Dozens of Vancouver police officers raided the Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop on Commercial Drive on the evening of 9 September 2004, arresting the six people inside on charges of trafficking a controlled substance.[1] Officers blocked Commercial Drive between Parker and Napier streets for hours while a crowd of more than 200 taunted them, smoked marijuana and kept protesting late into the night.[1] The drug squad had obtained a search warrant after complaints from a secondary school and the community policing centre about the shop, which police called very blatant about breaking the law.[1]
Da Kine had sold marijuana cafe-style for about four months before a television expose pushed police to act.[2] The raid did not close it: the shop was back selling marijuana the next day while police said they were still gathering evidence inside.[1][2] The case pulled Mayor Larry Campbell and federal MPs into a national fight over the stalled decriminalization bill, with the local MP saying sharing a joint counted as trafficking under federal law.[2]
