Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Tom Blackwell, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

DRUG CZAR POINTS HIS POT FINGER FIRMLY AT CANADA

WASHINGTON -- The number of American teenagers and adults ending up in 
emergency wards or seeking treatment because of marijuana use has soared in 
recent years and seems linked to the "dramatically" growing influx of "high 
test" Canadian pot, the White House drug czar said yesterday.

John Walters estimated the industry is also funnelling "billions" of 
dollars into the pockets of organized crime and said Canadian prosecutors 
tell him they need tougher laws to combat the grow-op bonanza.

"It has grown dramatically," he said. "The question that is always . . . 
'How many more people will suffer until we are able to change the trend line?'"

The elevated THC content -- the active ingredient in pot -- of Canadian 
marijuana means it can no longer be considered a soft drug, argued Walters, 
head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The export of ecstasy pills made in Canadian labs and of the chemical 
ingredients of illicit narcotics, such as methamphetamine, have also caught 
the attention of the Americans.

But Walters focused yesterday on the marijuana problem.

The number of Americans admitted to hospital emergency wards because of 
marijuana use has doubled to 120,000 annually in the last five years, he 
said. Meanwhile, the number of teenagers seeking treatment for marijuana 
dependency has grown to the point where it is more than for all other drugs 
combined, including alcohol.

The phenomenon has paralleled a growing potency of marijuana available in 
North America, from containing one to two per cent THC less than a decade 
ago to eight to nine per cent and, in some cases, 20 per cent or more in 
recent years, he said.

Walters said most people, especially those who grew up in the 1960s and 
1970s, view marijuana as a soft drug. But the higher potency means that one 
in five pot-smoking Americans age 12 to 17 progress to needing treatment or 
"intervention" for pot abuse.

"That was not the way marijuana use was moving a decade ago or two decades 
ago."

Walters praised the co-operation that American authorities have had from 
Canadian police. But he said prosecutors have told him that the current 
Criminal Code sanctions are not stiff enough to deter grow-op criminals.
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