Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil and high stakes poker enthusiast, was arrested on his private island in the French Polynesian for growing cannabis. He was charged with possession and cultivation of narcotics.

Guy Laliberte Arrested for Growing Cannabis on French Polynesian Private Island

Shakedown.

It is incredible how in 2019 it is still illegal to grow or consume cannabis, but more incredible is that a person with so much money does not go to countries where cannabis use is legal

I used to grow 6 plants in the backyard when i was in Thailand...lol
Fresh leaves to brew tea every morning.

Liberty for Laliberte!

Leave Guy to his business on his own private island ffs..

Ah, french laws ... Poor him. But I didn't know he was a poker player.
Liberté!

It is a pity that many more countries have strict laws on this beautiful flower ... But cigarettes and alcohol are always welcome.

Originally Posted by greatgame230

It is incredible how in 2019 it is still illegal to grow or consume cannabis, but more incredible is that a person with so much money does not go to countries where cannabis use is legal

The people who use cannabis have to remember to find out the laws in other countries before travelling. I'm a little shocked that Guy didn't perform due diligence before growing, given he is not exactly unknown. Who knows? Maybe he was growing too much?? but according to the article, it doesn't appear it would have been too much.

Some people say Pot is a gateway to other drugs, like Alcohol?

Originally Posted by greatgame230

It is incredible how in 2019 it is still illegal to grow or consume cannabis, but more incredible is that a person with so much money does not go to countries where cannabis use is legal

Well I guess it was on his own 'island'. I'm thinking one would feel fairly secure there.
Does seem pretty stupid for sure (have you watched him play poker??? I believe he was the reason for a bunch of younger players becoming wealthy younger players)
He must really like pot.

Shouldve just bought some then its only possession,some jealous clown prolly narked him off.Anyway screw the system,if you moan about the system the doc will quite happily dope you up to the eyeballs with specifically designed manufactured prescription drugs 24 hours a day for the rest of your life,but you think people are allowed to be happy with this wonderful medicine nature gives us..even just now n then.oh no no no .You are allowed to be a tool or a zombie but they dont really like the in-betweeners much.Or should i say the truly awake lol.

Wow, that's unreal. Facing possible ten years for "several plants for personal use'?! Thats nucking futs! You are practically encouraged to do so in California! Crazy.....

Originally Posted by Shells

Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil and high stakes poker enthusiast, was arrested on his private island in the French Polynesian for growing cannabis. He was charged with possession and cultivation of narcotics.

Guy Laliberte Arrested for Growing Cannabis on French Polynesian Private Island

Can,t believe he didnt know the laws there something doesn't seem right.

I wonder how they catched him. Since hes the owner of the island, why did he not find a place where they would not recognize it? And why did he grew it himself instead of buying it somewhere? Guys with that much money should he no problems in finding good quality weed no?

Sucks for Guy, sad there is such archaic laws against pot still all over the world. It's perfectly legal to drink yourself retarded on alcohol but pot is this awful thing lol. So so stupid.

Hopefully he has enough money he can get off pretty light

Going to have to come to Canada. At this time you are allowed to grow 4 plants at home. In my province of Alberta we have 50 shops you can purchase from. They are working on legalizing selling eatables. It follows the same rules as alcohol you can not be using it in public area's. It is all new here so they are still working out rules.

Honestly I can only think that he pissed someone off and they reported him.

What else really makes sense?

Unbelievable. So Stupid. Should have paid off the cops. Lol

Originally Posted by Poker_Mike

Honestly I can only think that he pissed someone off and they reported him.

What else really makes sense?

That was my first thought when I read the article, too. Nothing else really makes sense. After all, he is a billionaire and a businessman, you mean to tell me he didn't know the laws? hmmm...

Mr Laliberte probably knew very well it was illegal. In what world a man can not grow whatever he wants in his own private island? *cough cough*

At the same time he will easily get away with it, he has lawyers and money. Good for him.

Kind of strange. I mean even if it was for personal use, a private greenhouse doesn't take much space and i'm assuming his property is large. Someone he pissed off contacted the police, and maybe they had an ax to grind? Seems like there is a little more to the story.

Now,I like him a little more.I think he has somethink mad in his personality.

As other people have suggested already, most likely someone tipped off the police as an act of revenge for something completely different. Otherwise its really hard to imagine, that law enforcement officers have nothing better to do than visit a private island to look for home grown cannabis.

Guys, i am french, and rest assured he is not going to spend one night in jail except if he was growing 1000 plants of course... Especially in Polynesia i think.
You know police people... they wanted an easy catch and had a tip or something to look good.

Cool story for a private island. These are his ill-wishers and envious persons told police. Most likely a crop was grown on several hectares of land. I do not believe that the owner was not aware of the violation of the law while engaging in this activity. Perhaps the punishment will not be very severe if the fact of the sale of marijuana was not.

