Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2003
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2003 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Chris Nuttall-Smith

CANADA'S 'MOST VALUABLE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT'

'Dirty, Well-Lit Marijuana Trade Is Rich, Expanding, Unstoppable,' Magazine 
Says

Forbes, the U.S. business magazine, has chosen to celebrate Canada's 
economy on its latest cover, but it's a segment of the economy that chamber 
of commerce officials and Canadian law aren't as happy to extol.

The marijuana industry "has emerged as Canada's most valuable agricultural 
product - bigger than wheat, cattle or timber," Forbes's Silicon Valley 
bureau chief writes in a cover feature called Inside Dope: Canada's dirty, 
well-lit marijuana trade is rich, expanding ... and unstoppable.

"With prices reaching $2,700 a pound wholesale, the trade takes in 
somewhere between $4 billion (U.S.) nationwide and $7 billion just in the 
province of British Columbia, depending on which side of the law you believe."

John Winter, president of B.C.'s chamber of commerce, said yesterday he 
hadn't seen the Forbes article, but he wondered how the publicity might 
affect B.C.'s investment climate.

"If you're a potential investor in British Columbia, you're going to look 
at many factors and, presumably, that is now one of the factors you might 
look at.

"Whether it's considered to be negative or whether it's indicative of 
entrepreneurship - I'm not sure - whether it's considered negative or 
positive."

A few of the Forbes story's facts might not be so recognizable to readers 
who actually live north of the border.

Helmut Pastrick, chief economist at the Credit Union Central of B.C., said 
in an interview yesterday that it's impossible to estimate accurately just 
how big the marijuana economy actually is.

"It's an underground sector," said Pastrick. "By definition, it's just 
impossible to measure it accurately. These numbers are bandied about. I've 
seen higher numbers."

B.C.'s economy is worth some $140 billion annually; farm cash receipts in 
the province - the amount the farmers actually make from selling produce 
and livestock - total just $2.2 billion.

According to Statistics Canada, forestry and logging were worth a national 
total of $5.7 billion in 2002, while crops totalled $8.66 billion and 
livestock brought in $3.98 billion.

The Forbes story didn't impress RCMP drug specialists.

"I was flabbergasted when I heard about it," said Sgt. Paul Laviolette, a 
project co-ordinator with the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada.

Comparing Canadian laws and attitudes toward marijuana with those of 
Americans, the article says, "The Canadians are even more 
cannabis-tolerant. Although they have not legalized the drug, they are 
loath to stomp out the growers."

The facts, however, don't bear that out. There has been little 
public-opinion research on Canadians' attitudes toward marijuana growers. 
However, advocates of looser marijuana laws, and the little research that 
exists, seem to suggest that while Canadians are willing to overlook pot 
possession and consumption, growing is another matter.

One of the few polls, conducted in Vancouver, showed a large majority of 
the 400 respondents said growing marijuana for money should be illegal.

Governments' response to grow operations has been far from lackadaisical. 
The federal Liberals' proposed legislation to ease penalties for possession 
of marijuana would actually increase penalties for growers. (That 
legislation is in doubt, however, as Parliament is expected to shut down 
for Christmas before it can pass.)

And police forces' response to marijuana growers has grown tougher. In 
Ontario last year, for example, police made 1,340 grow-operation busts, up 
from just 129 in 1999.

City police forces across the country have harnessed scarce resources to 
create "grow-busters" teams that use aggressive tactics to shut down 
growers. They have banded together to swap strategies and intelligence 
about marijuana growers.

"There's more than twice as many busts in just the past few years," 
Laviolette said. "In some cases they've gone up hundreds of per cent from 
year 2000 to 2001 to 2002."

Canada's judges, however, have decided many important cases lately in 
favour of easing restrictions on marijuana possession, and police often 
complain that provincial court judges regularly let convicted growers off 
with little penalty.

Forbes editors could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The story's arithmetic is also suspect. The Forbes piece says wholesale 
prices for marijuana reach "$2,700 a pound wholesale" in U.S. dollars, or 
some $3,600 a pound Canadian at yesterday's exchange rate.

Growers in B.C. say they're lucky if they get $1,800 Canadian per pound for 
the finest-grade marijuana. Low-quality bud often fetches less than $900 
per pound.

The story also counters Canadian law enforcement officials' frequent 
contention that the industry is dominated by organized gangs and motorcycle 
outlaws.

"And who are these growers?" the magazine asks. "Not a small coterie of 
drug lords who could be decimated with a few well-targeted prosecutions, 
but an army of ordinary folks."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens