Pubdate: Sun, 15 Oct 2006
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2006 BBC
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

MARIJUANA FIGHTERS FOX CANADIANS

Taleban fighters using giant Afghan marijuana forests for cover are 
proving a tough foe to smoke out, the head of Canada's armed forces 
has revealed.

Thickets three metres (10ft) high readily absorb heat, making them 
hard to penetrate with thermal devices, said Gen Rick Hillier in a 
speech in Ottawa.

"You really have to be careful the Taleban don't dodge in and out of 
those marijuana forests," he added.

Burning them is not an option as they are laden with water, the general said.

He was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency that the crew of at 
least one armoured car had responded by camouflaging their vehicle 
with marijuana.

Canada's armed forces have more than 2,300 personnel deployed in 
Afghanistan as part of the Isaf international force and have suffered 
at least 40 fatalities since 2002.

Smoke scare

"We tried burning [the marijuana forests] with white phosphorous - it 
didn't work," said Gen Hillier.

"We tried burning them with diesel - it didn't work. The plants are 
so full of water right now... that we simply couldn't burn them."

He noted that a couple of brown plants on the edges of some of the 
forests had caught fire but this had posed yet another problem.

"A section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill 
effects and decided that was probably not the right course of 
action," he said, speaking dryly, according to Reuters.

One soldier had told him:

"Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd 
say 'That damn marijuana'."

Marijuana, an illegal drug in most parts of the world, grows wild 
across Central Asia, where it is commonly regarded as a weed.

With illicit marijuana production on the rise in Canada itself, 
police there recently identified fighting the drug as their "biggest issue".
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