B.C. drug legalization activist fighting province over seized cash

One of British Columbia’s astir salient cause legalization activists says helium volition combat the provincial authorities successful its effort to support currency seized during raids of his businesses.

The B.C. authorities has filed a civil forfeiture suit against Dana Larsen and others, alleging much than $100,000 seized successful constabulary raids of his psilocybin mushroom dispensaries are proceeds of crime.

The suit claims Larsen and a radical called the “Strathcona Tea Society” processed and trafficked drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act.

Larsen says helium volition combat to get astatine slightest immoderate of the wealth back.

“I was amazed by some of the raids, to beryllium honest, determination are a slightest a twelve 2 twelve different shops successful the metropolis doing akin things that we do,” helium told Global News.

“We bash merchantability much antithetic substances than a batch of the different ones do, but it was inactive astonishing to person a raid similar that.”

B.C.’s civilian forfeiture strategy has faced disapproval due to the fact that allows the authorities to prehend spot linked to transgression enactment adjacent if the proprietor hasn’t been convicted of a crime.

That’s due to the fact that the load of impervious successful the civilian tribunal strategy — a equilibrium of probabilities — is little than successful the transgression system, wherever a lawsuit indispensable beryllium proven beyond a tenable doubt.

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Solicitor General Gary Begg said the strategy is an indispensable instrumentality to combat transgression enterprises.

“I can’t speech specifically astir the Dana Larsen case, but I volition accidental that arsenic a instrumentality of government, we usage unexplained wealthiness orders and civilian forfeitures, having them revert to the province, they go the spot and the proceeds of that are utilized to heighten policing successful the province,” helium said.

Larsen alleges that overmuch of the spot seized during the raids wasn’t amerciable and that helium will, astatine the least, question to get it returned.