ARE KINGSTONIANS READY FOR HOME-GROWN POT CAFE?

Local News - You lean back in your barstool on a lazy, hazy Sunday
afternoon at a Princess Street pub, strike a match and light . a joint?

Don't get the giggles. This isn't some sort of psychedelic
fantasy.

With the province's marijuana laws in limbo and police not laying
charges against smokers carrying less than 30 grams of weed, a pot
cafe has already opened in London, Ont.

And Canada's most prominent pot protester predicts that one will open
in the Limestone City within a month.

At Monday's rally outside Kingston Police headquarters, Marc Emery,
president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, told a crowd that he was
surprised a marijuana cafe hadn't opened here, yet.

Was he being realistic or just blowing smoke?

Is the Limestone City destined to become the next Amsterdam, the
capital of the Netherlands that has about as many legal smoke cafes as
Kingston does doughnut shops and prisons?

Mike McDowell hopes so.

The owner of the Hippy Cafe in London, one of the first pot
restaurants to open since an Ontario Superior Court justice upheld a
lower court ruling to quash a charge against a youth for simple
possession, effectively nullifying laws against simple possession,
said he wants more competitors.

He's even willing to share his business strategy with budding
entrepreneurs in Kingston.

"I'll tell you the secret. Don't sell weed to anybody," McDowell said
yesterday from his cafe, which was being used by 16 customers.

At McDowell's cafe, which opened on July 26 at the back of his
hydroponics shop, all customers have to bring their own stash.

As long as they carry less than 30 grams, there's no grounds for
police to charge anyone, McDowell said.

The 33-year-old father of four doesn't make any money off customers
when they first arrive at the shop, lounging on picnic tables next to
a picturesque rock garden, smoking joints or using McDowell's bongs,
provided free of charge.

But after they've puffed away and gotten a gander at a menu that
includes garlic bread, jello and a breakfast combo - a berry ice drink
with toast and a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal - the dough starts
rolling in, he said.

"Don't sell them the weed. Sell them the munchies," said McDowell, who
claims he's had nights where more than 100 customers - some tourists
from the U.S. - have packed the establishment.

He said the police have stopped by numerous times and every time he
has assured them he's not selling pot.

He's also been visited by London bylaw officers because, just like
Kingston, London has a smoking ban.

Also like Kingston, London's smoking bylaw only prohibits tobacco
smoke and says nothing about marijuana, so McDowell hasn't been
charged with any violations.

"I've had old people coming in here who just want to shake my hand.
You've just got to do it, man. There's no laws against opening a
marijuana cafe if it's done right."

Kingston City Councillor Rick Downes acknowledged that McDowell is
right; Kingston's restrictive smoking bylaw, which prohibits anyone
from lighting a cigarette in a pub or on a patio, doesn't prohibit
someone from smoking marijuana.

But Downes, one of the city councillors who was the most passionate in
his support of the smoking ban, which was implemented in May, had a
warning for any pot-smoking capitalists out there with dollar signs in
their eyes.

If a shop opens up, it won't be long before council amended the bylaw,
he said.

"It would be pretty simple to amend the bylaw. We're talking about
adding one word," he said.

Some marijuana activists argue that the second-hand smoke from
marijuana is harmless, arguing the drug doesn't contain the same
toxins as cigarette smoke.

But Downes and Justin Chenier, a spokesman for the local health unit,
said marijuana is equally harmful.

"Second-hand smoke is second-hand smoke," Chenier said. "I would find
it hard to argue that it is less dangerous than smoke from
cigarettes."

If the federal government votes to decriminalize marijuana, as they
are expected to do by the end of the year, a shop that offers a
setting for people to get high would be a prime target for police to
issue fines, said Doug Ritchie, the managing director of Downtown
Kingston, an organization that represents downtown businesses.

He also didn't think a marijuana cafe was the answer to a SARS-ravaged
economy that has hurt tourism this summer.

If a shop opens up on Princess Street, don't expect new signs to pop
up on Highway 401 directing traffic downtown for a groovy time.

"I can't honestly say I think it's going to be a big help," he
said.

The Sleepless Goat, a restaurant and coffee shop near Princess and
Wellington streets, will likely discuss the idea, said Thor Hunsgen,
one of 20 part-owners in the worker co-operative.

All the members of the co-operative meet once every two weeks to make
managerial decisions, he said.

The shop went smoke free to protect children from second-hand smoke
long before Kingston's bylaw, but Hunsgen said some members might want
to allow pot smoking "to prove a point" about freedom and marijuana
laws.

"It's an interesting possibility," he said.

"If it happens, you'll know about it."