Source: The Worthing Hearld, UK

Pub Date: Thursday, 14 August 2003

Subj: Cannabis joint finally stubbed out by police

Ref: http://www.ccguide.org/cannabiscafes.php

Web: http://www.worthingtoday.co.uk

Article URL: http://www.worthingtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=472&ArticleID=575412

Contact: letters@worthingtoday.co.uk

SUN is shining, weather is sweet - the words of Bob Marley may have tempted cannabis café staff to shut up shop and enjoy the weather.

But their hand was forced after yet another police raid on Buddies café.

Staff have said that they will not re-open the Brougham Road café, as they have done after previous raids.

A statement from the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, signed The Koffeeshop Crew, said: "After a year of trading we have decided to close Buddies koffeeshop.

The week of police 'siege' proved that the police have finally won the war. It took them a year. We at the koffeeshop have a social conscience we cannot allow the limited resources that the police have, to be wasted on policing the koffeeshop. They would be better served looking after the rising crime rate here in Worthing."

It went on to apologise to the people in East Worthing for the "traffic congestion and any other inconveniences caused".

The statement claimed that the café was non-profit making and money raised went to the sick and disabled.

The police raid culminated in one arrest, for breach of bail conditions, and the seizure of a quantity of cannabis. Buddies was closed the next day by staff operators, who cleared out the premises.

Detective Inspector Nigel Brown said that he was "delighted" with the news and called the café "a running sore for the community".

He added: "However, we are not complacent. Any attempt to re-open the premises or move to alternative premises will be immediately dealt with in the same fashion. In addition, only half of the job is complete as we still have a second cannabis café operating in Victoria Road. This will now receive the full attention of all the police resources dedicated to this operation - we will shut it down."

The Victoria Road café is still open but police vans and officers have been stationed outside, stopping "customers" as they leave.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing, said he welcomed the demise of Buddies.

"This news will come as a great relief to all my constituents living in and around East Worthing who have had to put up with this establishment for over a year now. What supposedly started as a political statement by the Legalise Cannabis Alliance developed into a nightmare for local people, attracting all sorts of undesirables intimidating passers by, sending out the wrong messages to impressionable youngsters and tying up a lot of police time and resources which should have been available to fight crime elsewhere in the town."