Heaven's Stairway
Heaven's Stairway was an Eastern Canadian cannabis seed bank based in Montreal. Founded in 1998, it offered about 300 cannabis strains. The company imported seeds from New Zealand and the Netherlands and shipped them worldwide, especially to Canada, the United States, and Europe.
Around January 31, 2006, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the operation and shut down its websites. A two-year investigation, Project Courriel, led to the seizure of about 200,000 cannabis seeds, roughly $183,000 in cash, and three gold bricks. Owner Richard Hratch Baghdadlian (also known as Richard Calrisian) and six other people were charged with importing and trafficking cannabis.
Heaven's Stairway ran several online sites to sell seeds and provide growing information, including hempqc.com, cannabisworld.com, overgrow.com, eurohemp.com, cannabisseeds.com, and cannabisbay.com. Overgrow.com, the largest cannabis grow site at the time, was bought by Baghdadlian in 2002 and featured a StrainGuide to help users search by genetic lineage; it had a large community before it shut down.
The case drew attention from U.S. authorities and international bodies. The DEA and the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board noted concerns about online sales of cannabis seeds and growing paraphernalia, and called for action to counter the spread of cultivation.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:15 (CET).