VANCOUVER POT SHOP BUSY AGAIN

VANCOUVER - The Da Kine cafe is once again open for business on Commercial
Drive, despite Thursday's police raid that temporarily shut it down.

The cafe has openly sold marijuana over the counter for the past four
months, and its owners say it's business as usual.

In fact, business was brisk on Friday, and by 1 p.m the staff said they had
run out of marijuana.

Police have said they seized nine kilograms of marijuana in Thursday's raid,
plus half a kilogram of hash and 300 baked goods containing marijuana.

One of the Da Kine's owners and seven staff were jailed overnight, with
charges pending.

Police also said the store was taking nearly $30,000 a day. But store
spokesperson Lorne McLeod says Da Kine earns nowhere near that amount.

Staff member serves customer

He also accuses police of being needlessly heavy-handed during Thursday
night's raid.

"If two officers had walked in with a search warrant, and said, 'we're here
to search,' we would have communicated and co-operated completely," he says.

"But that's not what happened. We were treated as if we are criminals."

McLeod says the cafe is a registered non-profit society distributing
marijuana primarily for medicinal purposes.

Customers were being asked to fill in a form on Friday entitled "The
Canadian Sanctuary Society" -- detailing their illness and their doctor's
name.

Staff say they have thousands of completed forms on file -- which will be
used to show Vancouver city hall how many people smoke marijuana.

Monica Towery, who came up from Dallas to buy pot, says she doesn't mind
filling in a form. She also thinks Vancouver police are wasting their time
going after marijuana sales.

"It doesn't hurt anybody. Why don't they spend time going out and busting
people shooting heroin, bringing cocaine into the country. There's nothing
wrong with smoking pot."