The Buzz Across Canada: Coffee Houses Go To Pot

Globe and Mail ^ | Sept. 8, 2003

[Wolfie]

The Buzz Across Canada: Coffee Houses Go To Pot

Montreal -- In many Montreal restaurants, you can bring your own booze. So what might be the next logical step? "It'll be bring-your-own-buzz," says Hugo St-Onge. The leader of the Bloc Pot, a provincial pro-marijuana party, he wants to open a café where you can light up your own cannabis.

And he isn't alone. Across Canada, a small but growing number of coffee houses encourage customers to bring their own joints, taking advantage of the current legal ambiguity over simple possession of cannabis.

The Bloc Pot's project suffered an unexpected setback yesterday when the landlord of the café that was to open Oct. 1 got wind of the move and complained he hadn't given his approval.

Nevertheless, the idea is mushrooming across the nation.

In Montreal, organizers envision an alternative coffee house in the Latin Quarter. In Toronto, the promoter doesn't want a hippie hangout and promises instead pool tables and pinball machines.

Whatever the style, pot proponents hope that, at a time when other restaurants are trying to curb smoking, theirs will be places where smokers of a certain type are welcome. Opened five years ago in pot-tolerant Vancouver, Blunt Brothers café used to be the sole establishment of the type in the country.

But now, within the last six months, bring-your-own-joint shops have sprung up in Saint John, London, Ont., and Toronto, where the Hot Box will be joined this fall by a similar coffee house.

"The whole country is changing tremendously. This was inevitable," said Dominic Cramer, director of Toronto's second cannabis café. "We intend to break no laws. There will be no trafficking."

Promoters of those coffee houses are gambling the current lenient climate will shield their customers from legal troubles.

"Better there than on the streets. It gives us a place we can call our own," said Boris St-Maurice, leader of the federal Marijuana Party.

In Ontario, the courts have ruled that the federal law banning marijuana possession no longer applied because Ottawa failed to comply with a previous court order to create a new legislation.

While the rulings is being appealed, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has tabled new legislation where possession of up to 15 grams of cannabis would only be a minor offence.

That bill hasn't been enacted yet however, and in that muddled context, some police forces have not been laying charges in cases involving small amounts of pot.

As for Mr. Cramer's Time's High Café, "we're not a granola place. We'll have a pool table, pinball machines," he said.

[gdani]

Nevertheless, the idea is mushrooming across the nation.

Wait a sec -- I thought we were talking about pot.......

[zacyak]

At the risk of sounding too much like a libertarian, I'll have to admit that I agree with the liberalization of marijuana laws.

[Cboldt]

I haven't been to Montreal in years, but pot was smoked openly in over half of the bars in "Old Montreal" back in the late 1970's. Not legal, but not prosecuted -- and not stifled by the bar proprietors.

[Wolfie]

ping

[Johnbalaya]

time to invest in baked goods that sell to those places

[SunStar]

At the risk of sounding too much like a libertarian, I'll have to admit that I agree with the liberalization of marijuana laws.

The true "conservative" viewpoint. (Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.)

[Dane]

Nevertheless, the idea is mushrooming across the nation.

Of course the hard core Libertarians will state to their death that pot never was part of the leftist 60's drug culture.

[montag813]

Sounds like a great tourist plan for Montreal. It is certainly a lot closer than Amsterdam. I myself would have headed up there some years ago (that all ended with my first child).

[Billthedrill]

OK, you get the baked goods, I get the cheetos and the cheez whiz concession...

[TYVets]

In Ottawa isn't it illegal to smoke cigarettes?

The Bingo Games in the city were down by as much as 70% on year after the ban became effective. (postings on FR).

Pot is ok,,,???

[Just another Joe]

Whatever the style, pot proponents hope that, at a time when other restaurants are trying to curb smoking, theirs will be places where smokers of a certain type are welcome.

Puff Ping
They won't let you smoke a cigarette, but bring your own joint.

Loonies.

[zacyak]

The true "conservative" viewpoint. (Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.)

*Smile* Yes, I am partial to some libertarian viewpoints.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[vin-one]

broken record alert

Since I was way to young for the 60's culture,
your logic is failing.

[Wolfie]

There's a certain pleasant irony to the situation.

[jmc813]

Of course the hard core Libertarians will state to their death that pot never was part of the leftist 60's drug culture.

Kick-ass music was part of that culture too. Your point?

[MrLeRoy]

I am partial to some libertarian viewpoints.

Which ones are you not partial to?

[Dane]

Sounds like a great tourist plan for Montreal. It is certainly a lot closer than Amsterdam. I myself would have headed up there some years ago (that all ended with my first child)

Well with the recent news that "coffee shops" in the Netherlands are being shut down, looks like you Libertarians won't have to travel KLM to Amsterdam.

Your idealogical buddy on drugs, Chretien(socialist) is making a "home" for you in Canada.

[Wolfie]

The 60's drug culture can never be forgiven for ruining the fun of sending someone else's kid to die in Vietnam.

[MrLeRoy]

Your point?

Ummm ... Soros!

[MalcolmS]

The anti-smoking police will kill this everywhere except Quebec, where smoking is required, not forbidden.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Can one smoke crack at one of these places? The gummit is smoking crack so why can't the people?

[MrLeRoy]

"coffee shops" in the Netherlands are being shut down

Provide evidence for your claim.

[MrLeRoy]

The gummit is smoking crack

How so?

[Dane]

The 60's drug culture can never be forgiven for ruining the fun of sending someone else's kid to die in Vietnam.

Sheesh Wolfie, why don't you be honest and replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq".

JMO, you are longing for the days of Joan Baez and Jane Fonda in their "liberal activist prime".

[Sparta]

Of course the hard core Libertarians will state to their death that pot never was part of the leftist 60's drug culture.

And your point is

[jmc813]

I never realized you were an LBJ fan.

[steve50]

Hey Dane, I hear your old buddy Soros is putting together a group to buy the Diebolt voting machine boys out. Good thing they're secure.

[Dane]

Provide evidence for your claim

Yawwwn Leroy, sheesh you are getting as tiresome as Howard Dean and Hillary, with your rhetoric.

The new city(Rooterdam, Netherlands) council has slashed the number of "coffee(pot) shops" which sell soft drugs from 300 to 60 and aims to reduce the number further.

Dutch turn their backs on tolerance

[zacyak]

Which ones are you not partial to?

I don't care for their total open immigration position, and I think they are kind of flaky with some of their other stuff. I worship the Bill of Rights, so we have at least that in common, and I despise the "Patriot Act". The Libertarian Party itself strikes me as being filled with a bunch of intelligent, yet immature people, and I just can't support it.

[Dane]

I never realized you were an LBJ fan

Huh?? LBJ wilted. Bush is standing strong.

Didn't know that you were such a Joan Baez fan.

Well with your one focus on drug validation, I can understand why you use Joan Baez rhetoric.

[MrLeRoy]

The new city(Rooterdam, Netherlands) council has slashed the number of "coffee(pot) shops"

So your remark, "looks like you Libertarians won't have to travel KLM to Amsterdam," was geographically ignorant. Got it.

[Wolfie]

Pay attention, its not "Soros" anymore, its "Joan Baez". Some sort of half-assed Tourette's Syndrome, I think.

[MrLeRoy]

you are getting as tiresome as Howard Dean and Hillary, with your rhetoric.

Whereas your constantly dragging in Dean and Hillary remains as fresh as a daisy.

[Dane]

So your remark, "looks like you Libertarians won't have to travel KLM to Amsterdam," was geographically ignorant. Got it

Yeah you got it but decided to use Clintonian parsing to make your point.

[jmc813]

Huh?? LBJ wilted. Bush is standing strong.

My point was that equating Vietnam and Iraq, as you earlier did in your post to Wolfie, is a trademark of Howard Dean.

Didn't know that you were such a Joan Baez fan.

Joan Baez bores me. I was referring to the guitar-driven rock of the late 60-'s early 70's a la Hendrix and Zeppelin rather than folk rock people.

Well with your one focus on drug validation

You know I have many focuses. I used to piss you off on the AWB threads too.

