Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2003
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2003 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Shannon McCaffrey, Knight Ridder News Service
Note: Inquirer staff writer Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. contributed to this article.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POTENT MARIJUANA ROLLS INTO U.S. FROM CANADA

A Joint Antismuggling Effort Is Hindered by Liberal Laws in Canada

BLAINE, Wash. - For decades the drug-smuggling war has raged to the south 
in dusty Mexican border towns or along the sparkling waters of the Caribbean.

But in the cool evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, a new front has 
opened up, thanks to a potent breed of pricey Canadian marijuana. "B.C. 
Bud" is so sought-after in the United States that it has been known to 
trade on the street dollar-for-dollar with cocaine, federal law enforcement 
officials say.

Named for its birthplace in British Columbia, the high-grade pot is 
wreaking havoc on the once sleepy northern border. Enterprising smugglers 
are using kayaks, horse trailers, Army trucks and even a cage holding a 
live bear to sneak it into the United States. They tuck packages into fish 
meal or coffee to avoid drug-sniffing dogs. Private planes dip into U.S. 
airspace and drop hockey bags filled with the stuff to couriers waiting in 
the woods on all-terrain vehicles.

Although seizures of marijuana along the southern U.S. border declined in 
fiscal year 2002, along the northern border they exploded - soaring more 
than 300 percent from the prior year, according to U.S. Bureau of Customs 
and Border Protection officials. In exchange, shipments of cocaine, guns 
and money are flowing north to Canada.

"It's the new frontier," said Peter Ostrovsky, an agent with Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement who came to the Northwest after working drug cases 
in Miami. "This is the only place in the U.S. I've seen where there's 
two-way traffic. Drugs coming in and out."

The surge in seizures is due, at least in part, to heightened security at 
the border in the wake of the terrorist attacks. More car trunks are being 
popped and sophisticated new X-ray equipment allows agents to peek inside 
idling tractor-trailers without ever opening a door.

Margaret Fearon, port director at the border checkpoint in this small 
outpost 30 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia, said that when more 
vehicles are searched, more drugs are found.

But law enforcement officials on both sides of the international boundary 
also believe the number of drugs on the move has risen and is pushing east.

The situation is so serious that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration 
just stationed an agent in Vancouver. And the White House, in its annual 
report on the global drug problem this year, singled out Canada for the 
first time.

Things could get worse now that Canada appears poised to decriminalize 
marijuana for personal use. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's 
administration introduced legislation in late May that would essentially 
make possession of small amounts of pot equivalent to a traffic ticket. But 
the bill also would boost penalties for growing and trafficking marijuana.

Although Britain and Australia have made similar moves to lessen penalties 
for marijuana possession, it is Canada that shares a 4,000-mile land border 
with the United States, and American officials are not pleased.

Canada and the United States do about $1 billion of trade a day. Top U.S. 
officials have warned their Canadian counterparts that easing marijuana 
laws could lead to heightened inspections along the border, said Jennifer 
de Vallance, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are struggling to control the explosion 
but admit their hands are tied by a justice system that is notoriously 
lenient when it comes to marijuana.

Only rarely do marijuana offenders do jail time in Canada and when they do 
it's for an average of just a few months, said Sgt. Brian McDonald of the 
mounted police's Greater Vancouver Drug Section. Most of the stiffer 
sentences have been struck down by the appeals courts, he said.

"We are hurt by the Canadian justice system. It's a gripe," said 
Superintendent Bill Ard of the Canadian police.

Police in Canada have had to make do with shutting down some of the 11,000 
marijuana-growing operations only to watch them spring up again somewhere else.

In a sign of how permissive things have become, the counterculture magazine 
High Times recently dubbed Vancouver as its top destination for getting 
good pot, noting that having an indoor marijuana growing room is "almost as 
common as having a den."

While aware of B.C. Bud, Philadelphia Police narcotics officers said they 
have not seen it on city streets.

"I don't have any evidence of it being here, but we've heard of it. We've 
heard how potent it is and its price," said Chief Inspector William 
Blackburn, head of the police Narcotics Bureau.

In British Columbia, it's estimated that B.C. Bud is a $2.8 billion-a-year 
industry, raking in more than the total for the province's legitimate 
agriculture industry. The marijuana plants are carefully nurtured indoors 
hydroponically - rooted in water and nutrients, not soil - often using 
high-tech equipment to precisely regulate temperature and light so that 
growers can harvest up to six lucrative crops a year.

The resulting supercharged pot is worth about $2,000 a pound in the 
Vancouver area. That price tag doubles as soon as it crosses the border. 
Once it reaches Southern California, it can reach $6,000 a pound.

Why such a demand? The high is a lot higher. Woodstock-era marijuana had a 
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, or potency, of 2 percent. The current 
crop coming in from Mexico runs an average of 6 percent. B.C. Bud's THC 
content can rise to 25 percent.

The trade is run largely by Vietnamese gangs and outlaw biker gangs. 
Competition between them has become increasingly violent, fueled by the 
guns that are streaming back into Canada as part of the illicit drug trade, 
Ard of the mounted police said.

The Canadian haul still pales in comparison with the tonnage that is 
flowing from Mexico and other points south. In fiscal year 2002, 19,405 
pounds were seized on the northern border compared to 1.2 million pounds on 
the southwest border, customs figures show.

But customs agents along the northern border said that did not take into 
account the value of the crop. Canadian pot can be six to 20 times more 
expensive than the Mexican variety, according to the DEA.

U.S. and Canadian officials are working cooperatively to go after the 
ringleaders.

The problem: The penalties are tougher in the United States and most of the 
kingpins are in Canada. John McKay, U.S. attorney in Seattle, said 
officials are working on better extradition procedures and better timing of 
arrests.

"There's a clear understanding that in some of these cases it's a lot 
better to let them get arrested in the United States," McKay said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake