Pubdate: Sun, 13 Apr 2014
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Pages: 6-7
Copyright: 2014 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Chris Doucette

TALE OF T.O.'S 'LEGAL' DRUG KINGPIN

Accused Pusher Claims $1m A Year In Profits And That Product Is Legal
But Cops Beg To Differ

TORONTO - Adam Wookey was well on his way to becoming Canada's king
pusher of synthetic pot and party pills, court documents allege.

But now, the 29-year-old CEO of Purepillz Corp. and Pure Principles
Inc. is dealing with the wrath of the Crown attorney ... again.

"He's totally immersed in this," Toronto Police Det.-Const. Trevor
Karkoulas alleged recently. "He wants to be the king of it all."

Since 2007, Wookey's companies have sold millions of dollars worth of
smokeable herbs and social tonics - called Izms and Purepillz - at
variety stores, head shops and sex shops across the country as well as
online, according to documents filed in court.

And the convicted drug dealer has repeatedly argued his synthetic pot,
marketed as a safer yet stronger alternative to marijuana, and pills
that boost energy, enhance sexual experiences and cause hallucinations
are legal - even in the wake of the latest criminal investigation
aimed at shutting down his lucrative business.

"The ingredients contained in the Izms products are not listed in the
schedules to the CDSA (Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) and thus
are legal in Canada," Wookey stated in an e-mail to the Toronto Sun
just days before his arrest last month.

Wookey, who was charged with 18 new offences after surrendering to
Toronto Police on March 24, refused to comment further.

But he has argued publicly for years that the synthetic cannabinoids
and other ingredients such as benzylpiperazine (BZP),
3-trifluormethylphenylpiperazine (3-TFMPP) and methylone (synthetic
MDMA) found in Izms and Purepillz are safer than street drugs.

His companies' websites claimed their products are "legal
alternatives" to marijuana, speed and ecstasy.

The police and Health Canada vehemently disagree.

"There's no question, these are scheduled substances," Karkoulas said.
"Not only is this stuff illegal, it's also unsafe."

Wookey launched the companies immediately after his release from jail
for drug trafficking and firearms convictions in 2007 and business
soared.

Court documents show Purepillz was making $17,016.93 a month by 2008.
And Wookey boasted in a recent interview about earning $1 million a
year from the two companies combined.

But police have been trying to shut down his companies since a man
overdosed at a Toronto nightclub in 2008 allegedly after ingesting
Purepillz.

"That investigation was probably the initial occurrence that brought
the Purepillz products into the public eye," Karkoulas said. "Health
Canada took a stance to pull the products from the shelves and began
to investigate Adam Wookey along with 51 Division."

The drug squad officer said blood tests showed the dead man had MDMA,
BZP, and TFMPP in his system but no charges were laid when the
toxicology report came back as "not definitive."

Izms came under fire after a gunman robbed a Hamilton sex shop of its
entire Izms supply on Jan. 19, 2013, Karkoulas said.

Hamilton Police began seizing products from stores around town but
didn't know exactly what they were dealing with until Health Canada
tested samples and confirmed controlled substances were involved, he
said.

With help from Toronto Police, investigators soon executed search
warrants in upscale Yorkville seizing 200 grams of marijuana and 45
grams of cannabis resin.

Wookey's father, Peter Wookey, 59, who police alleged helped run the
companies, was charged Feb. 28, 2013.

Adam Wookey was arrested a week later for trafficking a controlled
substance, but his charges were stayed.

Meanwhile, after years of warnings from Health Canada, Wookey was
convicted of Food and Drug Act charges for not having a licence to
sell his products or drug identification numbers for Purepillz.

But Karkoulas said the younger Wookey has yet to be sentenced for the
FDA charges.

"The active ingredients used in these products are not produced in
Canada, as far as we know," Karkoulas said, adding the ingredients
were allegedly "smuggled into the country."

Court documents reveal Canadian Border Services Agency officers
intercepted a shipment of capsules from China destined for Purepillz
Corp. in August 2008. The capsules, sent from a company called
Stargate Enterprises, contained BZP.

Wookey ran afoul of the law again in October 2013, when Toronto
Police's drug squad conducted a series of raids seizing nearly $2
million in cocaine, ketamine, marijuana, MDMA, heroin and crystal meth.

Wookey, one of five men arrested on dozens of drug-related offences,
was released on $10,000 bail and those charges are still before the
courts.

That probe sparked yet another investigation into Purepillz and Izms,
Karkoulas said.

"The way it's set up, it wasn't easy to figure out," he said of the
latest case against Wookey.

Early last month, police raided 14 locations in Toronto and Peel
Region seizing $300,000 worth of product, $150,000 in cash, two
vehicles, and computers, Karkoulas said.

The work being done by a third-party logistics company, hired to fill
Internet orders for purepillz.com and theizms.com, was also shut down,
he said.

Wookey's dad was arrested again, as were three others with alleged
ties to the companies, on a slew of drug possession and trafficking
charges.

The companies' CEO was out of the country at the time but he
surrendered a couple weeks later and was charged with conspiracy to
commit an indictable offence, possession of property obtained by
crime, failing to comply with a recognizance order and other offences
related to the importing, producing and trafficking of scheduled substances.

Adam Wookey was released on bail March 31 under strict conditions and
is awaiting his next court appearance.

Not of the most-recent allegations against him have been proven in
court.

