YOU DIDN'T READ ABOUT DA KINE HERE FIRST -FOR GOOD (READ:
SELF-SERVING) REASON

How often has it happened?

You're just back from a hard day's slouch and the clock hits 4:20 with
a bong! You pull your stash from behind the kitchen clock only to
discover some inconsiderate housemate has reduced it to seeds and
stems and an IOU. Doh!

Now your regular guy's cell has been disconnected. If you want a whiff
of your drug of choice you're faced with the tedious, over-priced and
somewhat risky proposition of scoring on the street.

It's enough to make an edgy weedhead consider a life of sober public
service...or alcoholism.

Wouldn't it be so much easier to hop on your electric bike and tool
around the block to the local full-service cannabis cafe where you
could consult the daily menu and maybe decide on a few crystally grams
of Black Howler Monkey? You smoke a taster hit in the
lounge...nice...buy a falafel next door and buzz home, ready for the
six o'clock news.

Sounds like some kind of civilized fantasy, but it's not a replay of
your Amsterdam vacation last year; it's Vansterdam on Commercial Drive
right now! For the past month I've been living this fantasy at the now
famous Da Kine cafe. Though I do my grocery shopping right next door,
I'd been oblivious to the cafe's over-the-counter sales for months
until a friend gave me the heads-up and the big thumbs-up on the
quality of the goods inside.

The staff was friendly and knowledgeable about their selection of
heavy indicas, effervescent sativas, franken-hybrids and some insane
hash known as Budder running at near 98 per cent THC. For five dollars
a staff member would administer a hot knife hit that would send you
sizzling down the Drive for the next hour and a half.

A friend said I should break the story and indeed I wanted to crow
about Da Kine across these pages, but I was selfishly chastened by the
thought that any additional press coverage would kill a good thing.

The joint was already as jammed as La Casa Gelato on a hot summer day,
requiring a ready elbow to belly up to the cash register and get the
transaction completed. And yet I'd never seen the slightest bit of
aggravation on the premises: no reefer heads maniacally pounding the
piano, no red-eyed burnouts fighting with jagged bongs in the streets.

Something that can definitely not be said for the many establishments
selling legal, harmless alcohol in the city. Bang! Bang! Alas, the
cat's out of the bag now. Da Kine has been famously spread across the
national media pages and all the talk is of the approaching Sept. 15
city council hearing when a report on the licensing of the
establishment will be presented.

Though the complaint-driven city bureaucracy has heard nary peep of
gripe about Da Kine's operation there is no doubt they are very much
in violation of not only the law of the land but also their business
licence.

Of course, Da Kine is not the only establishment selling pot in the
vicinity; the Compassion Club has been a model of therapeutic
marijuana distribution since '97. The Sun reported earlier this week
that The Spirit Within shop across the street from Da Kine is selling
pot along with other psychoactive but legal herbs.

And of course there are street-level dealers galore, although I have
noticed fewer of them since Da Kine's star began to shine so brightly.

There is still no action from the police on the matter as their
resources are tied up in the Sisyphean task of busting grow-ops.
Hopefully they will take no action since public opinion as well as the
best available science and umpteen government commissions on the
subject indicates cannabis consumption in moderation isn't nearly as
harmful as tobacco or alcohol use.

I guess all that remains is for courageous Canadians to continue to
flaunt the law brazenly and open up cafe after cafe. Eventually, the
law should collapse by the weight of its own ridiculousness...sooner
or later...maybe...please.