Going Dutch

Campaigners want a cannabis cafe to open in Leicester, but would it be
a drugs den or a harmless leisure facility? Ciaran Fagan went to the
UK's first cannabis cafe to find out what the locals say

The air is heavy with the pungent aroma of cannabis as Kate rolls up
the latest in a long, long line of fat, loose joints. The 23-year-old
law school graduate is extolling the virtues of the Dutch "cannabis
cafe" culture over a mug of coffee.

But we're not sitting in one of Amsterdam's famed hostelries where
smoking cannabis is tolerated.

We're in Stockport. Well-to-do Stockport, just outside Manchester. And
if pro-weed campaigners get their way next month, people in Leicester
will be rolling joints over a latte in similar fashion.

Even Stockport's tourist information centre in the town - accustomed
to taking calls about the town's famous hat museum - will tell you how
to get there.

At present, the Dutch Experience is an over-18s, members-only affair
decked out in the style of an Amsterdam cafe.

Smokers sit supping coffee and chatting amiably about different weeds.
Board games and table football are popular diversions. But smoking is
the main order of the day.

Cannabis is not on sale - although that is the ultimate aim of
campaigners across the country - but coffee and Kit Kats are.

Kate, who is from nearby Cheadle, said: "It's such a relaxing place
because weed and violence do not mix. The worst thing that can happen
if you have too much in my experience is that you fall asleep.

"The police aren't doing anything apart from the odd undercover visit.
In fact, I can't think of a better way of wasting money than trying to
close places like this down."

The cafe is tucked away in a small parade of shops within a two minute
walk of the town centre. And it was doing good business on Tuesday
afternoon.

It's been a bumpy ride so far for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance -
pioneers of Britain's first stab at establishing a cafe culture with a
dash of easy-going Amsterdam.

The Stockport cafe - now known as Dutch Experience I after a second
venture opened in Bournemouth - opened in a blaze of publicity in September.

A gaggle of press watched as officers from Greater Manchester police
stormed in, searched customers and arrested owner Colin Davies.

Mr Davies, who says he is helping to provide cannabis to people
because of the medicinal properties he and others believe it
possesses, is to appear in court next month to face charges of
allowing the Class B drug to be smoked in his cafe.

Police in the town insist that they would raid the cafe if they had
evidence that cannabis was being smoked there.

But, apart from rumours of undercover surveillance operations,
business has gone on, apparently unhindered by police for at least six
months.

Bart, 30, from Holland who is helping to run the Stockport cafe, said:
"The reaction of 95 per cent of the people I speak to is supportive of
what we're doing here - but then again a lot of the people who don't
agree with what we're doing probably wouldn't talk to me."

He says he smokes both because he enjoys cannabis and for medicinal
reasons - he has severe arthritis in his leg. When 30-year-old Tom
Robertson underwent bone graft surgery a few years ago, he was left in
excruciating pain.

Now he takes a cocktail of pain-killers every day but comes to the
Dutch Experience for a little extra pain relief.

"I don't feel like a criminal but I'm breaking the law here," he said.
"For me it's simple, how can it be justifiable to withhold something
that is a medicine for so many people?"

Outside on the streets of Stockport, opinions were pretty much evenly
divided about the cannabis cafe.

Another (mainstream) cafe owner, who asked not to be named, said:
"It's a nonsense the police allowed it to open in the first place,
it's having an adverse effect on Stockport's reputation. People who
sell drugs will start hanging around places like this - without the
owners' knowledge maybe - and you'll get harder things than cannabis
being sold.

"And who's there to keep an eye on it all?"

Young mum Lisa Ashraf, 19, said: "I'm against all drugs and this sends
out all the wrong messages. I'm bringing my son up to say no to all
drugs and how am I supposed to do that when there's a place in the
middle of town where people are openly smoking weed?"

Barbara Hewitt, 49 of Wythenshawe in Manchester said: "I've read about
this place in the local papers and I'd agree that people should be
allowed to smoke cannabis like this if it's for medicinal reasons -
the pain of some illnesses can be unbearable."

Greater Manchester police insist they will act if they have evidence
that people are smoking cannabis in the Dutch Experience. A
spokeswoman said: "As far as we're concerned, it's open as a coffee
shop only and we're keeping an eye on it. As the law stands, it's
illegal to possess or smoke cannabis so if we find people doing this
we will enforce the law."