EX-CON SUPPLIES CONTROVERSIAL POT SHOP

VANCOUVER - The group that supplies pot to Da Kine Smoke & Beverage
Shop is headed by a man released from prison two years ago after
serving time for growing marijuana, money-laundering and a weapons
offence.

Donald Briere was busted in 1999 by Surrey RCMP, who said at the time
his marijuana-growing operation was the largest they had ever seen,
employing about 80 people.

Police also said Briere owned an arsenal of deadly weapons, including
an Intratec 9-mm machine gun and 260,000 rounds of ammunition.

He was sentenced in October 2001 to four years in prison after
pleading guilty to cultivating marijuana, laundering $2.3 million in
proceeds and possessing a prohibited assault rifle.

His plea followed a deal police made with his brother-in-law Doug
Montaldi, one of two key figures in an unregulated bank in Burns Lake.
Police said they would not pursue money-laundering charges against
Montaldi if he testified against Briere, who'd provided the funds for
the bank, they said.

Information sworn by the RCMP in order to obtain a search warrant in
May 2000 stated that Briere transferred hundreds of thousands of
dollars in U.S. currency to Montaldi, a director and shareholder of
439288 B.C. Ltd., between 1995 and 1998.

The document said Montaldi, who was married to Briere's sister, cycled
more than $850,000 through the numbered company, which took deposits
and made loans to Burns Lake residents.

In the end, Montaldi did not have to testify against Briere, who chose
to plead guilty. In 2001, the Canadian Revenue Agency took action
against Briere to recover more than $1 million in unpaid income tax.

Montaldi and his partner in the unregulated bank, Glenn Anderson, were
suspended from the securities market for 12 years and fined $200,000
by the B.C. Securities Commission. However, earlier this year the B.C.
Court of Appeal threw out the commission's findings of fraud and
misrepresentation, and concluded the commission would have to
reconsider its sanctions against the two.

Before he was sentenced, Briere set up the Canadian Sanctuary Society,
which he said would be dedicated to helping people obtain marijuana
for medicinal purposes. He is one of five directors of the society,
and he and three other directors were Marijuana Party candidates in
the most recent provincial election.

Briere was released on day parole in December 2002 and promptly
announced plans to open a chain of cafes for people who are allowed to
use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Briere could not be reached for comment Monday.

Da Kine owner Carol Gwilt has said the cafe donates space to the
society, which sells marijuana there. She would not say where the
society obtains its marijuana.

The cafe was raided by Vancouver police last Thursday, and Gwilt and
seven employees were arrested.

She said the cafe has been selling marijuana for four months to
patrons who are over 18 years of age and have a federal exemption
allowing them to buy marijuana or are registered with the society and
have applied for an exemption.

Lorne McLeod, also a spokesman for the business, said 10,000 such
applications have been completed since the cafe opened.

But Michael Hansen of the Canadian Cannabis Gro-Operative Union said
Da Kine is giving the marijuana industry a bad name because it is been
selling pot to people who are under 18.

"If you're offering a service to sick people, that's great. But when
you open it to the public, that's wrong," Hansen said Monday in an
interview.

After the raid, police said a majority of the customers in Da Kine
were young, and none were able to show that they had a federal exemption.

Despite the well-publicized raid, which involved as many as 30 police,
some disguised with balaclava masks, marijuana sales continue at Da
Kine, and the Vancouver Police Department said Monday it is not ruling
out the possibility of another big raid.

"Our investigation in regards to Da Kine remains active -- we haven't
concluded anything," Const. Sarah Bloor said Monday. "They continue to
flaunt their criminal activity and we will continue to uphold the law."

Bloor said police estimate Da Kine has gross sales of $500,000 a
month.

"There's no other legitimate business that I can think of on
Commercial Drive that is making half a million dollars," she said.

Bloor would not say what measures police might take: "We'll definitely
make it public when we do go forward, but at this point we are still
actively investigating and using a number of different applications in
order to complete that investigation."

She added police are aware of other CommercialDrive businesses that
are selling marijuana, and said they would be investigated "in due
course".

Bloor said police expressed concern as long ago as January that drugs
might be sold on the premises if Da Kine was granted a licence, and
made those concerns known to the city.

"This was discussed back in January as far as our concerns about the
potential for this type of cafe, and their potential for applying for
a licence," she said. "It wasn't until May that the licence was
granted, so we were completely unaware that it had been and it wasn't
until we got public complaints in August that it came to our radar
screen, but we weren't aware of it prior to that."

Last week, Paul Teichroeb, the city's chief licence inspector, said
licensing authorities were aware of concerns about drug sales when
they considered the cafe's business licence application.

"We were very careful about asking them about exactly their type of
business and what they were going to sell," he said. "We were assured
it was going to be publications and some food and everything that
would conform to the bylaw, and on that basis we issued a licence.

"We were very specific about whether there was going to be any illegal
activity or sale of marijuana or other products and we were assured
that that wasn't going to occur on the premise."