MONTREAL JOINT GOES TO POT!

MONTREAL (CP) -- Police arrested two people yesterday as dozens of people
celebrated the opening of a pot cafe by passing around joints and breathing
in air thick with marijuana smoke.

Several police officers, from a station less than a block away, squeezed
into Chez Marijane and arrested two men who were holding joints, said Hugo
St-Onge, president of the Bloc Pot party.

"To tell you the truth, I'm surprised," St-Onge said when reached on his
cell phone at the police station, where he was helping the two men, aged 26
and 51.

"It's a waste of their time, a waste of money. But it's simple possession
and it's illegal."

One of the men arrested has multiple sclerosis, he added.

Police said two children, aged between two and five, were present when they
entered.

The cafe does not sell pot, but people can bring their own to smoke, said
St-Onge, who called the day a success despite the arrests.

"Only about two or three people left because of the police, the rest are
still there."