The summer of 2003: Escape to Canada

[Kacey420]

7 years ago, I didn't realize what we could have gotten away with. Looking back now, I wish i knew about this stuff and got involved. I even lived in Vancouver in 2002..one year too early. However still managed to hook it up at the literary club.

Anyone have stories from going to Da kine cafe?


Anyone ever see this documentary "Escape to Canada"? It's a very good watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4cxDKMwpA

 

[mazar_man]

was there two days before it went down... the fact that it operated for so long without a single complaint (as per the mayor at the time), should have been seen as proof that this was the way forward. Maybe except the lineups and b grade weed.

The lady that ran it went down pretty hard, several years I think.

 

[Green&Gold]

Thanks for bringing up this part of our history. I had forgotten about it mostly, so I did a brief google and came up with this scholarly opinion from the BC civil liberties association comparing the owner of Da Kine to Henry Morgentaler. Saying that Carole Gwilt is the Morgentaler of dope...LOL.

http://www.bccla.org/othercontent/04gwilt.htm

 

[TheHashAssassin]

was there two days before it went down... the fact that it operated for so long without a single complaint (as per the mayor at the time), should have been seen as proof that this was the way forward. Maybe except the lineups and b grade weed.

The lady that ran it went down pretty hard, several years I think.

I was there the day it got taken down. They had the whole block shut down, bakclava masks on and everything. It was the owners own fault tho. A few months prior to the take-down, they started to advertise in CC and I believe HT as well, specifically targeting foreign tourists (ie americans) to come visit the first real 'Amsterdam-style' in Canada. At around the same time as this, they allowed CBC to bring their cams in and film a documentary on them and publicize them even more. This is when they dug their own grave. The PD didnt have much of a problem with them until they went super public like that. Hell they were open for over a year with no issues from the cops, even though they knew what was up.

 

[mazar_man]

carole gwilt was just the fall guy(girl) for dakine, someone else was behind the scenes making all the cash and making it all disappear. Pretty sure all the details of this was covered in the book "bud inc". Hopefully there was an offshore account with Carole's name on it when she got out... Not generally how things work out in the drug world though from my experience.

Either way, I was missing dakine a couple of weeks ago when in van on business and jonesing. Nothing worse than spending a dry week in a city overflowing with nice nugs..