COUNCIL TO VOTE ON BONG SHOP

Owner debating legal action A downtown Maple Ridge store specializing
in bongs and hookah pipes will likely have its fate decided by the
Maple Ridge council on Monday.

The Hemporium, which opened last Friday, before its business license
could be approved by the district, was shut down on Monday by the
bylaws department.

The controversial store has some neighbouring business owners and
politicians concerned that drug addicts will be attracted to the
downtown area by the drug paraphernalia sold there.

Maple Ridge Mayor Gordy Robson said the business license application
for the store will be voted on by council members, likely at Monday's
workshop meeting.

"We can decide this as a council," he said.

However, he added, since the business isn't doing anything
technically considered illegal, "all of that is questionable in a courtroom."

District of Maple Ridge spokesperson Gary Manson couldn't confirm if
the Hemporium's business license application would be on the agenda
for Monday, but said that a decision would be made either way within a week.

Hemporium store owner Dave Singh said he plans to consult with a
lawyer if the business license isn't approved on Monday.

He hasn't ruled out possible court action.

"We are not doing anything illegal," he said. "In every city there
are stores that sell this stuff."

Singh, who has already signed a five-year lease for the store space
on 224th Street near Dewdney Trunk Road, said he feels he is being
unfairly targeted by the city.

"There's a hydroponic store right next to me, and there's a corner
store down the street selling the same things," he said. "I don't
know what the problem is with my store."

Singh insists the pipes he sells at Hemporium are for tobacco and
that he has no control over what substances are used in them.

Robson says that's just a ruse to skirt the law.

"Drug paraphernalia is still illegal in Canada, but if it has other
uses, the law gets grey," said Robson. "The problem is that they say
it is for tobacco, so the situation gets cloudy."

Robson said the issue is simple, stores that encourage drug use have
no place in the downtown core, an area slated for redevelopment in
the next 10 years.

Eric Shenker, owner of the Dreamscapes Gift Gallery, next door to the
Hemporium, has started a petition in opposition to Hemporium, which
he believes will attract an unsavoury element to the area.

However, at least one local business owner is happy to see the store open up.

Nicole Gagne, owner of Let the Games Begin, a gaming store across the
street from Hemporium, said she has no problem with the store, and
believes it could benefit businesses in the area.

"Since they've been open they've increased foot traffic on the
street," she said. "I've seen the people that come by and poke their
heads in the window, and I would be happy to have these people in my store."

Gagne says she is neither a marijuana, nor a tobacco user and chalks
up opposition to the store as out-dated, backwards thinking.

"People seem to think that because he sells pipes and bongs, that
he'll attract crack users," she said.

"But they don't have the money to buy his products."