POT CAFE STILL IN BUSINESS

VANCOUVER -- A cafe that had been selling marijuana off its menu for
about four months was doing a booming business before media attention
and then a police raid shut it down briefly, police said Friday.

But even as police were releasing details of the raid the night
before, Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop was doing a roaring trade
Friday morning.

Dozens of people filled the store buying grams of pot over the
counter. In the back room, gram bags were filled from football-sized
bags of marijuana. A large box filled with marijuana cookies sat to
one side.

Police seized $63,000 Cdn, $1,700 US, nine kg of marijuana, some
hashish and 300 cookies baked with hash or marijuana, acting deputy
Chief Bob Rolls said Friday.

At one 90-minute period during their surveillance, police saw 230
customers. They estimate the cafe was doing about $30,000 a day, Rolls
said. Seven staff and one customer were taken into custody Thursday
night.

There were 33 people in the cafe at the time it was raided.

"Charges have been recommended and are currently before Crown
counsel," Rolls said. Carol Gwilt, owner of the shop on Vancouver's
hip Commercial Drive, was in jail as the store's till rang steadily
Friday.

Outside the store Friday, customers openly smoked pot while a police
car sat up the street.

"When the SWAT team and the boys came in, they came in with their
faces covered in balaclavas. They had automatic weapons and guns,"
said Don, a store employee.

A customer outside sharing several joints with people called the
police action "overkill."