HEMP RETAILER'S LICENSE REVOKED

VANCOUVER (CUP) -- The campaign to legalize marijuana suffered a major
setback Monday after Vancouver City Council voted not to renew the business
license of renegade retailer Hemp BC.

City council brought the store's owner, Sister Icee, also known as Shelly
Francis, before it to question whether she had failed to properly manage
the business by promoting and facilitating the use of an illicit substance.

The accusations stem primarily from Francis' association with Marc Emery,
who she bought the business from last March.

During Emery's reign, city police raided Hemp BC three times. In 1996,
police seized 60,000 marijuana seeds from the store. After that raid,
police allege Emery sold seeds through a mail-order catalogue rather than
over the counter.

Emery hired Icee to manage the store in 1997. She was manager when Emery
was charged with trafficking marijuana to minors, an offense for which he
was later fined $750.

After Icee bought the store, and signed a contract with the city promising
not to sell, promote, or facilitate the sale of marijuana, the raids
continued. Last September of last year, police seized pipes, bongs, and
cash from the store. They also charged Icee with selling drug paraphernalia.

In denying Icee the license, Coun. Lynn Kennedy said her major concern was
not the history of the store, but rather how it had economically impacted
the area, namely the outskirts of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. She said
that impact had been minimal.

"I spoke to members of the Gastown Business Association, and none of them
said it made a huge difference," she said.

Not so, says music retailer Ian Benson, who argues Hemp BC has been a major
economic boost to an otherwise impoverished area.

"It would be a shame if the city shut down stores in the area that benefit
it economically.

Losing Hemp BC would be a real blow, no question," he said.

Icee argues the real reason the city denied Hemp BC the license was for
political reasons.

"Change causes problems for people," she said. "We're a highly outspoken
force and we're determined to see (marijuana) decriminalized for everybody."

She also said the ruling was hypocritical at a time when police are
stepping back from charging people for simple possession.

"Marijuana is de facto decriminalized," she said.

Glenn Thompson, one of the workers at the store, says he expects the police
will come to shut the store down as soon as they can get a court injunction.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to go to jail, but I don't
want to lose my job, either."

Icee said her lawyers are seeking a judicial review of the decision.