IT'S 'HIGH TIME' WE HAD A CANNABIS CAFE

Walking up King St. one day at lunch I passed the Scotiabank and was
overwhelmed by the smell of marijuana. I turned my head and there on the
steps - in broad daylight, in the midst of a noonday crowd - was a guy
casually smoking a joint. I was surprised by his audacity, that he seemed
unconcerned that a police officer might be on patrol nearby. I was also
struck by how unaffected people were around him; they either didn't know
what he was doing or didn't care.

When I got back to work we made a water-cooler game of naming the public
places where people got high - in front of the Scotiabank was one; though it
was rare to catch someone in the act, there was often a lingering smell.
Church Street, just off Germain, was another, as was the outside of Harbour
Station, underneath the pedway.

Now we can add the Cannabis Cafe on King St. to that list.

Much has been made of the fact that this is only the second city in Canada
to host a cannabis cafe; much has also been made of the fact that the city
is Loyalist Saint John, one of Canada's conservative bastions.

Little has been made, though, of the fact that there has been no concerted,
organized campaign against the cafe - no picketers or other visible forms of
public resistance. Local media outlets have been kind, producing mostly
tittering, "can you believe they're actually doing this?" kinds of stories.
There have been no columns or editorials railing against the evils of pot.

Though dozens of people have turned up to smoke pot there, and one of them
took an openly defiant stand by mugging for photos with a joint in his
mouth, no one has yet been charged by police.

It's not that the police don't care; there's just not much they can - or
should - do about it.

They're investigating possible charges against the cafe, but police in
Vancouver have done their own research since cafes opened there four years
ago and they've never come up with grounds to charge cafe owners themselves.

As strange as it may seem, it is illegal to smoke pot, but appears to be
legal to operate a cafe in which people smoke pot.

"On the face of it, it would appear they're doing nothing illegal," said
Sgt. Kim Phillips, head of the street crime unit for the Saint John Police
department. He said they're merely "providing a safe haven" for users.

Some "safe haven," one might say; the cops can enter the cafe at any time
and charge users. And the police themselves have said they'll do just that.

Realistically, though, that's not likely to happen. Though the police may
feel provoked by the cafe's proprietors and patrons, they're unlikely to
waste much time patrolling the place.

The police know that a "crime" is potentially taking place at the cafe for
eight or nine hours of each day. Theoretically, they could station an
officer there the entire time and eventually shut the place down. But as
long as they know no one is dealing drugs there - something the owners
insist they won't allow - why would the police bother, given budget cuts and
much greater criminal threats to the city?

At the two existing Vancouver cafes, no one has ever been charged with
possession, and the only cafes to run afoul of the police were ones in which
the owners have been found to be involved in the drug trade themselves.

Some say the tolerance level is high in Vancouver because the community is
quite liberal. I think we'll find the same is true here.

In fact, I think it's appropriate that Saint John is the second city to host
a cannabis cafe. It helps shatter the myth that there is a
liberal/conservative divide between large urban centres like Vancouver and
smaller ones like Saint John.

It's also testament to the fact that Canadians - be they in hippie Vancouver
or stodgy Saint John - are, at best, supportive of the idea of legalizing
marijuana and, at worst, indifferent.
There is no longer a Reefer Madness mentality around recreational marijuana
use.

People are understandably skeptical of marijuana advocates who claim that
there is no good reason to maintain the prohibition on pot use, but there
are objective, mainstream supporters of legalization, chief among them a
Senate committee that recommended legalizing marijuana in a report filed
last September.

After conducting exhaustive research, the senators concluded that marijuana
(like alcohol and cigarettes) has potential negative health effects, but
that those hazards are best mitigated by regulated production and
distribution.

Since then, Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said that perhaps
the prohibition on marijuana should be reconsidered.

This year's Throne Speech stated that a review of current drug laws could
include the "possibility of the decriminalization of marijuana possession."

Though marijuana use may not be legalized, or even decriminalized, in the
near future, the justice system no longer seems to have an appetite for
prosecuting users. No one has been charged at the Vancouver cafes - or here,
to date.

Most people still view pot smoking as a rebellious act that will run them
afoul of the law. In truth, Cannabis Cafe patrons run essentially the same
risk as the guy getting high in broad daylight on King St.