store was repeatedly raided through 1998 after its sale to the store manager. Her business licence was subsequently revoked by the city. In August 1998, Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen had told The New York Times that Hemp BC was "going to be toast by September." Emery switched his walk-in marijuana seed business to mail-order only, and continued to publish Cannabis Culture magazine. In early 2000 he established Pot-TV, a marijuana-related video channel. From 1998 until his arrest in 2005, Emery paid provincial and federal taxes as a "marijuana seed vendor" totalling nearly $600,000. Cannabis Culture On December 15, 2016, Marc and Jodie Emery opened six illegal Cannabis Culture marijuana "dispensaries" in Montreal, Quebec as an act of "civil disobedience". On 16 December 2016, Marc Emery was arrested at the Mont-Royal Avenue store, during a series of raids conducted by the Montreal police. Jodie Emery was released later that night with no charges, while Marc was held overnight. Following this arrest, Emery continued to open dispensary franchises in cities such as Hamilton and Ottawa. At one time, a total of 19 Cannabis Culture dispensaries were in operation in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Political activity Emery worked on the New Democratic Party's campaign in London East in the 1979 federal election. He was a critic of slow police response times to robberies, advocating for private security officers for merchants and business owners. He started a campaign to eliminate the annual levy tax of $35 a year for downtown improvements, stating that it favoured a handful of the elite. He ran for the Libertarian Party of Canada in the 1980 federal election, finishing fourth in London East. Emery later left the Libertarians and became a London-area organizer for the libertarian Unparty, later renamed the Freedom Party of Ontario. Emery served as the Freedom Party's Action Director from 1984 to 1990. In 1984, Emery, the Freedom Party, and the No Tax for Pan-Am Games Committee (founded by Emery and Metz) successfully campaigned against London's bid for the 1991 Pan American Games, saying the city would lose millions. Emery ran as a candidate of the Freedom Party in the rural constituency of Middlesex, near London, Ontario in the 1987 provincial election. He received 499 votes for a distant fifth-place finish. In 1982 and 1985, Emery unsuccessfully ran for Alderman in Ward 3 of London, Ontario. In May 1987 during a strike by city workers,