(Papeete) The wealthy Canadian founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté, was sentenced Tuesday in Papeete to a fine of 16,600 euros (approximately $24,700 CA) for possession and use of cannabis on his private Tuamotu atoll in French Polynesia .
Questioned Tuesday by the magistrates at the hearing, Guy Laliberté explained that he suffered from chronic pain, which he relieved thanks to THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
“I don’t like smoke […] I make oils and honey and I take them as an infusion,” declared the artist and businessman, while specifying that he consumed them for “mainly medical” purposes. Which is legal in Canada, as he pointed out.
The problem is having given instructions in a country where production, consumption and use are strictly prohibited.
Prosecutor Yann Hausner
The criminal court declared Mr. Laliberté not guilty for part of the charges, but found him guilty of possession and use.
In 2019, one of the employees of Nukutepipi, where Guy Laliberté built luxury bungalows, was arrested in Tahiti in possession of cannabis, intended for other employees of this isolated atoll.
On this employee’s phone, the police discovered photos of a container housing 48 plants of cannabis. This container allowed crops of all types and was intended, according to one of the employees, to ensure the “food autonomy” of the atoll.
The 48 plants had been used as a test, according to him, but the “first harvest did not take place” due to the intervention of the gendarmes.
Mr. Laliberté was defended by Mr.e Yves Piriou and Parisian lawyer Jean-Yves Le Borgne, who pleaded not guilty. “We wanted to make ourselves a billionaire […] An average citizen would not have had the same treatment,” lamented M.e Piriou.
Me Le Borgne considered that no material evidence proved his client’s guilt. He also discussed the evolution of legislation in various countries, such as Germany.
A judgment of condemnation can never correspond to satisfaction […] The problem is to know what the consequences of this conviction will be for him in his international life.
Me Jean-Yves Le Borgne
Mr. Laliberté regularly visits the United States, a country that is very careful about the legal records of non-citizens who wish to cross its borders.