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Pot Cafe Does Roaring Trade After Police Raid
Pubdate: Sat, 11 Sep 2004
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2004 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Jeremy Hainsworth, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/kine+cafe
POT CAFE DOES ROARING TRADE AFTER POLICE RAID
Marijuana Shop Serves Hundreds, Vows To Stay Open
VANCOUVER -- A cafe that had been selling marijuana off its menu for
about four months was doing a booming business before media attention
and then a police raid shut it down briefly, police said yesterday.
But even as police were releasing details of the raid the night
before, Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop was doing a roaring trade.
"We're not going away," said store spokesman Lorne McLeod. "We've paid
our business taxes, our business licence is still valid so why can't
we operate? They've done the raid, here we are again. If they raid us
again, we'll open again."
Dozens of people filled the store buying grams of pot over the
counter. In the back room, gram bags were filled from football-sized
bags of marijuana. A large box filled with marijuana cookies sat to
one side.
During the raid, officers seized $63,000, another $1,700 US, nine
kilograms of marijuana, some hashish and 300 cookies baked with hash
or marijuana, Acting Deputy Chief Bob Rolls told a news conference.
At one 90-minute period during their surveillance, police saw 230
customers.
They estimate the cafe was doing about $30,000 a day, Rolls said.
McLeod denied the store was taking in such a sum of money. Seven staff
and one customer were taken into custody Thursday night.
There were 33 people in the cafe at the time it was raided. "Charges
have been recommended and are currently before Crown counsel," Rolls
said.
Carol Gwilt, owner of the shop on Vancouver's hip Commercial Drive,
was quoted widely last week as saying she was just trying to be a
"business person" filling a "huge market." She said she didn't
consider what she was doing illegal.
Gwilt was in jail as the store's till rang steadily yesterday.
A staffer named Michael -- he wouldn't give his last name -- said
7,000 people had signed up as members of the Canadian Sanctuary
Society to allow them to buy pot at the store.
"This is a legislative issue," McLeod said. "We will deal with it
politically. We want to get the bad drugs off the street. We do not
support the use of cocaine or drug dealing or gangsters or criminals
or organized crime." Outside the store yesterday, customers openly
smoked pot while a police car sat up the street. "When the SWAT team
and the boys came in, they came in with their faces covered in
balaclavas. They had automatic weapons and guns," said Don, another
store employee.
He threatened lawsuits against the city. "They kidnapped our employees
and forcibly confined them and held them against their will. They
looted, stole and trashed our legitimate business," he said.
A customer outside sharing several joints with people called the
police action "overkill." He handed around photos of police wearing
balaclavas in the Thursday raid.
A police spokeswoman said last week the cafe was "on our radar," but
she also said police had not received any complaints and had limited
resources to deal with an issue no one at that time had mentioned as a
problem.
Even Vancouver city councillors were nonplussed at hearing the news.
Coun. Jim Green noted there is a tolerance in Vancouver to these kinds
of establishments.
When dozens of officers swooped down on the cafe Thursday night, it
outraged hundreds of people in the Commercial Drive neighbourhood, who
filled the street that was festively dressed to look like a scene from
Brooklyn for a movie shoot. Filming had to be shut down for the raid.
Many screamed at the officers to go home and defiantly smoked joints
as police manning barricades videotaped the crowd.
A police spokeswoman said the massive police presence was necessary to
ensure safety of police and public. Police defended their actions
yesterday, saying the raid was conducted in full view of the public.
"Trafficking is trafficking, it's against the law, you can't sell it,"
Rolls said.
He also said police are examining other businesses in the area. "We
made a decision to do this last week."
Police received three CrimeStoppers complaints.
A Vancouver city licensing hearing had been scheduled for Sept. 15,
but was put over to Oct. 6 after Da Kine hired a lawyer.
A panel of three councillors will decide what to do with the cafe's
licence. It had been licensed to offer limited food service and sell
books, gifts and clothing.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin