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Marijuana candidate bringing cannabis café debate closer to home

RCMP says research and education needed before legalization is considered

The debate surrounding the Da Kine café might be raging in Vancouver, but former Marijuana Party candidate in Pemberton’s riding is ensuring the ramifications of any decision will be felt well outside the city limits.

Norm Siefken has been a candidate for the Marijuana Party in the Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon riding, which includes Pemberton and D’Arcy, during the past two federal elections. He also owns a cannabis-seed business in Vancouver.

For the past week he has also been protesting in Vancouver outside the Da Kine cafe and campaigning for marijuana to be legalized.

When Pique Newsmagazine contacted Siefken this week he was standing outside the Da Kine shop holding a "legalize marijuana" sign, smoking his pipe and watching the police circulate around the shop every 15 minutes.

Siefken said the outcome of this protest could lead to the legalization of marijuana in Vancouver, because those involved know what they are doing and they are here for the long haul.

"I’d say within six months you’ll be seeing marijuana stores all over Vancouver," said Siefken.

"Because Da Kine is being defiant and opening right away the next day.

"It’s the same thing that happened in the (marijuana) seed business.

"First they were busting all the seed stores and then they would just re-open and then finally they just left the seed stores alone.

"I’d say within six months you’ll probably have about 50 cannabis cafes in Vancouver.

"There’s a lot of others opening up right now; I know of three or four."

The owner of Da Kine, Carol Gwilt, and seven employees spent a night in jail last week and were then released by Judge William Kitchen.

But Siefken said everybody had been warned that if there were another spate of arrests then the offending people would be spending more time in jail.

"Just on Da Kine I think it’s a really valuable public service that these people are providing because the other choice is to go to a dealer who’s trying to sell you some crack and meth (amphetamine) and heroine or whatever.

"It’s important to have cannabis in an environment where it’s cannabis only."

Siefken said the situation at the Da Kine store is being supported by a number of groups, including a group of experienced Marijuana Party candidates.

"The whole idea is to force this case into the courts," he said.

"They (the people who were arrested) knew this before they got arrested and that’s why everybody is ready to be re-arrested or whatever, but definitely the idea is to bring it into the courts and get some fair judgements.

"There’s been various groups of people here all day, and we’ve had public transport buses honking their horns and waving and supporting legalization."

Siefken was certain that this was the start of a movement that would result in the legalization of marijuana.

"I can say that the people that are running Da Kine and the people wanting to open other Da Kine locations are all people with ties to the Marijuana Party."

One issue that has hurt the Marijuana Party’s cause in the past, and indeed the cause of most pro-drug political parties around the world, is that the people advocating for legalization can often be discredited.

Donald Briere, for instance, heads the group that supplies marijuana to the Da Kine shop and the Vancouver Sun revealed he has spent time in jail for weapons offences.

And when the police initially raided Da Kine they found $63,000 in cash and a pound of hashish.

But Siefken said this debate was only about the legalization of marijuana.

"I’ve been helping out down at Da Kine and I know the people, we hate crack and meth and all these man-made chemicals, we are very definitely 100 per cent cannabis.

"You can’t stop it at this point… the cat’s out of the bag.

"They’ll be opening faster before they can even think about shutting them down… I’m planning to open a location myself.

"But especially here in Vancouver, marijuana’s very popular and I think in a lot of circles it’s considered safer and more popular than alcohol."

Whistler’s Staff Sergeant Norm McPhail said if anybody wanted to open a cannabis café in Whistler or Pemberton then the first step would be to apply for a business licence.

"I would think the application would first be for a business licence and that would go through the Resort Municipality of Whistler and one of the consulting parties would probably be the RCMP," said McPhail. "And we would take the position that we can’t allow illegal activity to occur."

He said it was up to the politicians and the courts to do the research and change the laws and until such time the RCMP had to enforce the law.

"The only thing from a policing perspective is if you look at the history of alcohol and Whistler Village, alcohol and over-consumption is one of the biggest factors that we have to deal with as police, and the violence that results.

"And marijuana is claimed to create a passive individual, but how passive? I’d like to see the research," he said.

"Because we all know that alcohol in some states and some persons, depending on their make up, can create a passive person and in other states it creates a total reverse reaction."

He added that if the push to open cannabis cafes did spread to Whistler or Pemberton then the public must first be educated in the same way they are educated about smoking and alcohol.

"Where my concerns come in is the trouble we have with alcohol presently in society and having the laws on the books trying to fortify public safety.

"I do know from my experience, having been an expert in providing evidence to the court on what the effects of marijuana are on the body, that marijuana can create the same kinds of impairments that alcohol does to the central nervous system – it’s a depressant."

McPhail said the system also needs laws that protect society at large, such as stronger laws about driving under the influence of alcohol and/or marijuana, before legalization is considered.

"In terms of regulation, public safety is paramount, that’s where I have the issue because, yes, this is something that society might want to consider but look at these other issues.

"What’s going to stop someone from having a beer, smoking a joint and having another beer?

"So if society takes a position it has to be a strong one and the responsibility of the government is that the public has to be safe because what do the studies say about marijuana?

"We’ve got all kinds of campaigns against smoking and trying to keep that from people but I know that the carcinogens in marijuana are as harmful, if not more harmful, than they are in cigarette smoke."

McPhail confirmed that the supply of marijuana was strongly linked to organized crime and regulating it would help destroy most of those links, but this outcome could only be achieved with proper education.

"Yes, it does create problems in terms of organized crime so if we only temper the law in terms of personal possession then we do create a market that flourishes for organized crime.

"And organized crime is a huge thing for us and so is marijuana as the cash source for a lot of their organized activities.

"(Marijuana) also creates the funds for a lot of other ventures that create misery in society: prostitution, drug abuse, gaming, fraud, all of that, is funded by that fuel source.

"That said, if you legalized it, would that take away the problem? Maybe, in time, with very quick regulation.

"We do know that the government has experimented with growing its own marijuana, but there’s still a lot of bridges to gap there.

"Education is one of the RCMP’s pillars for strategic focus and if we’re not up to working towards that kind of stuff then we’re missing the boat by far."