POT CAFE BUTTS OUT FOR NOW

Two years of confrontational pot activism are up in smoke.

"It's certainly the end of Up in Smoke Cafe in Hamilton," says
www.upinsmokecafe.ca on its website.

Chris Goodwin, 27, owner of the "pot-friendly" downtown cafe remains
in jail, having been denied bail after his July 27 arrest for
allegedly flouting the terms of previous releases on
marijuana-possession charges.

The King Street East cafe has been raided several times by police --
and some 50 arrests were made -- since it opened two years ago. In
the last instance, police seized pot-related merchandise worth
thousands of dollars, according to Detective Sergeant Mike Thomas,
head of the Hamilton Police vice and drug section.

"The people who are running it are on criminal charges now or
drug-related charges and breaching conditions. It must have become
impossible for them to keep the store open.

"Ever since they opened, they were a concern for us. And those
concerns were expressed to us by a number of people who have stores
in the area or lived in the area.

"The conclusion here, I think, is this is good news. It's good news
for the city and specifically the downtown."