Canadian Cannabis Cafes

[Ozrat]

A weed cafe has just opened up in the downtown area of the city that I go to school in. The location is just around the corner from where I wait for my bus every morning.

http://www.upinsmokecafe.ca/

UP IN SMOKE

By Terry Ott
View Magazine (Hamilton)

In 1978, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong—the later of whom recently finished up a nine–month jail stay for
selling a bong across state lines—produced the gold standard of stoner movies, with the brilliant Up In Smoke.

There is a line in the movie uttered by dip shit narco cop Sgt. Stadenko (Stacey Keach) that goes something like:
“The buying and selling of dope is one of the last vestiges of free enterprise left in this country.”

Now, in 2004, two young Hamilton men will try to put Stadenko’s edict to the test. Well, sort of, and if they can.

Chris Goodwin and Ryan Clark plan to open the Up In Smoke Cannabis Cafe at 227 King St. E, deep in the heart
of the Hammer, with the grand opening slated for August 21, Cannabis Day.

Up In Smoke aspires to be only the tenth retail proprietary dispenser of marijuana and hashish in
Canada, and will definitely test the local law enforcement level of tolerance for the murky marijuana laws.

Goodwin, a political science student at McMaster, is the senior partner in the venture, which will operate from a
2,000–square–foot facility, with an initial investment in the five–figure range.

In an exclusive interview, Goodwin proclaimed his marijuana manifesto: “Our real reason d’etre is to
organize the cannabis culture into an effective civil rights movement.

“We are a wrongly outlawed culture, viciously discriminated against for 70 years and we are finally,
effectively, organizing to regain our rightful place in society as individuals and equals.”

Pretty high–minded—pun intended—hyperbole from a guy who, after all, is principaly interested in getting you
high, yet it would appear that Goodwin and Clark are taking the enterprise very practically, if not a tad preachily.

“I talked to Mike Thompson, who is the head of the Hamilton Police drug task force,” said junior partner
Clark, a Mohawk advertising student. “(Thompson) talked about (Up In Smoke) operating on a membership only
basis, but also said that his mandate is crack houses (not retail pot houses).”

And a July press release from the Ontario Consumers For Safe Access To Recreational Cannabis claims that a
recent Supreme Court decision (Regina vs. Mann) has made recreational marijuana use “defacto legal” in Canada.

So as Goodwin and Clark see it, they are therefore free to sell cannabis cookies, hash brownies and muffins, as
well as standard head shop fare such as bongs, pipes and assorted toking paraphernalia.

Up In Smoke (www.upinsmokecafe.ca) will also feature home–cooked vegan meals and offer Internet access to its
customers in what is described as a cozy and friendly atmosphere.

I guess the best way to picture the cafe would be to recall the scene in Cheech and Chong’s Still Smokin’ in
which the two lovable pot heads excitedly order their mary jane fare from a varied menu of buds seeds and salads.

In fact, Goodwin and Clark are considering a “Still Smokin’” moniker if and when they open a second
location. If all this has some tokers and pot abstainers et al thinking, “hey, (man) this is too good to be true,” you
just may be right.

In the next few weeks, Up In Smoke will surely receive the requisite hype, fear and loathing from the local
luminaries, as well as a much closer look by the Hammer cops and local Crown Attorney’s office. As I understand it,
Goodwin and Clark received no hard and fast promises from the police that they would not investigate and even
possibly bust them, similar to the bust of another local head shop proprietor earlier this year.

If Up In Smoke were to receive governmental certification as a medical marijuana membership cafe, then there
would probably be precious little the coppers could do about it. However, if the thrust of the cafe is the retail offering of marijuana products for sale to any and all comers, then I think Up In Smoke could quickly become up, and well, out.

Just imagine the above–the–fold banner headline screaming out from the Hamilton Spectator: “Pot to be
sold in store in downtown Hamilton.”

The mayor and many other upstanding citizens would surely have their shorts in a knot, and what happened
next would be anyone’s guess. After all, this ain’t BC, or even Toronto. And under the tough new federal
Proceeds of Crime law, if the cops lay charges of trafficking against Up in Smoke, then all the assets of the
perpetrators are available for seizure by the feds. Ouch.

Even though the chances for such tough action by authorities is probably small, Goodwin and Clark seem to
be sensibly planning for any eventuality. They said that if they are raided, they have enough stock
to re–open with 48 hours, and have retained strong legal representation to deal with any police action.

But even if Goodwin and Clark are bonging past the bone yard, they sure are talking the talk. “The retail store is the
first line of the Cannabis Liberation Movement. Together, we will end cannabis prohibition in Canada,” stated Goodwin.

That, or go up in smoke.

 

[Sander]

Seriously, they talk about this is af it's new. Tsch. Visit The Netherlands for once. It's old here.

 

[Ozrat]

Notice the CANADIAN in the title?

 

[The Commissar]

... is af it's new.

That is an awsome typo.

I want to be just like you when I grow up

 

[welsh]

Sander-
What has marijuana done for the Netherlands? Is it mostly the dutch who smoke or is it foreignors who come to Amsterdam to toke?

In the US casino gambling was largely an illegal vice though these days you can find casinos opening up all over. Why? Because states are losing money to casinos in other states, when they could be taxing the casinos in their own state and grabbing that disposable income.

But gambling is still an addiction for a lot of people and opens the door to a lot of vices.

So is a pot house that big a deal in Canada? This is probably less about civil liberities than allowing a couple of stoners to make more money on the habitual use of marijuana- go them!

 

[Sander]

What has marijuana done for the Netherlands? Is it mostly the dutch who smoke or is it foreignors who come to Amsterdam to toke?

Both, actually. There are, in the major cities, a lot of people who smoke marijuana. I don't have any numbers on it, but I personally know several people who do this (some extremely heavily), and I'm very sure Kharn knows a lot more of them.
But there are indeed a lot of foreigners coming to the Netherlands for marijuana. This would, in itself, not be a problem since they aren't allowed to take the marijuana with them over the borders. But what happens is that coffeeshops (which is how we Dutchies call them, for some weird reason) are opened just over the borders with Germany and Belgium. This is, again, in itself not bad, but the fact that a lot of Germans come there to smoke and then take the stuff back with them is bad. This causes a lot of problems and extra work for the German policemen, though I think they should just legalise it there as well, and the German government. It's one of the focal points of the relations between Germany and The Netherlands right now, and it's starting to become more prominent within the EU as well.

PS: If this become normal in Canada, the USA wil put a lot of pressure on Canada to outlaw pot, or at least get rid of border coffeeshops.

 

[welsh]

I think if this becomes normal in Canada, the DEA is going to start abducting Canadians.

Ozrat, be careful.

As for the Dutch- my cousin is a cop in Aachin and he's constantly having problems with people coming over the border from the Netherlands. So that it's illegal to carry doesn't mean it doesn't get done.

Hell I knew people who flew it back to the US.

So the Dutch make a profit on a vice that they know slips over the border in large numbers, is illegal in neigboring states, and causes problems elsewhere. Great!

I hardly seeing the ban on smoking dope as an infringement on your civil liberities.

On the other hand I see banning nude sunbathing as an infringement on civil liberties.

 

[The Commissar]

On the other hand I see banning nude sunbathing as an infringement on civil liberties.

Agreed. Tanlines suck.

 

[Sander]

I think if this becomes normal in Canada, the DEA is going to start abducting Canadians.

Ozrat, be careful.

As for the Dutch- my cousin is a cop in Aachin and he's constantly having problems with people coming over the border from the Netherlands. So that it's illegal to carry doesn't mean it doesn't get done.

Please don't talk to me as if I don't know that. Note that that was pretty much the entire point of what I was saying.

Hell I knew people who flew it back to the US.

So the Dutch make a profit on a vice that they know slips over the border in large numbers, is illegal in neigboring states, and causes problems elsewhere. Great!

I hardly seeing the ban on smoking dope as an infringement on your civil liberities.

On the other hand I see banning nude sunbathing as an infringement on civil liberties.

The point is, however, that the fact that the people do this is, simply put, not the problem nor the fault of the Dutch government. They don't make profits big enough to make it a worthwhile policy, and this is not some big scheme to make more profit. The legalising of pot was done to give people more freedom; they were doing it anyway. But this doesn't mean that the fact that Germans come here, smoke pot and bring it back, thereby committing a crime in their country, would justifiy a retractment of that law in our country. This law was meant for the citizens, which is logical, and as such it should stay. Germany doesn't have any right to demand that we stop the legalisation of marijuana, but it does have a right to ask for our co-operation in trying to stop people from taking the marijuana back home.
Basically, Germany wants us to retract a law because their citizens commit a crime (which doesn't hurt anyone in Germany but those Germans themselves, since the German government considers smoking marijuana harmful) in their country.

 

[welsh]

Sander- I think that's a bit naive.

In the Netherlands people can smoke pot because people have enough power to make it such.

Some of these people are profitting from it.

ANd the thing is that the liberty that the Dutch have comes at an expense for other societies.

Those who profit obtain profit from foreigners. My old dutch girlfriend used to say that most of those who smoke come from foreign countries.

So your "civil liberities" might just be a means for some folks to make a proft while the government is able to tranquilize those who do smoke. Clever crowd control. But the cost is on those neighboring societies.

But that still begs the question- how is smoking pot a civil liberty, and one worth defending.

Now tan lines, the right to expose one's busom in public should be a civil liberty. If fat guys with sagging bitch tits can be exposed, hot babes with succulent juicy tits should be advertised.

 

[Sander]

In the Netherlands people can smoke pot because people have enough power to make it such.

Some of these people are profitting from it.

ANd the thing is that the liberty that the Dutch have comes at an expense for other societies.

Those who profit obtain profit from foreigners. My old dutch girlfriend used to say that most of those who smoke come from foreign countries.

So your "civil liberities" might just be a means for some folks to make a proft while the government is able to tranquilize those who do smoke. Clever crowd control. But the cost is on those neighboring societies.

But that still begs the question- how is smoking pot a civil liberty, and one worth defending.

Note that the time when these laws (well, they're not technically laws, anyway) were instated was the sixties. Ideological times and all that. Everyone really WAS smoking pot.
It was also a means for the government to be able to control and tax cannabis. It was not so much a means for the people dealing pot to get rich, because due to the taxes they would probably lose some profit (though I'm not entirely sure on this).

In any case, the civil liberty is a civil liberty of the Dutch people for the Dutch people. Whether or not foreigners use this liberty to commit illegal acts is none of our business, basically. We can do all sorts of things to prevent the smuggling of marijuana, and we should, but this does not in any way mean that it is justified for other countries (who themselves aren't actually hindered by this marijuana. They could just let it go through, you know) to demand that we change our laws and remove a civil liberty which is by now embedded in Dutch civil life.

 

[welsh]

"a civil liberty is anything you want to define a civil liberty?"

Really? A bit loose in standards isn't it.

It is none of your business if foreign people use it to commit illegal acts?

And if countries have made it illegal to use grass, don't you think there's a reason? I mean, they could tax it too?

But you know, the right to own slaves was an embedded civil liberty to. Maybe we should keep that one?

Sander? Have you been smoking pot or is your thinking always so fuzzy?

 

[Sander]

"a civil liberty is anything you want to define a civil liberty?"

Really? A bit loose in standards isn't it.

Nope, it isn't. A civil liberty is basically everything, and things excluded from them are the things that society thinks shouldn't be included.
This is loose in standards for a reason: society's standards constantly change, and there are only a few things that are "basic"civil liberties (including the illegality of being owned(sic) by others).

It is none of your business if foreign people use it to commit illegal acts?

Do you consider it any of your business if you legally sell a gun to a foreignerand then that foreigner smuggles it away, and then uses it in his own country to defend himself? (The condition here is that there were sufficient rules and regulations to prevent the smuggling of this gun).

And if countries have made it illegal to use grass, don't you think there's a reason?

Yes, but not a very good one. Pot is only mentally addictive, not physically addictive. Meaning that when you're addicted, it's not you body craving for more pot, but you not wanting to go on without that feeling (there's a very important difference). Alcohol, for instance, is legal in Germany, yet that is both mentally and physically addictive. There are many double standards like this, and the main argument for legalising marijuana is that it is not harmful, unless used in huge quantities. The same goes for coffee (which is,again, more addictive than marijuana.)

I mean, they could tax it too?

But you know, the right to own slaves was an embedded civil liberty to. Maybe we should keep that one?

They could tax it, but they decided not to. This is a really bad argument, mainly because it comes down to "Well, they do this, so they must have a valid reason."
Uh-huh. So basically slavery was justifiable on the grounds that it was allowed (and thereby justified). Ooh, circular reasoning. Nice.
Note that you brought up slavery, not me, so if you consider this argument to be too excessive, you shouldn't have brought it up in the first place.

Also note, by the way, that the "natural"state of affairs is to not have a ban on pot, and that a ban on pot is an addition to the laws. When we removed (actually disabled) that addition, we returned to a more natural position. So basically the Germans are having problems because they instated a law, not because we did so.

Also note that you abandoned the whole "you're making a profit" line of thinking.

Sander? Have you been smoking pot or is your thinking always so fuzzy?

*blinks*
Rigth back at ya.

 

[SuAside]

i've smoked weed and shit for about 6 years and i can only confirm what Sander is telling you. (for the record: i've been clean for about a year now)

weed is not any more dangerous than allowed drugs like alcohol. in my opinion alcohol is even more dangerous than any cannabis based product. of course there should be strict regulations. just as you cant drink and drive, you shouldn't be allowed to drive when you are stoned.

all in all, here in Belgium we allow adults to smoke weed in the privacy of their own homes (it is prohibited to do so with minors around). we are even allowed to grow a small amount of cannabis plants for personal consumption. the current system has still a lot of flaws (it is for instance still illegal to sell any of it), but at least it is a step in the right direction. simply banning it is pure hypocrisy.

 

[Sovz]

A weed cafe has just opened up in the downtown area of the city that I go to school in. The location is just around the corner from where I wait for my bus every morning.

you went to McMaster?

 

[The Vault Dweller]

In the American Constitution nothing is mentioned about the legality of drugs. However, it is (or should be) common knowledge that anyone dumb enough to do something that hurts them is free as long as it doesnt endanger anyone else. Thus drugs should be legalized much like alcohol. Go Canada!

However, please dont do drugs...there bad for you!

I bet it would be fun walking the streets Ozrat...now that its full of wacky-smelling people.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

 

[welsh]

"a civil liberty is anything you want to define a civil liberty?"

Really? A bit loose in standards isn't it.

Nope, it isn't. A civil liberty is basically everything, and things excluded from them are the things that society thinks shouldn't be included.
This is loose in standards for a reason: society's standards constantly change, and there are only a few things that are "basic"civil liberties (including the illegality of being owned(sic) by others).

That's just silly. A civil liberty is anyting that members of society think shoudl be included or excluded? What the fuck does that mean.

Talk about fuzzy headed logic.

It is none of your business if foreign people use it to commit illegal acts?

Do you consider it any of your business if you legally sell a gun to a foreignerand then that foreigner smuggles it away, and then uses it in his own country to defend himself? (The condition here is that there were sufficient rules and regulations to prevent the smuggling of this gun).

Actually I do, but you know my position on guns. In fact I think anyone who sells someone a gun who should have known that it was going to be used in a crime should be held accountable. So yes, smuggling of guns should be illegal and should be sanctioned.

You are not trying to divert this into a gun thread are you?

And if countries have made it illegal to use grass, don't you think there's a reason?

Yes, but not a very good one.

According to who? If Germany wants to keep pot out of it's society as something the Germans think is dangerous, than don't they have the right to think so.

Pot is only mentally addictive, not physically addictive.

= reason to keep it out of a society.

Meaning that when you're addicted, it's not you body craving for more pot, but you not wanting to go on without that feeling (there's a very important difference). Alcohol, for instance, is legal in Germany, yet that is both mentally and physically addictive. There are many double standards like this, and the main argument for legalising marijuana is that it is not harmful, unless used in huge quantities. The same goes for coffee (which is,again, more addictive than marijuana.)

Ah ha! another diversion- you are mixing alcohol with pot and saying two vices are the same.

No Sander, two wrongs don't make a right. Just because alcohol is legal doesn't mean that pot should be. Pot is also more dangerous than cigerettes too.

and you are off topic by arguing that another person's laws are not just. Don't they have the right to make a law for their own society wihtout you making it easier for people to break it?

And if most of the societies say pot is illegal and harmful, aren't you violating an international consensus.

It doesn't matter if the basis of that consensus is wrong- you are still breaking it using evidence to your benefit. THe majority could marshal counter evidence to the opposite view.

Personally, if you don't have the balls to break the law and smoke a joint than you're a pussy and shouldn't smoke pot to begin with.

I mean, they could tax it too?

But you know, the right to own slaves was an embedded civil liberty to. Maybe we should keep that one?

They could tax it, but they decided not to. This is a really bad argument, mainly because it comes down to "Well, they do this, so they must have a valid reason."

So what, you are saying there are no valid reasons for things that happen? Are you assuming the non-existence of a rational reason for the creation of an institution. Laws need to be legislated and created, which is based on rational action based on certain outcomes. So yes, there is a reason why this law exists, and I am not buying the reason you're giving me.

Uh-huh. So basically slavery was justifiable on the grounds that it was allowed (and thereby justified). Ooh, circular reasoning. Nice.
Note that you brought up slavery, not me, so if you consider this argument to be too excessive, you shouldn't have brought it up in the first place.

No, my point was that civil liberities change with the time. It used to be against the law to form a union because it violated the freedom to contract. It used to be against civil liberities to write a law that infringe certain rights to property because those rights created pollution- but that changed too.

Civil liberties are not written in stone but change depending on social-economic contexts.

Also note, by the way, that the "natural"state of affairs is to not have a ban on pot, and that a ban on pot is an addition to the laws. When we removed (actually disabled) that addition, we returned to a more natural position. So basically the Germans are having problems because they instated a law, not because we did so.

What "natural" state of affairs? The natural state of affairs, according to Hobbes, was a state of anarchy were life was nasty, brutal and short.

This "natural" position you are arguing is not an inherent position but one done by action. Even if a law changed so that it no longer applied, the end of that law would require rational action through legal institutions- no natural state.

Natural position = bullshit argument.

Also note that you abandoned the whole "you're making a profit" line of thinking.

Hardly. I think the Dutch are making a profit in tourism and taxs on this, and thus don't want to end the law. They profit off the addiction and use/abuse of others.

YOu still have yet to explain to me how a bunch of idiots who have nothing better to do than smoke their brain cells away on grass is a good thing and a civil liberty that we should die to defend.

Sander? Have you been smoking pot or is your thinking always so fuzzy?

*blinks*
Rigth back at ya.

Again- your arguments reflect moral vacuousness and lack of logic. Sit back and think about this some more before responding.


Look- this is not at all about whether pot is better for you than alcohol, or if smoking pot is cool.

Frankly, I think everyone should smoke at least once and I wouldn't vote for a president who hadn't toked.

But the question is
(1) Why to the Dutch legalize pot- and the "because it's a civil liberty" thing is bullshit.
(2) how in the hell is opening up a pot house in canada really a civil liberty? Freedom of speech, association, voting, fucking, baring tits, ok? But smoking a joint?

 

[Ozrat]

A weed cafe has just opened up in the downtown area of the city that I go to school in. The location is just around the corner from where I wait for my bus every morning.

you went to McMaster?

No, I still do go to McMaster. Why, do you?

Check out the old Molson Bud thread for more Canadian Cannabis News.

 

[Ozrat]

Unrelated-to-previous-post-Double-Post

More snippettes from the site. Perhaps these can be relevant for the Civil Liberties debate going on here?

Here's a little introduction from the cafe's owner:

During the last 70 plus years of cannabis prohibition, Over 2,000,000 Canadians were arrested, detailed, charged for cannabis related crimes, and over 1,000,000 of those ended up in a conviction. Medicinal cannabis patients are forced to fight tooth and nail for their medicine, and cannabis continues to be a lucrative source of revenue for the black market. These are all the symptoms of prohibition, the war on drugs and the failure of government to implement clear regulatory controls over cannabis in Canada.

Yet despite this bad situation, there is reason for optimism. We can take a lesson from the prohibition of alcohol, and how that came to an end. Alcohol prohibition didn't fade away, instead the raids and arrests continued to rise until the very day that the law was changed. In the last days of alcohol prohibition, more speakeasies were being raided, more alcohol was seized, and more people were being arrested than ever before.

We can expect the same with the laws against pot. As arrests and persecution continue to climb in the face of shifting public opinion, those who hate marijuana and marijuana users will be forced to do more and more extreme measures. The weapons of the prohibitionist regime are fear and violence. Propaganda and police are their only tools, and as public opinion moves away from their perspective, they have no choice but to step up the pressure. We will see more anti-pot ad campaigns, and more marijuana arrests, up until the very day that the war on pot is finally ended.

So in a perverse way, we can see increased persecution as a sign of our success. As we force the issue and move towards freedom and normalization of cannabis, we can expect things to get more intense, and the laws to get more strict before they get better. So let's not give up, and instead let us take hope from our successes, and recognize that we are creating a cultural shift, and that our actions and efforts are indeed having a profound impact beyond what we can immediately see. To that end, I offer up The Up In Smoke
Cafe as an example of the kind of store I hope to see in every community in Canada.

Make no mistake, we are changing the world. Our culture, and our plant, will one day soon be free.

Chris Goodwin, Up In Smoke Cafe

Here's a sad tale of police intimidating the customers.

Again, the police entered the Up In Smoke Cafe.

I guess they had a point to make...at first they said that they were coming into the store in order to speak with the owner. Upon entering there was a couple sitting at a table. The gentleman finished filling his pipe and from what I could see did not have anything on the table, nor did he start smoking from his pipe. The officers proceeded to approach the couple.

I must mention that the officers that entered the cafe today are the same officers that were in the store yesterday and arrested Jean Cooper. Of the three officers that entered the cafe, two were Hamilton Police - P.C. Geoff Burbidge #855 Station 10 - Central and P.C. Kevin Murphy #590 Station 10 - Central - 'A' Squad, and the third officer was an RCMP officer.

One of the Hamilton police officers - P.C. Kevin Murphy #590 Station 10 - Central - 'A' Squad - sat at the table while the other Hamilton police officer walked around the table and stood near the entrance/exit. The RCMP officer stood in the same spot near the entrance/exit to the opposite side of the Hamilton police officer. The officers continued to intimidate the customers, P.C. Kevin Murphy began citing a citation to the one customer. Apparently, Murphy gave a summons to our customer to appear in court November 04, 2004. Same court date for Jean Cooper. We have planned on setting up a protest at the court house - Main St. E. November 4, 2004 in support of our customers.

One point I should make is that no matter what happens with the police while they are in here, once they leave and new customers have entered, the new customers wait until the officers have left the establishment in order to blaze. With more than 600 people in our "database", we are going to have the biggest and loudest protest this city has ever seen... Again, the protest will take place November 4, 2004 in front of the court house located on Main St. W. Time to follow. Please everyone write letters daily. We need to change these laws...each new day we get closer than we were the last, this fight needs to be faught!

Peace,

Goodster's Wife

Here's the police arresting an elderly lady:

FIRST ARREST (76 year old lady)
AT THE UP IN SMOKE CAFE &
Hamilton Compassion Society

Dateline:
Monday, August 30, 2004
Hamilton, Ontario, 4:00 - 4:25pm,

Editorial
Zedo

76 year old Jean Cooper, a member of the Hamilton Compassion Society and a diabetic with a section 56 exemption was arrested today within the confines of Hamilton's first cannabis cafe, Up In Smoke. Police entered the cafe shortly before 4:00 pm and witnessed Ms. Cooper hauling on a single joint that she had just lit up. One of the officers, upon noticing Ms. Cooper taking her medicine, said: "Do you want to put that out before I get stoned too?"

Two Hamilton Police Service officers and one R.C.M.P. officer arrested Ms. Cooper and charged her with possession of a narcotic after she declined to extinguish the cannabis cigarette. Ms. Cooper, as well as many Compassion Club Members pleaded with the police to not arrest her, as she's just a frail, little old lady who uses marijuana for medical reasons. The police didn't seem to care: they arrested her anyway.

Ms. Cooper said: "I feel like I have lost all of my dignity. May the Lord all mighty help me regain it. Ohh Lord, I fell like I'm going to die."

Shortly afterward, while the police continued to interrogate/harrass her, Ms. Cooper collapsed in her cafe chair. Meanwhile Farid Kayhan, cafe employee, kept video taping the entire situation even though the one Hamilton officer insisted that he stop filming when the ambulance got there.
Still conscious, with her head resting in her arms on the table, she then asked cafe staff to call her son, Donald Cooper, who is ironically a Health Canada Employee. He works in the Medical Marijuana Access Regulation program (MMAR) in Victoria B.C, and helped her to obtain her section 56 exemption.

Ryan Clark junior partner of the cafe, stayed with Ms. Cooper, reassuring her throughout the entire ordeal. Paramedics arrived within a few miutes of being called and attended to Ms. Cooper, and took her away by ambulance to be checked out by the Hamilton General Hospital. It is unknown at this time whether or not the police attended to Ms. Cooper again while she was in the hospital. Shortly after Ms. Cooper was taken away, the three police officers came back into the cafe to speak with the cafe owners, Chris Goodwin and Ryan Clark.

