Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jul 2014
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Mike Hager
Page: A2

POT CRUSADER VOWS IT'S BUSINESS AS USUAL

Briere Says He'll Continue to Sell Small Amounts - Medical Note or 
Not - Until His Hand Is Forced

The cannabis crusader behind Vancouver's largest and laxest chain of 
dispensaries says he will continue selling small amounts of pot to 
customers - even if they can't prove they need it for medicinal 
purposes - until the drug is legalized or he is again charged with trafficking.

Don Briere says his eight-store Weeds Glass and Gifts chain will 
continue its practice of selling under a gram of combustible or 
edible cannabis to those without a federal medicinal licence or a 
note from a naturopath or doctor. The colourful 63- year-old 
entrepreneur says public opinion has shifted further in his favour 
from 2004 when his Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop was surrounded by 
the VPD's emergency response team and he was charged with trafficking 
for selling recreational pot over the counter.

"Worst case is we would more than likely have some charges against 
us, then we would go to court and we would call it criminal misuse of 
public resources and we would demand that whoever's doing this be 
charged, not us," Briere told The Sun Monday as he helped open his 
eighth location near Broadway and Collingwood Street in Kitsilano.

"We're pushing for total, total legalization," Briere said. "We're 
making it as easy as possible ( to buy), we're trying to help people here."

A recent Sun investigation found two of Briere's Weeds stores were 
the easiest of five separate dispensaries for a reporter to buy 
edible pot products. While a note from a naturopath or doctor stating 
that the patient benefited from using marijuana was required at most 
dispensaries, at both Weeds locations the reporter bought edibles as 
a non member without a medical note.

Such customers can buy up to a gram a day with a temporary card at 
Weeds stores, but Briere said his employees will "egg them on" to see 
a doctor for a proper medicinal prescription or note.

"If somebody comes in in a wheelchair, do I have to call their doctor 
to let them use some pain relief?" Briere asked.

Briere made headlines in 1999 after RCMP busted a network of grow-ops 
that Crown counsel said was the largest B. C. network it had ever seen.

After serving two years in prison, he started Da Kine on Commercial 
Drive, which was soon raided for selling pot over the counter. While 
in prison on trafficking charges related to that raid, Briere became 
the first federal prisoner to run for a seat in a B. C. election.

Briere said he doesn't think the public would stomach another $ 1.5 
million trial to put him behind bars for selling marijuana.

In 2012, he founded and then sold the Vancouver Pain Management 
Society dispensary, at which the Sun reporter was able to become a 
member after a 30-minute meeting with an in-house psychologist. About 
a year ago, he started the Weeds chain.

Now Briere said he owns half of each franchise, which can cost at 
least $ 50,000 to open once Briere and the franchisee pays for glass 
display cases, cannabis products and paraphernalia and the four 
months' rent some landlords demand.

"We're employing people, we're paying taxes, we're going to try to 
get a medical dental system for our employees - we're trying to be 
members of the community," Briere said, adding that his chain employs 
roughly 30 people.

He said he buys all his products from 25 producers - all but one 
growing in B. C. - who were licensed under the old production system, 
which is now before the courts.

Though his Kingsway location was raided for selling seedlings to 
members in June, it is back open and Briere has been told by police 
that his operation is OK.

"We talk to police all the time, we talk to beat cops all the time 
and this is what they've said: They've said that the word has come 
down (to leave dispensaries alone) and all this has got to be true 
because none of the stores have been getting arrested," Briere said.

"They obviously are allowing them to function."

Dana Larsen, a compassion club activist and the man behind last 
year's Sensible BC campaign to legalize marijuana, is worried about a 
coming pushback against the city's dispensary industry.

"I have no problem with selling pot to anybody, but if you're going 
to do that I'd rather you not call yourself a dispensary," Larsen 
said. "Some of the naturopaths and the way some places are selling it 
are really blurring that line between medical use and non-medical use.

"My main concern is just for the future of dispensaries in Vancouver 
in that we don't create a situation where the city or the police or 
the media are able to point to some places and go ' look how bad they 
are, they're all like that, let's shut them all down.' "

In the past few weeks, city bylaw officers have stepped up their 
visits to Vancouver's dispensaries, letting them know where they may 
be in violation of various codes, Larsen said.

Coun. Kerry Jang reiterated, in an emailed statement, the city's 
commitment to "go after" dispensaries "selling to anyone, regardless 
of need, or marketing to minors."

Briere said he is confident that the city is not interested in 
shutting down the grey dispensary market.

"I don't know if you've ever tried herding cats ... if the mayor and 
the council didn't want this here then none of these stores would be 
open," he said. "Because remember - it's the people who tell the 
police what to do, right?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom