Ex-owner of Whitehorse butcher shop on the hook for $17K+ in THC-tainted jerky case

A Yukon judge has ordered the ex-owner of a shuttered Whitehorse butcher shop that sold THC-tainted jerky to unsuspecting customers in 2020 to pay more than $17,000.

John Pauch, who ran Off The Hook Meatworks, was found guilty of selling or distributing cannabis without a licence under the territorial Cannabis Control and Regulations Act last month following a judge-alone trial. 

Appearing in a Whitehorse courtroom by video Friday for sentencing, Pauch, 64, maintained he had little knowledge of or involvement with how the jerky sold by his shop came to contain THC. 

"I don't have much to say other than my apologies to the people involved here," he told the court. 

Yukon Territorial Court judge John Phelps fined Pauch $15,000 for the offence, which was less than half of the fine suggested by the Crown but triple the amount suggested by the defence. However, a 15-per-cent victim fine surcharge levied on top of the fine brought his total owing to $17,250. 

He has 12 months to pay. 

Police charged Pauch in 2021 following an investigation launched in December 2020 after people began showing up at the Whitehorse hospital with symptoms of cannabis intoxication despite not having knowingly consumed any.

All, however, had eaten jerky from Off The Hook. 

Police and health officials seized hundreds of bags of the shop's jerky from the shop itself and store shelves. Tests revealed some bags contained trace to high amounts of THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis, and officials ultimately found 33 people in the Yukon, Alberta and Nova Scotia who'd experienced mild to severe symptoms of cannabis intoxication after eating Off The Hook jerky. 

At trial, Pauch's son, who also worked at Off The Hook, and the shop's jerky-maker testified that an intentionally-made batch of THC jerky — THC is the psychoactive compound in cannabis — was made at Off The Hook in late 2020. Pauch's son said the batch was a test to see if a home recipe could be scaled up for a potential cannabis edibles business he was looking to start with his father, and was never intended for distribution or sale. 

Pauch, testifying in his own defence, said that he wasn't told about the test at the time and didn't learn about it until authorities began investigating.

What happened to the batch, and how Off The Hook's other jerky came to contain THC, was never confirmed during the trial. 

In victim impact statements read to the court by Crown Kelly McGill Friday morning, one person who'd consumed the tainted jerky said he thought he was having a stroke or heart attack when the symptoms suddenly kicked in, while another said he thought he was going to die. A third said he ate the jerky while driving on the highway and also gave some to his children before realizing something was wrong, and would have felt "awful" if something had happened. 

McGill, in her sentencing submissions, noted that the case was "entirely unique" and was the first charge under the Cannabis Control and Regulations Act "of any complexity" to be prosecuted in the Yukon.