SMOKERS BUYING POT AT VANCOUVER CAFE RUINING RELAXED RELATIONSHIP

VANCOUVER (CP) -- Impatient pot-heads, high enough to think they can force
the legalization of marijuana, are ruining a relaxed relationship with
police by brazenly buying and selling weed in a downtown cafe, says one
legalization activist.

"The heat is perceived to be on us even more because of their activities,"
said Ted Smith, founder of a 1,300 member compassion club that sells
marijuana to sick people.

The Da Kine Smokeshop in the bohemian Commercial Drive neighbourhood is
just in it for the money while pretending to be a righteous provider of
relief to the ill who say it alleviates pain and suffering, he said.

Police officers who raided the cafe said later the majority of the
customers in Da Kine were young and unable to show they had a federal
exemption allowing them to smoke pot.

Investigators estimated the shop has gross sales of $500,000 a month.

"They're doing sales every 15-20 seconds, over the counter as quick as
possible," Smith said in an interview from his Victoria Cannabis Buyers
Club office.

"They're not furthering the cause, they're hiding behind people in wheelchairs.

"It's going to be really hard for anyone to open up a storefront for a
medical club for B.C. if not Canada without the police wanting to go
through a court case.

"They've done a fair amount of harm the way they have attacked the law here."

Smith had charges against him stayed this month after a provincial court
judge ruled he was following responsible procedures to ensure that the
people he sold pot to were in fact sick.

Even the lawyer for Da Kine's owner Carol Gwilt and her friends says
Gwilt's approach isn't the way to convince politicians to relax pot laws.

John Conroy is instead taking the fight to a higher road he said gives the
movement more credibility.

He is on a campaign to revive a national lobby group called Norml Canada
that was powerful in the 1970s and 1980s.

"With a minority government in power, now is the time," he said. "We need
to work on the politicians and it's hard to do that from behind bars."

It's easy to start thinking legalization is just a hash brownie away while
spacing out in any Commercial Drive head shop.

It may seem like everyone is on side, but it's just everyone in the
neighbourhood, said Smith.

Hundreds of people turned off their chill-out tunes and snapped away from
the TV to stand up for Da Kine.

They shouted at the police to leave the peaceful smokers alone and lit
joints in protest. Even a week later, people who support the operation were
hanging out outside the store, waiting for it to reopen.

Conroy has advised Gwilt to stop doing the deals herself.

Others have stepped in to run the Da Kine for her, but on Wednesday, a
confused employee said the keys had gone missing.

Police have busted the alleged supplier.

Smith warned the fall-out will hang over the community.

Solicitor General Rich Coleman was sufficiently provoked by the sales at
the cafe to lash out, demand police action and hand down a swift public
lecture about breaking the law.

Baiting hard-liners in government has only set the movement back and could
even spark a crackdown, Smith said.

"I do think Canadians are ready to see it legalized, they just want it
regulated in responsible manner.

"These coffee shops should be happening all over, but the reality is that
we're getting ahead of ourselves."

While there are safe injection sites and sanctions given to a group handing
out heroin in Vancouver for a medical trial, Smith pointed out the pot
lobby still hasn't won a safe-smoking space.

"None of us have a license, none of us have protection from authorities.
First let's get compassion clubs supplying the sick people who need it in
every major city across the country and then we can have the cafes and the
pot stores.

"But these people are pushing it over in Vancouver because there's money to
be made."