One of British Columbia’s most prominent drug legalization activists says he will fight the provincial government in its attempt to keep cash seized during raids of his businesses.
The B.C. government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against Dana Larsen and others, alleging more than $100,000 seized in police raids of his psilocybin mushroom dispensaries are proceeds of crime.
The suit claims Larsen and a group called the “Strathcona Tea Society” processed and trafficked drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act.
Larsen says he will fight to get at least some of the money back.
“I was surprised by both of the raids, to be honest, there are a least a dozen two dozen other shops in the city doing similar things that we do,” he told Global News.
“We do sell more different substances than a lot of the other ones do, but it was still surprising to have a raid like that.”
B.C.’s civil forfeiture system has faced criticism because allows the government to seize property linked to criminal activity even if the owner hasn’t been convicted of a crime.
That’s because the burden of proof in the civil court system — a balance of probabilities — is lower than in the criminal system, where a case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Solicitor General Gary Begg said the system is an essential tool to fight criminal enterprises.
“I can’t talk specifically about the Dana Larsen case, but I will say that as a tool of government, we use unexplained wealth orders and civil forfeitures, having them revert to the province, they become the property and the proceeds of that are used to enhance policing in the province,” he said.
Larsen alleges that much of the property seized during the raids wasn’t illegal and that he will, at the least, seek to get it returned.