[MrLeRoy]

"Clintonian parsing," my left nut---you clearly linked the closing of coffee shops to "travel[ing] KLM to Amsterdam."

[Conspiracy Guy]

Banning cigarette smoking but allowing pot smoking sounds like a contrarian tactic to me. So I figure the Canadian government is smoking crack. I am not against legalizing pot. But banning tobacco smoking, though tobacco is still legal and allowing pot smoking is a stupid tactic even for the Canadian Gummit.

[Dane]

Pay attention, its not "Soros" anymore, its "Joan Baez". Some sort of half-assed Tourette's Syndrome, I think

Hey you brought up Soros, he is your(drug validators) Daddy Warbucs.

Joan Baez came up because of your reply #20.

Your reply #20 is so Joan Baezish. Well whatever try to use 60's tatcics to stop the war on terror, but I believe that Americans have learned from the lefty drug fueled 60's.

Fool me once shame on you(Vietnam, 4,000,000 dead in Cambodia), Fool me twice shame on you.

[jmc813]

Fool me once shame on you(Vietnam, 4,000,000 dead in Cambodia), Fool me twice shame on you.

I cannot believe you can't see the difference between Nam and Iraq.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... So your remark, "looks like you Libertarians won't have to travel KLM to Amsterdam," was geographically ignorant. Got it."

Well, not really. Holland only has one international airport: Schipol near Amsterdam.

[doc30]

But now, within the last six months, bring-your-own-joint shops have sprung up in Saint John, London, Ont., and Toronto, where the Hot Box will be joined this fall by a similar coffee house.This is really strange. Toronto and London are bopth in Ontario where cigarette smoking in bars an restaurants is illegal. This looks like a pro-pot vs anti-smoking nazi grudge match waiting to happen.

[Wolfie]

Its a strange situation, borne out of the fact that smoking marijuana in public isn't addressed by any law, and possession has been legalized.

[Dane]

I cannot believe you can't see the difference between Nam and Iraq.

Why don't you ask the families in Cambodia who lost their loved ones to the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979.

Do a google search, it was a 70's holocaust, but conviently forgotten by the 60's radicals(and their friends in the press) who had a part in that holocaust by their successful effort to get the US out of Vietnam.

The Kent State tragedy in 1970 was all about Nixon going into Cambodia in the first place and the days, IMO, which Wolfie wishes to come back.

[jmc813]

Why don't you ask the families in Cambodia who lost their loved ones to the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979.

Granted, it was terrible, but speaking as a former miltary man myself, I can assure you that we were NOT in it to win it in Nam. LBJ f@#$ed up that war so badly that had I been alive at the time, I would have rallied to bring our boys home. It was beyond hopeless. Contrast that with Iraq, which I feel we ARE there to win and nothing less. Anyhow, what this has to do with pot is beyond me.

[Dane]

Granted, it was terrible, but speaking as a former miltary man myself, I can assure you that we were NOT in it to win it in Nam. LBJ f@#$ed up that war so badly that had I been alive at the time, I would have rallied to bring our boys home. It was beyond hopeless. Contrast that with Iraq, which I feel we ARE there to win and nothing less. Anyhow, what this has to do with pot is beyond me

Uh take a look at the 60's anti-vietnam war radical haven called Santa Cruz, CA, where Wolfie himself posted a pro-Santa Cruz government thread, because it was pro-pot.

Santa Cruz Council to Allow Marijuana At City Hall

[MrLeRoy]

So your point is that---although pot is less addictive than alcohol and, unlike alcohol, does not increase violence or lead to fatal overdose---pot should be illegal because of the sort of users with whom it is stereotypically associated. Is that it?

[jmc813]

Uh take a look at the 60's anti-vietnam war radical haven called Santa Cruz, CA, where Wolfie himself posted a pro-Santa Cruz government thread, because it was pro-pot.

I still don't understand the point. Is everyone in Santa Cruz anti-war? I seriously don't see what one has to do with the other.

Thank you though for that trip down memory lane. Pot threads were so much fun back then when CJ and KC were still buddies and teamed up. And Illbay, that dude rocked.

[Liberal Classic]

Free Illbay!