Owen Biased, Say Boosters Of Marijuana

Lawyers and civil-rights advocates want Vancouver Mayor Phillip Owen
disqualified from deciding the fate of two marijuana and hemp emporiums at a
Sept. 29 hearing before city council.

Brent Lokash, lawyer for Hemp B.C. and the Cannabis Cafe, says Owen has made
up his mind to shut down the two businesses in the 300-block West Hastings
Street.

Lokash and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association cite a recent New York Times
article quoting Owen as saying of Hemp B.C. and Cannabis Cafe: "They're
going to be toast by September."

Shelley Francis, who has owned Hemp B.C. and the Cannabis Cafe since March,
said that proves Owen is "obviously prejudiced."

"We're an upstanding business here,"said Francis, 38, a.k.a. Sister Icee.
"We don't sell marijuana. We don't sell marijuana seeds. All we do is
advocate that marijuana should be decriminalized. And they don't like it."

In a letter to the city's law department, Lokash wrote that Owen had "shown
bias against our client and it appears it would be impossible...to obtain a
fair hearing on the granting of its business licences."

John Westwood, executive director of the BCCLA, said: "I think it's totally
inappropriate for the mayor of Vancouver, who will sit in judgement...to be
stating ahead of time they're going to be losing their business licence."

Checked-by: Don Beck