"First of all, you guys aren't in trouble" Hamilton Police service officer Kevin Murphy said. "Secondly, you can't allow people to smoke dope in here."
"By dope, you mean marijuana, don't you?", Ryan Clark enquired. "Yes" said oficer Murphy. "But this is a compassion society" Ryan responded.

"It doesn't matter" the officer fired back. "What about her Section 56 exemption?", Andrew Haines enquired. (Andrew, the owner of 420 Graphics had arrived at the cafe to deliver posters, in the middle of the bust.) "We don't know that she actually has one of those." the officer replied. "That's all we have to say to you folks at this time." the officer said, just before the three of them, as quickly as they arrived, departed.

Within seconds, everyone in the cafe is on the phone to the media. Ryan Clark, his friends Andrew Soifert and Andrew Haines drove the video camera to the local television station, CHCH TV Hamilton, and Ryan did an interview with news anchor, Karen Cumming. It appeared on the news at 6:00pm and will air again at 11:00 pm. The Hamilton Spectator also did an interview with Chris Goodwin which will appear in the August 31st edition

More info will be posted on this site as it comes available.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Cooper with the hope that she will recover from this horrific ordeal.

Peace! Zedo

Obviously the arrest of this elderly potsmoking citizen didn't go over well with the public:

Demand Peace In Hamilton!
Protest 76yr. old Jean Cooper's Arrest
Thursday November 4th, John Sopinka Courthouse.
45 Main Street East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 2B7

Community Forum
Saturday Nov. 20 from 9am-5pm
Hamilton Central Library's Hamilton Room,
55 York Boulevard P.O. Box 2700 Hamilton, ON, L8N 4E4
Tel: 905-546-3200 Fax: 905-546-3202

Responding to the heavy handed tactics of the Hamilton Wentworth Police, who harassed a 76 year-old women who was responsibly using marijuana peacefully at the Up In Smoke Café, and may have ruined a 25 year old McMaster students life, the Hamilton Compassion Society and Up In Smoke Cafe announces a protest and community forum in Hamilton.

The protest will be organized out front of the John Sopinka Courthouse all day on November 4th. The community forum and dialogue to take place in the studious confines of the Hamilton Central Library's Hamilton Room, Saturday Nov. 20 from 9am ­ 5pm to discuss a peace offering between marijuana prohibitionists and marijuana enthusiasts.

With close to 1000 people in our "database", we are going to have the biggest and loudest protest this city has ever seen. Chris Goodwin will also protest in front of the Up In Smoke Cafe and Hamilton Compassion Society all this week handing out Jean Coopers story as well as No Your Rights Literature.

Please everyone help us hand out literature and write letters daily. We need to change these laws. Each new day we get closer than we were the last. To save Jean Cooper and those like her, this fight needs to be faught!

The public is also invited to attend what will truly be an enlightening discussion on the subject that everyone in the Steel city is gossiping about. Hamilton Compassion Society's Chris Goodwin will present a panel of intelligent enlightened enthusiastic grass guests, and fully intends to invite those who oppose the fall of prohibition to present their view. The HCS director is receiving direct support from Matthew Mernagh, Niagara Compassion Society director, noted writer and longstanding Toronto Compassion Club member. A community forum in St. Catharines was overwhelmingly received and observed by the Niagara Region Police morality unit.

Pot peace is needed to end Hamilton's terrible War on Drugs that sees an elderly women relaxing in the confines of an adult establishment going to the hospital, not from ingesting her medicine, but from fear. Hamilton has been overgrown, not by Dawn of the Dead lumbering Potheads, but intelligent, civic minded individuals, like Chris Goodwin who demand peace.

Demand Pot Peace In Canada!

Peace, Goodster's Wife

Up In Smoke Cafe and Hamilton Compassion Society
227 King Street East, Hamilton ON, L8N 1B6
905-777-9119

Perhaps there is something good and worthwhile to be fought for with the cannabis cafe? If not civil liberties, perhaps a better approach to cannabis in the Canadian world?

 

[SkynetV4]

welsh wrote:

On the other hand I see banning nude sunbathing as an infringement on civil liberties.



Agreed. Tanlines suck.

Lauren, if all girls were as hot as you are, I would agree with you 110% but the world, being as it is, forces me to disagree. Watching a 400 pound beanbag try to get the ultraviolet radiation to permeate through its denser-than-a-blackhole fat would make me shotgun my brains off.