GETTING DOT-BOMBED IN VANCOUVER

As the job market continues to shrink, many unemployed techies are choosing
travel over couch-potatodom. One destination that's beginning to appear on
these itineraries is Vancouver, especially for those who like to party on
the cheap.

The city is well on its way to becoming the Amsterdam of the Pacific
Northwest, with liberal stances on marijuana and other vices attracting
hordes of pot-coms looking to get dot-bombed.

"Silicon Valley libertarians are very well received here. Vancouver is much
less oppressive than many parts of the U.S.," said Richard Cowan, editor of
Marijuana News. "There are obviously a lot of people in the cybercommunity
who also use cannabis, particularly the more creative types."

Roughly 80 percent of the 2.7 million U.S. visitors came to the Vancouver
area from the West Coast in 2000, according to Tourism Vancouver.

In addition to easy access to marijuana, people come for the flora and
fauna; skiing and hiking; and that familiar Pacific Northwest vibe. Throw
in a strong U.S. dollar and low airfares (Air Canada offers a round-trip
flight from San Francisco for just $154) and you've got a pretty appealing
vacation package -- especially for recently laid-off techies looking to
slack off until the economy improves.

"What a fun-loving city. I'm going up there with a bunch of my friends who
are unemployed," said Ted Roberts, who was laid off from Third Age Media in
San Francisco. "Vancouver is closer and cheaper than Amsterdam, so we can
stay there longer."

Vancouver's drug laws aren't as liberal as Amsterdam's, but a recent survey
found that 69 percent of Canadians want cannabis decriminalized, and 92
percent want medical marijuana legalized, according to Compas, a social
research firm based in Toronto.

Possession and trafficking of marijuana are prohibited by Canada's federal
government, which specifies penalties of up to seven years in prison for
possession and life imprisonment for selling it. However, possession of
small amounts of marijuana for personal use is very rarely prosecuted in
Vancouver, said Anne Drennan, constable and spokeswoman for the Vancouver
Police. She said that trafficking is prosecuted.

With Canadian cops looking the other way, patrons of Blunt Brothers, a cafe
and head shop just a few blocks from Vancouver's trendy Gastown
neighborhood, smoke openly without much fear of getting busted.

Cannabis isn't actually sold on the premises -- for that you need to step
outside, where a dealer will approach you within five minutes. Numerous
other establishments tolerate pot smoke, including the aptly named Sister
Sativa bed and breakfast hotel.

Attitudes are similarly relaxed about prostitution: The act itself is
legal, but soliciting it isn't. A majority of residents want brothels to be
licensed by the government, with taxation and mandated testing for
diseases. Legislation or not, sex workers are easy to come by, with many of
them running carefully worded ads in the local newspapers.

The papers also display full-page ads for the B.C. Marijuana Party, which
held a convention last weekend at its new headquarters, two doors away from
Blunt Brothers. At the confab, 79 candidates shared joints while discussing
their campaign platform for B.C. elections this spring, in which another
30-plus left-leaning parties are also running.

The B.C. party first formed online, as participants in a newsgroup at MAP
protested the anti-marijuana stances of the candidates in Canada's last
elections, and decided to be proactive about it.

The resulting political group continues to use the Net to broadcast its
message, at BC Marijuana Party. The site is linked to online properties
owned or funded by the party's president, Mark Emery. These include his
self-named marijuana seed company, along with media outlets Cannabis
Culture magazine, Marijuana News and Pot TV, which together claim about
750,000 hits per week, and a significant number of visitors from the U.S.

"Pot is the biggest growth industry in B.C." said Robert Adams, the
Marijuana Party's online committee chair. Adams, a political candidate in
the logging town of Squamish, pegs the industry at $6 billion (Canadian) in
annual revenues, if not more.

Legalizing it could mean a $20 billion windfall for B.C.'s economy, with a
considerable chunk of that likely to come from taxation and increased
tourism -- although some worry that it might damage the city's reputation
and thus stem the flow of family vacationers, said Paul Vallee, senior vice
president at Tourism Vancouver.

While the city isn't likely to become overrun by hash-selling coffee shops
and live-sex emporiums any time soon, there's enough of a red-light scene
that some people call it Vansterdam.