Is he a hardened on-line marijuana dealer or an enterprising entrepreneur?
A Montreal judge will decide and sentence him in the way he sees fit.
The Crown says Richard Hratch Bagdadlian knew exactly what he was doing when he broke the law and wants him to serve five years behind bars.
The RCMP arrested him for exporting and importing marijuana seeds on the Web.
Investigators say the company got 30 orders a day, at 100 dollars per order, buying and selling seeds all over the world.
His company Heaven’s Stairway made as much as 800-thousand dollars in gross revenues in only one year with Bagdadlian pocketing about 150-thousand of that.
The 41-year-old Montreal man pleaded guilty to the charges.
But during his sentencing hearing, Bagdadlian insisted it was all above board: registering the company, hiring workers, shipping his goods in a transparent fashion, filing tax returns, the whole nine yards.
His lawyer says his client believed it was a legit venture, wasn’t doing anything under the radar and should not get jail time, but rather a community sentence.
– Article from CJAD
Read more about this story on the Cannabis Culture Forums.
Read more about this story on NORML’s website.
30 Comments
Cannabis Culture makes” errors”
but other people tell ” lie ”
We have made note of this distinction
“lies” should be accounted for with an apology and a correction
=whereas ” errors” should be corrected,
its courtesy & decency at work to acknowledge a correction has been made
keep it up Jodie
Santa Claus is watching
just like the rest of us
Good to hear it.
I think these Conservatives are ahead in the polls; the uninformed, sheepish Canadian voter would hand them a mandate if there was an election tomorrow. But what will the sheeple do when Harper and his cowboys start rounding them up and putting them in those big, shiny, new super-penitientiaries??!! Cry out: “they lied!” lol
Even Trudeau would spew all over the present Liberal party, then fart in it’s general direction. Even his own son is a corrupt politician/dick. SAD.
It’s not a lie, it’s an error, and one that can be fixed. Don’t get so worked up about it.
He was not charged with *selling marijuana seeds*. In order to prove that charge, they would have to prove Baghdalian knew that the seeds would germinate and said so. That’s pretty much an impossible task.
Instead, he was charged with *importing and exporting marijuana seeds*. They dont have to prove representations about germination or intent for that charge to stick.
Seed sales **within Canada** are unlikely to be affected. Seed sales beyond Canada’s borders, especially to Americans, have been greatly restricted since Emery Seeds and Overgrow.com were busted several years ago now already.
“The Canadian government wants online marijuana seed seller Richard Hratch Baghdadlian behind bars for five years.”
That’s not accurate. While the Criminal Code is a federal statute in Canada and the RCMP may well have busted Overgrow.com, it’s the Crown Prosecutor employed by –and answerable to– the Government of the Province of Quebec that is asking for this sentence, not “the Canadian Government”.
When Cannabis Culture starts to lie on this page, it’s time for us to stop visting here. Truth matters; always. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Excuse me Peace? Why are you on this web site if all you are here to do is spew crap? Jodie is a very intelligent lady,You should actually talk to her.. instead of judging her! You are a hypocrite with your so called CHRISTIAN MORALS.. pass no judgment upon others??
Cannabis was put here for us to use naturally.. Some of us are UNIVERSITY educated, have smoked for many many years and I know just from your posting that I have more brain cells than you and I get great relief from my pain because of the usefulness of this plant.
Since you are on this web maybe you should take the time to educate yourself on the benefits.. I will a sure you that most of us are NOT brain dead, unmotivated slackers!
Most of us are HARD WORKING TAX PAYING citizens that choose a safer alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, and alcohol.
Prohibition is the ONLY harm in POT!
Tamara
what about the egyptians and the blue lotus? there are many cultures that use ethnogens and such for spiritual guidance. thanks to the christians we have had such attrocities as the inquisition and the crusades. what about the pope making a deal with hitler and mussolini? what about all the people locked up because of the war on drugs? religion is used to control the masses. religion is like drugs in that it is an individual’s escape from reality.
Here’s another witch hunt!
put your helmets on peeps
it’s gonna hurt!
I’m no lawyer but when a business pays taxes to the Federal government for years then gets arrested and incarcerated for the same business should there nor be some recourse in the courts?
Why didn’t the Feds bust Marc and Richard as soon as they filed their first tax returns? The Fed basically condoned the sale of pot seeds and should be complicate as a co-defendant with Marc against the DEA.
