Friday, July 12, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Darrel Brisson and Melissa Eastman were first in line at the opening of Grasshopper Retail Inc., the first private cannabis store in Prince George.
City’s first cannabis store opens Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca There’s a new shop in Prince George, and people are already loving the joint. The first legal cannabis purchased from a retail shop in this city’s history occurred at a few minutes past 9 a.m. on Thursday. There was a lineup halfway down the block when the doors of Grasshopper Retail Inc. opened up, and more people added onto the long snake as fast as customers exited with their historic purchases. The first people in line at Grasshopper were Melissa Eastman and Darrel Brisson who drove more than an hour to be there. “We don’t have many options in Mackenzie, just the mail,” said Eastman. She and Brisson came out smiling with a large brown pa-
per bag loaded with the products they settled on and some extra retail items as well. They were not the first to arrive and get into the morning queue, however. Samantha Wilson and her mother Shannon were the there at 7:30 a.m. but didn’t leave the parking lot until closer to opening. “We wanted to be in the line, but not start the line,” Samantha said. “My mom has a cast on her foot so I didn’t want her to have to stand for a long time. We usually load up in Chilliwack, so it’s easier now that Grasshopper is here. I’ve been waiting anxiously for this to open.” Not as anxiously as Sue Katarynych, who has mobility challenges and chronic pain. “I had to stop seeing a doctor for 12 years because he wanted me to
stop smoking pot and force me to use opioides,” she said. “I’ve had to be illegal for 40 years. It was always for pain relief. It was a stupid law in the first place. I was in a wheelchair when I started using it, and it got me back on my feet again.” Ruth Johnny is a longtime cannabis socializer. She has been to two grand openings in less than a year. The first one was in Moncton, and now Grasshopper in Prince George. She puzzled over why it took B.C. so much longer to get things underway, but she was happy to be in line Thursday morning on George Street. “Finally, I don’t have to sneak around anymore,” she said. “I’ve been smoking it since the 1970s. I tried drinking alcohol instead, but I just didn’t like that as
much. I far prefer this. We in our 60s never thought we would ever have this freedom.” Many in the lineup were still concerned about laws that overreach and regulations that make a simple thing into a difficulty, but at least the click of the Grasshopper lock at 9 a.m. was a sign of progress. From inside the store the lineup could hear the staff do a preliminary cheer just before swinging open the doors, and the 30-or-so people outside gave them a round of applause when the first customers stepped over the threshold. The crowd had to be rationed into the store when it reached legal capacity, the lineup growing longer just as fast as the people were taken in, a new customer in as a finished customer went out. The line was about 40 people
outside by 9:15, plus the first wave of customers inside. Johnny was the first one to complete the purchase and exit, shaking her little bag excitedly, saying “now I’m going home with my goodies.” Shortly behind her was Graham Ash who proudly displayed his freshly purchased Aurora MK Ultra Indica jar. It was the kind he liked because it didn’t have drowsiness as a side-effect. “I thought the store was quaint. I liked it,” he said. “It was simple, quick to browse, a very nice shopping experience.” The store hours are 9-11 a.m. from Thursday to Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Sunday to Wednesday. Two pieces of ID are required to enter, and only those 19-plus are allowed.
Crown makes case for double-murder verdict Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Delivering her closing submissions on Thursday, a Crown prosecutor argued Perry Andrew Charlie was a full participant in a drug-related killing of two men – from planning the attack to carrying out the shooting. Charlie faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of David Laurin Franks of Prince George and Thomas Burt Reed of Burns Lake and a count of attempted murder with a firearm in relation to Bradley William Knight, the sole survivor of the Jan. 25, 2017 targeted shooting. Co-accused Seaver Tye Miller and Joshua Steven West have each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree mur-
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der and Aaron Ryan Moore to two counts of criminal negligence causing death and await sentencing. Over the course of about 2 1/2 hours, Crown prosecutor Marie-Louise Ahrens set out the reasons why she submits that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church should find Charlie guilty as charged. Crown is theorizing that Franks had offended someone in the local drug culture and was lured to a pullout on Foothills Boulevard near North Nechako Road on the pretext of selling some cocaine to a known customer but with the intent that he be killed. Unfortunately for Reed, he had offered to drive Franks to the spot in his car, a Chevrolet Malibu, Knight was along for the ride, as was Reed’s dog, Molly, who was also killed in the hail of gunfire.
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Knight, who had been sitting in the back seat, survived the attack by diving to the floor. He called 911 once the shooters had left the area, the court has heard. He testified that the attackers had arrived at the spot in a van and much of the testimony heard during the trial centred on whether Charlie was in the vehicle. Footprints found in the snow were consistent with the tread on the shoes Charlie was wearing at the time of his arrest, Ahrens contended. She also noted testimony from the van’s driver, Thomas Lee, who testified he had driven Miller and Charlie around in the past for money, and pointed to text messages she argued verified Lee’s account. While he was testifying Lee, more than once and without prompting, referred to
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Charlie as “Unique,” a nickname that also appears on the banner of his Facebook page, in drawings found in his home and in the form of a tattoo on one of his forearms, she added. Ahrens pointed to the seizure of three shotguns found in Miller’s home and testimony from Lee’s friend, Steven Ray, who had joined Lee for the ride. Ray testified that four others were in the van by the time they were at the scene and that Moore stayed in the van while the three others got out after covering their faces with balaclavas and hankerchiefs. Moore was the only one Ray knew by name, and Ahrens invited Church to find by process of elimination that Charlie was one of the three who got out, with guns in hand. — see ‘THE SHOOTERS, page 3
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