Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2005
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Edmonton Journal
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Tom Blackwell, National Post; CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

CANADA BLAMED FOR GREATER U.S. POT PROBLEM

More Teens Seek Treatment As Supply Of High-Potency Drug Soars, Official Says

WASHINGTON - The number of American teens 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 Thursday.

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

"It has grown dramatically," he said of the northern pot trade.

"The question that is always on our side of the border, and on theirs, when 
these problems arise is, '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 the Canadian 
marijuana means it can no longer be considered a soft drug, argued Walters, 
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

His concerns, voiced at a news conference, reflect growing anxiety in the 
United States about Canada, a country not traditionally viewed as a major 
supplier of drugs.

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, as underlined in a State Department report 
released last week.

But Walters focused Thursday on the marijuana problem and how, he contends, 
it is affecting young Americans.

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, he added.

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.

Other countries, such as Mexico, do supply such high-powered marijuana, 
Walters acknowledged. "But the big new factor on the scene is ... the 
enormous growth of very high-potency marijuana coming from Canada."

He said most people, especially those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, 
view marijuana as a soft drug that does not warrant much concern. But the 
higher potency means one in five pot-smoking Americans age 12 to 17 
progress to needing treatment or "intervention" for marijuana abuse, he 
said. "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, especially the RCMP, which he described as "one of the 
finest police organizations in the world." But he said prosecutors have 
told him current Criminal Code sanctions are not stiff enough to deter 
grow-op criminals and "without the ability to use more extensive 
enforcement pressure, they're concerned about how this will continue to grow."

A spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington said Thursday that 
Canadian marijuana still only accounts for one to two per cent of the 
product sold in the U.S., while Canada imports most of its cocaine from the U.S.
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MAP posted-by: Beth