His websites, purepillz.com and theizms.com, have been shut down and
the following message posted on the homepages:

"Thank you for all your support over the years. Unfortunately due to
circumstances out of our control we can no longer offer our services.
This site is permanently closed."

But Karkoulas said the accused is "smart and constantly evolving his
business," so he's not convinced he's seen the last of either the Izms
and Purepillz.

- ----------------------------------

Health warnings

For nearly a decade, teenagers and 20-somethings in Canada have been
experimenting and enhancing their social experiences by smoking
synthetic pot and popping party pills.

But health officials have repeatedly urged people to steer clear of
the designer drugs and synthetic marijuana, warning that both pose
serious health risks.

"Health Canada continues to work with its federal, provincial and
municipal partners, including law enforcement and border services, in
collecting information about synthetic marijuana products, and in
making sure that retailers are aware that they cannot be legally sold
in Canada," spokesman Sean Upton said in one recent advisory.

Adam Wookey, CEO of Purepillz Corp. and Pure Principles Inc., has
publicly defended his products as "safer" and "less addictive" than
similar street drugs.

But in another Health Canada advisory, officials cautioned users have
been known to become addicted and also face a long list of potential
side effects such as stroke, heart attack, liver or kidney failure,
psychotic episodes and even death.

Purepillz products such as Rush, Freq and Bliss combine chemicals that
mimic illicit drugs such as speed and ecstasy. There is even a version
of Viagra called Stiff4Ever.

"Contrary to popular belief, this product is not just for old men," an
ad on purepillz.com read before the website was shut down. "It's for
anyone looking to have a blast for hours and perform like a
superhero." Such products are also marketed as "legal highs."

But Health Canada says Purepillz ingredients - such as
benzylpiperazine, 3-trifluormethylphenylpiperazine and methylone - are
listed as scheduled substances under the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act.

- ----------------------------

Checkered past includes illegal drugs, guns

When self-proclaimed "legal" drug baron Adam Wookey was just 18, he
was busted for dealing cocaine thanks to a pal's Halloween paintball
prank.

After four years of legal proceedings, the young man from a prominent
Toronto family stood before a Superior Court judge with tears in his
eyes, asking for leniency after pleading guilty to drug and firearms
charges, the Toronto Sun reported in its coverage of the trial.

"I know this isn't what I was meant to be," Wookey said apologetically
at his 2006 sentencing.

After hearing how his parents' divorce led him to make some bad
choices, such as becoming a pot smoker before hitting puberty and a
daily cocaine user as a Grade 10 student at one of the many private
schools he attended, the judge showed him mercy.

Justice Denise Bellamy could have locked him up in a federal pen for
five years but instead sentenced him to 22 months in a provincial jail
followed by three years probation.

"You are a drug dealer who had dangerous firearms at your disposal,"
the judge scolded Wookey at the time, before adding, "I'm going to
take a chance on you."

Those charges early in Wookey's adult life stemmed from Halloween
night in 2002 when his roommate Jesse Gubb fired a paintball gun at
passing motorists from the window of their Queen St. E. apartment.

The teens had run off by the time ETF officers responded, but they
left behind two high powered rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and $11,000
worth of cocaine and marijuana, some of it stuffed in a gym bag from
prestigious Trinity College.

The pair surrendered a week later and Gubb was fined $200 for pot
possession while Wookey took the fall for the bulk of the drugs and
the guns.

Fast forward a decade from that fateful Halloween and Wookey, the CEO
of Purepillz Corp. and Pure Principles Inc., is once again in trouble
with the law, Toronto Police allege.

The now 29-year-old has been hit with a slew of criminal and Food and
Drug Act charges - most still before the courts - stemming from
repeated police and federal government investigations over the last
two years.

Wookey has been arrested three times in the last year, the latest
coming on March 24 when he surrendered to Toronto Police.

But while police accuse Wookey of being a drug peddler, he calls
himself a businessman - one who has said past interviews he rakes in a
million dollars a year selling"herbal smoking blends" known as The
Izms and assorted "social tonics" called Purepillz.

Interestingly, Wookey incorporated the first of his synthetic pot and
designer drug companies in August 2007 - just nine months after
Bellamy took a chance on the convicted drug dealer, according to
documents filed in court by Health Canada.

That lighter 2006 sentence was due, at least in part, to the 20
character reference letters submitted in court from his former
girlfriend's dad, high profile lawyer Clayton Ruby, and some
well-connected relatives, the Sun reported at the time of the
sentencing hearing.

One uncle wrote to the court about the family being "terrified and
saddened" at the thought of Wookey spending time in "the hardened and
cruel environment of the penal system." Another uncle, Simon Wookey,
who ran for city council in 2010, and his grandfather Richard Wookey,
a developer who built Hazelton Lanes, also appealed to the judge on
his behalf.

"We are a close family and not one of us has had anything to do with
the law in a negative way," Richard Wookey wrote.

Adam Wookey's mother Karen, a successful TV producer who works on the
show Intervention Canada, also contributed.

Wookey's father was reportedly working in Turkey at the time. But
Peter Wookey seems to be firmly entrenched in his son's life now. The
57 year-old allegedly helps run his son's companies. Peter Wookey was
arrested a year ago in a Hamilton Police investigation that later fell
apart. And he was taken into custody again in early March on drug
possession and trafficking charges in the latest probe into his son's
companies led by the Toronto Police.  
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