FORMER GROWER IN SURREY LINKED TO DA KLINE POT CAFE

A man who spent 14 months in jail for running an elaborate marijuana growing
and smuggling operation in Surrey is one of the people behind a
controversial Vancouver store that sells marijuana over the counter.

Donald Briere confirmed his involvement to The Leader last Friday, saying
the "Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop" was set up by the Canadian Sanctuary
Society that Briere founded, a non-profit group dedicated to helping people
legally obtain marijuana for medical purposes.

"The society and Da Kine are working in conjunction to distribute medicinal
marijuana to people in need," Briere said Friday.

Briere stressed he is not involved with the store on a financial basis,
describing himself as a "volunteer" who supports the legal use of marijuana.

Asked if he would be in breach of his parole if he was directly involved
with Da Kine, Briere responded "probably, yeah."

Visitors to the store are reportedly sold small amounts of "medicinal"
marijuana after they fill out a form.

The store was raided last week by Vancouver police, four months after it
opened for business on Commercial Drive.

Vancouver Police spokesperson Const. Sarah Bloor said the store is not the
"compassion club" it claims to be, but a drug trafficking operation that
makes close to $500,000 a month.

Briere was highly critical of the police crackdown on Da Kine, calling it "a
criminal misuse of public funds.

"We have people being killed in public parks (in Vancouver) and they're
sending people in balaclavas to raid our store," Briere complained. Shortly
after he was paroled in December of 2002, Briere announced plans to get back
into the marijuana business by establishing a franchised chain of cafes for
people who are permitted to use pot for medicinal purposes.

The name of the chain, he said, would be "Da Kine."

"It's totally legal," an enthusiastic Briere told The Leader before he was
scheduled to host a 2003 seminar on the concept at the Sheraton Guildford
Hotel.

Briere, a Marijuana Party candidate in the Surrey-Tynehead riding in the
last provincial election, was sentenced to four years in jail on Oct. 10,
2001 for several offences relating to marijuana growing and cross-border
smuggling of pot into the U.S.

During an 18-month investigation, police recorded a cheerful Briere praising
Canadian marijuana laws during a monitored conversation with another grower,
saying "how lucky we are to be in Canada and how they would only get one to
three years (if they get caught)."

"Briere stated that he likes to hire people on welfare who don't drink or
smoke, usually elderly females. They will (happily) live in small, plain
houses. They get set up for life. They are more reliable," the police
summary of the conversation reports.

Briere told his colleague he was careful to make repairs to a grow house, in
contrast to other growers who often cause severe damage to a rental home.

On his tax return, he gave his profession as "self-employed builder."

At the time, Briere was paying roughly $10,000 every three months to help
fund Hemp Scientific International, a venture designed to develop legitimate
uses for hemp, a variety of the marijuana plant family that contains less
than one per cent of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.