Pubdate: Wed, 08 Oct 2003
Source: Brunswickan, The (CN NK)
Copyright: 2003 The Brunswickan
Contact:  http://www.unb.ca/web/bruns/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/773
Note: Accepts LTEs from UNB students only!
Author: Nathan White

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."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens