Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2001
Source: Guardian Weekly, The (UK)
Copyright: Guardian Publications 2001
Contact:  http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/GWeekly/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/633
Page: 21
Author: Anthony Browne

ROLL UP AT BRITAIN'S FIRST DOPE CAFE

Cannabis Cafe Remains On The Right Side Of The Authorities

Stockport has never seen anything like it. Over the past two months 
hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been making pilgrimages from 
London, Edinburgh, Carlisle and Milton Keynes. They come by train and car 
in pursuit of news spreading by word of mouth and the internet: Stockport 
is home to Britain's first Amsterdam-style coffee shop.

Tucked away in a quiet, cobbled retail centre, the innocuous-seeming "Dutch 
Experience" is betrayed only by the sound of garrulous chatter, and the 
smell of marijuana wafting in the night air. Its founder, Colin Davies, a 
former carpenter, says the number of visitors has increased sharply after 
the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced that cannabis possession will 
soon no longer be an arrestable offence. Davies reckons he gets more than 
500 visitors a day. "I've created a monster," he laughs, as he sits on the 
bench, taking a puff. "They're coming from all over the country - the 
closest coffee shop is in Holland."

His customers sit playing cards or table football, drinking coffee and 
chatting. Some are nervous on their first visit, while others have been 
coming every day since it opened on September 15.

Davies became a cannabis activist after shattering his back in a fall and 
finding that the drug was the best one for relieving pain. The purpose of 
the shop is to use the money made from social users of cannabis to provide 
it free - or at cost price - for medicinal users: "People in wheelchairs 
shouldn't have to pay for their medicine," he says.

One woman, in her early 40s, whose hands are crippled with rheumatoid 
arthritis, was particularly appreciative: "The pain relief is far better 
than anything I can get from the doctor. And I get it for free - I couldn't 
afford to buy it."

Two weeks before opening, Davies and his Dutch partner, Nol van Scheik, 
wrote to the police and the local council setting out their plans. The 
police raided the shop on the day he opened, but they reopened a few hours 
later. Since then they have been left alone. Davies stays on the right side 
of police tolerance by not selling cannabis openly through a booth.

Other cannabis campaigners are eyeing the Stockport trailblazer with envy, 
and there are already plans for shops in other parts of England, including 
London.

The Observer
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