I wish we had another Trudeau. There was a man to fight for civil liberties! For you younger readers, he was the PM that declared that the government had no business in the bedrooms of the people. This basically removed any sexual practices between consenting adults and was the foundation for today’s sexual freedoms.
Harper is Canada’s Anti-Christ and is dragging us all down with him. We need a way to call a vote to throw out corrupt and dangerous governments. Democratic governments used to be afraid of pissing off the people but through draconian laws and propaganda have corralled the sheeple and shear them at will.
The total corruption of the Harper dynasty is evident to everyone but is commented by but a few. It’s hard sometimes to speak out when to do so may draw attention to your own illegal (but morally right), activities. Not just the professional with an ounce of personal but the unlicensed med-user that has a little extra space in the basement to produce his own prescription. If C-15 passes as written many may have to support organized crime to procure their medicine instead of supplying their own with a modest grow. The fear of being incarcerated away from their meds is more powerful than the need to get the those meds. The cartels gotta love this!
Respect
cut the head of one seed dealer and 10 others will fill the gap. Too bad the Montreal judge doesn’t understand this basic rule.He thinks he’s gonna eradicate the weed.
i see a lot of fear
I see a lot of anger
i see a lot of doubt
you must suspect that deep down inside
you are embracing not only a health problem’
but a spiritual dummy
that does not work
did not work
and will not work for you
How did you enter this world my friend?
where will you go when you exit this world?
you might want to consider this
while you still can consider this
if all there is to existance is this life
Do you really want to follow Marc Emery
to jail for the rest of your life
or follow Jodie Emery into panic mode
while she makes up what’s left of her mind
its entirely up to you
Stock up on seeds people… Looks like its gonna be a battle.
Keep your imaginary buddy to yourself. Like most religious nutjobs, you call yourself peaceful (your posted alias is a laugh)then turn around and support violence. Religion is all about power and control. If you support prohibition, you support gangs and violence. Does that not rattle around with the 2 brain cells you have? There is no god, only man. And as such, we should all get along as best we can. Arresting and detaining people over choice of inebriation is stupid. A huge waste of time and money. Just legalize and deal with it.
impure ongoing fascination with brain distorting poisonous plants
is a sign that society is spiritually starved, Transposing the love of Jesus
to an illegal substance is the last gasping of desperate people.
You get punished in the world a for this activity
and locked out of the next one for this activity
a nation of annoying drunkards
is just being replaced by
a nation of annoying weed burners
Turn away , turn away from this
or fade away and never knowing the knowledge
the tree of knowledge has in store
marijuana is perverted form of natural hemp
and does not qualify as
Gods’ ” herb bearing seed ”
rendered seedless
held prisoner away from the sun
you do not eat it as your meat
but smoke it to deform your mind
Alpha and Omega- the first shall be the last
pray for Marc Emery so that he is saved
What has happened is Harper –
WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY!!!!!
That is just not true, check your dates, Marc was arreseted first.
I couldn’t have said it better my self.
Might as well open one anyway, unless your going to make $800,000 over the next 5 years.
All that may be true, but what harm has he caused? Non-violent drug offenders do not deserve all the $ we spend incarcerating them. There are REAL bad guys out there could use the attention.
They better give that guy a serious sentence because if the seed business has sales of $800,000 per year and all you get for it is one month in jail and probation then I’m going to open up my own seed company and so should every other Canadian. You’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t you? What the hell business could be easier than that? You place a few orders to Dutch seed companies and then sell them at jacked up prices to the suckers. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Why just scrape by with a restaurant or retail store when you can make a killing selling seeds with no serious downside at all and the only space you need is a back room in your house with a computer and packaging supplies.
Cannabis hemp plants can produce hundreds of viable seeds in 16 weeks at almost no cost or effort to the grower. To then sell a 1/8 cent seed for $25.00 is criminal. All the grower assumed was risk of playing black market superstar and maybe getting caught. When they do get caught- and they generally end up that way- there is a price to pay and thats a half decade of their life behind bars.,
Don’t believe it? ask Marc Emery, the former ” Prince of Pot”
He was actually napped a year or so before Marc Emery was, so it can’t be for the sake of “saving face” after “tossing one of their own”…it’s your Harper Government hard at work! (Not that I agree with that work!)
I think Canada is trying to save face after tossing one of their own to the lions in the USA. They tossed their own citizen away like a piece of trash. Now they want to do the same kind of sentence to try and gain some respect back from what they have done to Marc. I hope they fail.
They may come down hard on him to show the americans that we will jail seed sellers so they will sentence Marc Emery to more time.