CBD, it became so much else,” he said. “And that’s really what makes it so hard to walk away from it right now, all the people that we’ve helped.”

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