CANNABIS CAFE SET TO SELL WEED

It's Friday evening and, like many business owners in Canada, Lynn Wood is
hard at work in the store she owns with husband Jim. However, unlike many
businesses in Canada, or any in New Brunswick for that matter, Saint John's
Cannabis Cafe allows people to smoke marijuana, and has recently announced
that they will begin selling it as well.

With two new glass display cases to fill with pipes, digital scales, bongs,
lighters, seeds, magazines, and even hallucinogenic peyote tea, the main
project of the evening involves Lynn and perky part-time worker Shellie
rearranging back issues of the magazines they carry. These include the
well-known High Times, which will feature the cafe in its November issue,
and Heads, published out of Montreal.

"Cannabis Culture is the best," said Lynn, who points the magazine's
well-rounded approach to Canadian cannabis culture developments, from
cultivation to criminal law.

The Woods have allowed paying customers to enjoy marijuana at the cafe,
which also sells hemp clothing, for several months, but the recent
announcement has brought the small Canterbury Street location into the
spotlight.

Lynn Wood said that all the media coverage the cafe has received of late
(it has also been featured by Rolling Stone and the Canadian Press) has
taken them a bit by surprise.

"We've gotten a lot of attention before we were ready for it," she said.

The cafe, which started as a hemp store in 1999, will only provide cannabis
to members.

"Just fill out an application," said the soon-to-be mother of three. "If
you meet the requirements you can be a member."

The process requires proof of need for cannabis on the basis of any of
hundreds of causes, ranging in severity from AIDS complications and
glaucoma to stress headaches. This would generally be in the form of a
prescription, but can also be a sworn statement that the applicant is in
need of weed.

Despite the announcement, there has been no immediate reaction from the
police, who haven't visited since May, when five people were arrested on
two separate occasions. However, Sergeant Pat Bonner of the Saint John
Police says they are still monitoring the establishment.

"If [Jim Wood] is selling [cannabis] to people then he will be charged with
trafficking," Bonner said.

The police stance ignores the winds of change that have blown over
marijuana laws in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and, most
recently, British Columbia.

In a decision taken September 4th, B.C. Provincial Court Judge P. Chen said
parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are "invalid" and that
"there is no offense known to law at this time for simple possession of
marijuana" in the province.

"There's precedent across the country that simple possession is invalid,"
said Lynn Wood, but Bonner points out that Saint John police are concerned
only with the law in New Brunswick.

"People at the cannabis cafe, for some strange reason, they thought
[smoking marijuana] was legal when in fact it's not legal," said Bonner.
"Some people are confused. They seem to think that it is legal, or they're
talking about it being legal. The point of the whole issue is: it is
illegal to smoke marijuana=85 It hasn't been changed and we will enforce
the laws as we are supposed to do."

With simple possession arrests on the rise (around 50,000 in 2001, 10 times
the number from 30 years ago), more and more people are speaking out
against marijuana prohibition. Recent opinion polls show 65-70 per cent of
Canadians are in favour of decriminalization, yet a person is arrested
nearly every 10 minutes for possession.

Bonner said people are charged for simple marijuana possession "on a
regular basis" in Saint John, and that trend will continue until the law is
officially changed.

"Right now we're dealing with what we have now and that is, it's still
illegal. If and when it does come down to being legal, then we will have to
take the new law and digest it and go through it and take it from there."

Lynn has already said that the cafe's customers "range from all ages and
types of people," but the sight of three grandmothers wandering through
stacks of High Times and shelves full of bongs is still a bit surprising.

Renee, a diminutive great-grandmother with a frisky smile, said she entered
the store "out of curiosity."

"It's a very nice store," she added after browsing through the hemp
clothing and purchasing some incense. When asked if they know about the
store's smoking policy, Renee's friend Joy is caught by surprise.

"Is this the marijuana place?" she exclaimed. "I'll have to tell my husband
about this one!"

Lynn is quick to point out that no tobacco is allowed when the women
question the store's policy.

"Pot doesn't linger like tobacco smell does," she expained. "It's not the
evilness they say it is." She said that they are simply following many of
the standards set out by "compassion clubs," many of which operate as
clinics and are virtually ignored by police.

The BC Compassion Club Society updates its recorded menu daily with strains
such as "Legends Ultimate Sativa," which sells for nine dollars a gram, and
"Jamaican Sugar Bubble Hash," a gram of which will set you back 13 bucks.
The friendly recorded voice describes various strains as "uplifting," "good
for daytime," or as producing "a relaxing body stone." For those who prefer
to consume their dose as a tasty treat, Chocolate Wonder Cookies are among
the baked goods available.

Lynn is not embarrassed to talk candidly about marijuana and sees no reason
why she should be.

"It's just what we stand for," said Lynn. "Not just us, but people all over
the world stand up to speak out about marijuana."

She said they decided to make the shop smoke friendly because similar shops
have been "popping up" across the country, and while they would "most
definitely" convert to a full-on Amsterdam-style coffee shop, "it might get
that way anyway."

Lynn said the education system fails to teach the truth about cannabis.

"[Negative attitudes towards cannabis] are all based on lies and
prohibition. We weren't [even] taught about hemp in school. What's wrong
with hemp? Why was it hidden from us? It was hidden from our mothers and
our grandmothers."

While roughly three-quarters of all drug possession arrests in the country
are for cannabis, the green stuff is much less associated with property
crime and severe negative health effects than cocaine and other drugs.

Yet the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars per year
arresting people for cannabis, while more serious drug use (for instance,
the estimated 125,000 needle users that accounted for 34 per cent of
Canadian HIV infections in 1999) is only beginning to be focused on.
Vancouver, for example, recently opened the first safe injection site in
North America, estimates that 70 per cent of its crime is associated with
illicit drugs, and turns a blind eye to the joint-smoker in an effort to
focus on more serious drug problems.

Lynn admits that raising children is a tough job at the centre of all the
cannabis confusion but feels she and Jim are doing the right thing by
teaching them what they believe.

"We try to be open with them and teach them, and we try to just be there
for the public," said Lynn. "There's been great community support. We just
take it one day at a time."