POT CAFE IN N.B. INSPIRES MONTREAL ACTIVISTS

Saint John Shop Lets Patrons Light Up. Leader Of Bloc Pot Party Says He
Aims To Open A Boutique By 2007 That Sells Marijuana Here

Montreal advocates of marijuana legalization say recent national
developments can only help local efforts to legalize weed.

On April 1, a Nova Scotia court became the third in Canada to throw out
marijuana possession laws. Two days later, a Saint John, N.B., cafe that
allows customers to smoke marijuana opened to the public.

"This opens a door in Quebec," said Dylan Maxwell, owner of the Je l'ai
boutique, a Duluth Ave. store specializing in hemp products and pot-related
paraphernalia. "It's another question whether someone would (open a similar
cafe here). You can only make money selling coffee at these places."
Selling marijuana is still illegal.

Montreal had an underground cannabis cafe in the 80s, said Maxwell, which
was shut soon after it decided to operate in the open. But things have
changed considerably since then.

"The difference now is that there is no more Canadian possession law,"
Maxwell said.

The pro-marijuana crowd has traditionally had a hard time finding respect.
The media are often all too eager to trot out hackneyed gags about memory
loss and snack-food cravings, rather than noting the genuine progress made
by the movement, such as recent court decisions.

The Bloc Pot is fielding candidates in nearly half of Quebec's ridings in
the provincial election. And in the 2000 federal election, the
Montreal-headquartered Marijuana Party took 0.5 per cent of the total
national vote and one per cent of the total in Quebec.

Bloc Pot leader Hugo St-Onge said he hopes to open at least one marijuana
cafe in Montreal within four years - one that will go further than New
Brunswick's "user-friendly" establishment and actually sell weed.

Maxwell said he was surprised - pleasantly surprised - that the pioneer
establishment of the current era of de facto decriminalization sprouted up
in New Brunswick, given that Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto are considered
more marijuana-friendly.