Marijuana will someday be legal across the globe,,,, Now think about ALL the people who were arrested/jailed over the years,,,, Now,that's a crime.

He thought that because it was his private island he could do whatever he wanted .He forgot that there are some places where cannabis growing is illegal.

It was a small amount , just for personal use , maybe also for some health problems ?? He's not , apparently , a drug dealer lol . Why they arrest him is a mystery , as well as who the snitch was .

Originally Posted by riverokker

Unbelievable. So Stupid. Should have paid off the cops. Lol

Like I said before this looks like a shakedown. He may not have paid before but he is going to pay now.

He was just spreading joy in this world. how unfair

These things are known it is allowed in some countries and not in others. Personally, though not to use I believe that alcohol is more evil, but the basic is to respect the law of the country where you are, even more than he could live in any country they choose. Unfortunately it was amateur.

A billionaire getting arrested? I'm down with that, even if the reason is a joke.

It is better to reduce alchohol than marijuana or cannabis .A lot of accidents have been made by drunk drivers.

Up ten years for growing personal use cannabis seems nuts to us on the West Coast USA these days, but those french laws

Originally Posted by terryk

Marijuana will someday be legal across the globe,,,, Now think about ALL the people who were arrested/jailed over the years,,,, Now,that's a crime.

Personally I don't think it is newsworthy. if you haven't been caught you haven't been smoking or growing enough.

He can probably afford a pretty good lawyer.

Personally, I do not use hemp, but at the same time I do not consider this a big evil !!! I hope the first time for him it will be only a monetary punishment !!! He broke the law, and he must answer for it !!! He was incredibly lucky that he did not sow hemp the whole island))))))))))))))))

Originally Posted by Zorba

Personally I don't think it is newsworthy. if you haven't been caught you haven't been smoking or growing enough.

It's probably newsworthy because of his status - this would not be any level of news if it were you or I.

Originally Posted by Shells

It's probably newsworthy because of his status - this would not be any level of news if it were you or I.

It might not be newsworthy but if it happened to you in the USA your mugshot would be released to the media and then immortalized 4eva on the internet by websites that specialize in outing arrest records no matter how minor the crime you are accused of. lol. There are not any mugshots of me anywhere but there are countless mugshots of people on the internet who were busted for things like smoking weed.

Just something to think about for people who may engage in activities that may result in their arrest.

Freedom for Laliberte!!!

capable was for own consumption

Unfortunate for Guy Laliberte but we should all respect the local laws. On the bright side, French Polynesia looks like an absolute paradise!!

I wasn't going to comment on this issue at first, but...

As someone who has lived on 3 different continents, and visited numerous countries, it always strikes me as 'first world' when the western/rich interloper decide they are fit to ignore a lesser countries laws. I can assure you - yes could have been a set up, yes, could be corruption ….and it's just as likely that the local authorities were hacked off at someone arrogantly ignoring local law.

And by the by, if talking about a relaxed attitude to cannabis, well, you still can't light up a doobie anywhere you feel across the entire US of A, nor can you anywhere and everywhere in Europe.

Originally Posted by Zorba

Personally I don't think it is newsworthy. if you haven't been caught you haven't been smoking or growing enough.

Now thats what a sane person would say

Originally Posted by Shells

It's probably newsworthy because of his status - this would not be any level of news if it were you or I.

I can see why, I just don't think it is, people shouldn't be treated differently just because of a bank balance, (pro or con) now if it was a preventable work death that he was responsible for, that would be news.

One of the problems of legalizing cannabis is that people can grow their own too easily, even if not to make a living out of it but for their own habit and friends. The legalizer movement hate this because they want to create big business out of it and governments want all the extra taxes that they can waste on whatever new lies they are telling us.

You can be sure the billionaire will be completely fine here, the only times billionaires get into trouble is when they mess with other big money. In this world that kind of money can basically give you freedom to do and be whatever you want. The Sacklers are proof of this. They are deliberately making addicts of people but will never go to jail and never have their personal fortunes taken away.

He will definitely hire some good lawyers to defend him.

Originally Posted by nikemmmm

Ah, french laws ... Poor him. But I didn't know he was a poker player.
Liberté!

Originally Posted by Zorba

Personally I don't think it is newsworthy. if you haven't been caught you haven't been smoking or growing enough.

He's not just another rich poker enthusiast, he's a philanthropist in the world of poker (and a philanthropist in general), he founded the non-profit One Drop Foundation and, tied in with that, launched the Big One for One Drop annual poker event, with buy-ins ranging from $111,111 to a whopping $1million for the "Big One" main event. So that's what makes this story newsworthy, and particularly newsworthy to the poker community compared to if some other rich poker player got busted for growing weed. It's a billionaire poker player who actually puts his wealth and fame to good use, trying to make the world a better place, who's looking at the risk of jail time for a crime that (just my personal opinion here) should not be a crime in this day and age.