LATIN QUARTER MUNCHIES

David McKenzie wants to draw hungry stoners to the Latin Quarter. The
owner of the Duchess of Amsterdam head shop on St-Marc will be opening
a new smoking lounge/compassion club on St-Denis south of Ontario this
Friday, and believes that the destination - tentatively called The
Coffee Pot (Le Pot de cafe) - will attract potheads who want to get
out of their living rooms and mingle with fellow tokers.

"It's gonna be the nicest smoking lounge in the country," he says.
"It's gonna be really classy. It used to be a high-end bistro, so I
have to take down some of the tapestries and put up some posters."

He says that a city Montreal's size needs more than one distributor of
medical marijuana - the city's first Compassion Club is at 68 Rachel
E. - and that smokers need a place to hang. "Lots of people like to go
out and smoke and have a burger," he says. While he originally had an
alcohol licence, he says he got rid of it because booze and pot don't
mix. "It'll be the quietest place on the block."

McKenzie did consult briefly with the Compassion Club but isn't the
most political of Montreal's pot scenesters. However, he dislikes the
current legal status and, he warns, if his lounge is closed by the
cops, he'll fight it in court. "And I'll win," he says. "They'll do
what they have to do, and if we go to court we go to court."

He plans an opening party this Friday, Oct. 29, starting "around 7."