BUSINESS AS USUAL AT BUSTED POT CAFE

Vancouver Shop Is a Drug House, Police Say

The business of selling marijuana buds at a Vancouver cafe remained
brisk yesterday, three days after the store was raided and its hefty
stash confiscated by police.

The Da Kine Cafe was able to restock after the Thursday raid, but ran
out of marijuana to sell late Friday night. Staff promised the weed
sales would resume today.

Defiant management has vowed the controversial head shop will not bow
to police pressure and cease pot sales, despite advice to the contrary
from their lawyer.

"We're not going away. We plan to stay open," management team member
Lorne McLeod said Friday outside Da Kine. "We are not doing anything
wrong here."

He said the cafe is contemplating legal action against police for
damages to the premises during the raid. Dozens of officers, some
wearing balaclavas to conceal their identities, stormed the cafe.

Seven staff members are facing charges of trafficking and possession
for the purpose of trafficking. Owner Carol Gwilt is also charged with
possessing proceeds of a crime.

Acting deputy police chief constable Bob Rolls said the cafe "was not
a small, insignificant compassion club."

"This was a drug house and a very significant operation," he said,
adding that the store averaged $30,000 a day in sales and had plans to
establish different locations.

During the raid, police seized $63,000 in cash, 9.5 kilograms of
marijuana and 450 grams of hashish. Officers also carted away boxes
containing 300 edible marijuana products.

Forty-one people were in the store at the time of the raid, said
drug-squad Inspector Dave Nelmes, eight of them staff members. The
majority of the customers were young and none were able to present
police with federal exemptions that would allow them to possess and
consume marijuana legally, he said.

McLeod denied that the store took in $30,000 a day.

"I wish," he said. "We're doing vast business, but not on a profit
basis."