by Dave Dormer
George Charboneau likely had no idea RCMP were waiting for him when he boarded the LaSalle Ferry on Dec. 4, 1937 for the 15-minute return trip from Detroit to Windsor.
In the pockets of his overcoat on that chilly Saturday, the 21-year-old Canadian was carrying just over five ounces of ground Cannabis hidden in two tobacco tins.
Reefer Madness was ramping up as Cannabis had been made illegal in the U.S. two months earlier (14 years after it was made illegal in Canada) and enforcement was increasing on both sides of the border.
According to a 1938 League of Nations report on illicit transactions and seizures of drugs, RCMP suspected Charboneau of trafficking Cannabis and members of the Windsor detachment were waiting to search him when he arrived at the dock.
The LaSalle Ferry ran between Detroit and Windsor from 1922 to 1938.
The bust was a big deal for police at the time.
A story on page 12 of the Globe and Mail on Dec. 6, 1937 declared it “the largest seizure ever made of the drug here.”
RCMP also mentioned it in their year-end report dated March 31, 1938.
Thirty-two days after being arrested — on Jan. 5, 1938 — Charboneau pleaded guilty before Judge JJ Coughlin in Essex County Court, making him one of Canada’s first convicted Cannabis smugglers.
He was sentenced to two-years-less-a-day — plus a further indeterminate term of not more than one year — and fined $200. That’s equal to about $3,600 in 2020 dollars and Charboneau was to be jailed for another month if he didn’t pay the fine.
who was George Charboneau?
We don’t have a lot of information but public records are able to paint a small picture.
Charboneau was raised in a blue-collar, francophone family in Windsor, Ont.
According to census records, he was born in 1916, the oldest of three children (his brother Earl was born in 1918 and sister Geraldine was born in 1920) to parents Louis and Mellina Charboneau.
Copy of the 1921 Canadian census, which lists the Charboneau family.
The family spoke English but French was their first language and George was listed as Roman Catholic on both the census and court record.
His father, Louis, was a house painter and owned the modest brick home the family lived in on Dufferin Avenue in Windsor.
Court records say Charboneau (his name is spelled Charboneau on the census and RCMP reports, but spelled Charbonneau in the court record) had an elementary school education and was working as a labourer when he was arrested.
At that time, Charboneau was living close to where he grew up, in a house on Bridge Avenue, about six kilometres from the Detroit-Windsor ferry dock.
Charboneau would have had a supplier in Detroit as Cannabis doesn’t grow outdoors in the winter and indoor growing wasn’t yet a thing.
A quarter pound (4 ounces) of Cannabis goes for around $600 today and he had a little more than that on him (5 1/8 ounces) when he was busted.
New record busT
The seizure of five ounces of Cannabis was the largest ever in Canada at the time, but that record didn’t last for long.
Just 10 days after Charboneau was jailed — on Jan. 15, 1938 — RCMP arrested 31-year-old William DeBozy, who they suspected was a main supplier of Cannabis to the Windsor area.
DeBozy, an American from Plymouth, Mi., and his girlfriend, Cora Arnold, from Detroit, were being tailed by narcotics officers in Windsor on that Saturday.
The couple was stopped in DeBozy’s car, a Ford Tudor, which he’d driven over the border. A police report says he worked for the Ford Motor Company at the time.
According to the 1938 League of Nations report, neither had any drugs on them when they were stopped and searched, but police found a package of 25 Cannabis cigarettes hidden under the dashboard.
DeBozy admitted the joints were his so he was arrested and Arnold was released without charge. A police officer escorted her back to Detroit.
His car was taken to a garage to be searched and police found eight tobacco tins filled with about 21 ounces of Cannabis hidden in the trunk — a new record bust.
Reports say a large metal hook found on the backseat of the car was needed to get the tins out of the trunk. Police suspected DeBozy was growing Cannabis on his farm near Plymouth and he was one of the main suppliers to the Windsor area.
His lawyer, Gerald McHugh, argued it was for personal use and DeBozy had found the Cannabis growing in a vacant lot near his home.
He told court he’d picked up the habit of smoking “reefers” while serving in the U.S. army in Panama.
DeBozy initially pleaded not guilty, but at a hearing on Jan. 24, 1938, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to three years in Kingston Penitentiary plus a $200 fine (and another six months if he didn’t pay it).
His car was also confiscated.
In his mug shot, DeBozy is wearing a white dress shirt, dark jacket and a hat, and has a resigned look on his face.
Newspaper archives say one of his sisters shouted “Oh no!” when the sentence was read out in court and she had to be escorted from the room sobbing.
Interestingly, DeBozy was asked by Crown prosecutor Keith Laird — who also prosecuted George Charboneau — during the proceedings: “Are you aware that marihuana causes murderous intent in some people?” to which he replied, “No, it never affects me that way.”
DeBozy died in Michigan in 1962 at the age of 55.
Earliest arrests linked to jazz musicians
The earliest arrest I have been able to find, specifically linked to cannabis, was in 1933.
Sam Burman, who is described in newspaper reports as a “negro cabaret entertainer,” was stopped while smoking a joint outside a club in Montreal and police found two more joints in his pocket when they searched him.
He was jailed for six months and handed a $200 fine by Judge Victor Cusson.
Many of the earlier court and police records have been destroyed by fire over the years, and many of the records only list ‘drugs,’ so we don’t know definitely that meant cannabis. As a result, Sam is one of the earliest known people to be jailed in Canada.
