DRUG WAR? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

The issue of illegal drugs in Vancouver took on a surreal tinge [last week]
when dozens of police, many dressed in black ski-masks, stormed the Da Kine
cannabis cafe on Vancouver's Euro-beat-trendy Commercial Drive. The cafe
had been openly selling cannabis to patrons since opening its doors four
months ago, but for whatever reason, had not attracted the attention of the
VPD.

This situation changed just over a week ago when the story erupted into a
full-scale tempest after local CTV affiliate aired a broadcast of the Da
Kine cafe. B.C.'s senior law enforcement officer, Solicitor-General Rich
Coleman subsequently appeared on television chastising Vancouverites for
not learning the lesson of the Downtown Eastside. Mr. Coleman's corollary
was this: Cannabis cafes lead directly to the corner of Main and Hastings
with your teeth rotting out of your head, giving hand-jobs for crack.

The Downtown Eastside is an area only a dozen blocks in size. Mostly
dilapidated turn-of-the century walk-ups and pawn-shops. It is Canada's
poorest neighbourhood with the highest HIV infection rate in the world,
according to some. The streets of the Downtown Eastside are literally
crawling with the victims of crack cocaine, heroin, and meth-amphetamine
addiction.

The City, in an enlightened move, opened a licensed Safe Injection Site
several months ago to provide addicts with a clean environment to use their
drugs. The VPD, which has its massive Stalinesque headquarters right in the
heart of the Downtown Eastside has done nothing to stop the flow of hard
narcotics into the Downtown Eastside over the past 15 years.

In an ongoing scandal of horrific proportions, more than 100 female
sex-workers have disappeared from the streets of the Downtown Eastside over
the past decade, many [allegedly meeting their fate in a suburban area
pig-farm]. This unimaginably evil and wicked crime spree went
uninvestigated by the VPD for years. When Mr. Coleman castigated
Vancouverites for not "visiting" the area to see for themselves the effects
of drugs, he was attempting to link a small cannabis cafe with the outright
shame and horror of the missing women.

The comparison is despicable. The Downtown Eastside is like something out
of an Hieronymus Bosch painting. The stench of urine and human feces.
Staggering addicts weaving across Hastings Street. Crack addicts bent over
the sidewalk [in search of] dropped crack-balls. Gangs of drug-dealers on
every corner. Smashed windows. Graffiti. Complete human misery.

The massive raid on Da Kine brought Commercial Drive to a standstill. Area
residents flocked to the police barricades to demand the reason why Da Kine
was being raided.

The local media were out in full force, accommodated by the police, to a
fenced-in pen where the TV cameras could capture the moment by moment
action. Meanwhile, in the alley out back of Da Kine the police were
whisking both customers and staff of Da Kine away in wagons.

One local broadcaster aired a "stand-up" from a reporter who said, "Local
residents agreed with the police action, but those here at the barricades
expressed a different view."

That is flat out false. I'm an area resident. I didn't even know Da Kine
was there, or what it did, or much less care.

I live on Commercial Drive. Over the past three years I have endured the
drug-dealers who have taken up shop on my block. I have called the police
dozens of times to try to get rid of the dealers.I'm weary of negotiating
between knots of young thugs whispering, "Bud bud" as I go about my life.

I spoke with the local CTV journalist who broke the story just over a week
ago. I was angry at him for having created this whole fiasco. He explained
tome that the owner of Da Kine had invited him into the store. His take on
the situation was that the owners of Da Kine were trying to make this into
a public issue.

Mission accomplished.

As I went home I passed the usual drug-dealers who work my block, and I
felt safe in the knowledge that unless you publicly confess your criminal
activity, preferably on television, the police will never catch you.