Pubdate: Thu, 24 Oct 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Chris Brummitt, The Associated Press
Page: A3

WEST'S POT SELLERS ENJOY LUXURY VIETNAM MARKET

Smokers, Quoting Dealers, Said Some of the Weed Comes into the Country
Via the Northern Port in Haiphong, a City That Has a Reputation for
the Import and Export of Illegal Goods.

HANOI, Vietnam - For the young Vietnamese dope smokers rolling up
outside a smart Hanoi cafe, local cannabis is just not good enough. As
with their Adidas caps, iPhones and Sanskrit tattoos, so with their
choice of bud: Only foreign will do.

Potent marijuana grown in Canada and the United States is easy to buy
in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, say regular smokers, and it sells for
up to 10 times the price of locally grown weed. That's perhaps
surprising given that marijuana is easy to cultivate regionally, and
bringing drugs across continents is expensive and risky.

Some experts say the trade can be explained by the dominant role
Vietnamese diaspora gangs play in cultivating the drug in Western
countries, making sourcing the product and smuggling it to Vietnam an
easier proposition than it might be otherwise.

The characteristics of cannabis use in the country also drive the
trade. The drug is used mostly by foreigners and well-heeled
Vietnamese, who are prepared to pay for quality. Vietnamese have long
shown preferences for imported goods of all kinds - and it appears
cannabis is no exception.

Regardless of the reasons, its availability in Vietnam is a sign of
how growing techniques have shaken up the global marijuana business.
In the 1960s and 70s, marijuana went from plantations in countries
such as Thailand, India and Morocco to wealthy consumer markets in the
West. Now, many Western countries are self-sufficient in the weed
because of indoor cultivation, and export is on the agenda.

Western-grown cannabis is also appearing in Japan and South Korea.
Unlike Vietnam, both are wealthy, developed nations with climates
ill-suited to cultivation. They, too, have seen a shift in supply from
countries in the region such as India and Thailand to North America
and Europe, law-enforcement authorities there say.

The smokers sitting outside the Hanoi cafe, a short walk from the
city's famed French-era Opera House, seemed proud they were able to
buy foreign, expensive buds, boasting their city was like a "mini
Amsterdam." But as the tightly rolled joints went round, they
struggled to explain why Western weed was available.

"Some people raise cows," said one, a tattoo-shop owner with a passion
for big bikes and Facebook. "Other people prefer to buy steak at the
market. "Like other smokers interviewed for this story, he declined to
give his name because cannabis is illegal in Vietnam.

Vietnamese diaspora criminal gangs got into the marijuana cultivation
business in North America in the 1980s. Having found a niche, they
expanded and now account for much of the business across Europe also.

Smokers said one gram of Canadian retails for anything up to 45
dollars, the average weekly wage in the country. Midquality marijuana
sells for about 10 dollars a gram in the United States and Canada.

Smokers, quoting dealers, said some of the weed comes into the country
via the northern port in Haiphong, a city that has a reputation for
the import and export of illegal goods as well as the laundering of
drug profits by diaspora growing gangs. Other channels included
smuggling by flight crew in liquor boxes or the postal service.

There are no public statistics on cannabis use in Vietnam, but it is a
niche product without a long history of use like, say, in India. The
drug's well-documented use by American soldiers during the Vietnam War
is credited by some for introducing or popularizing it.

Tun Nay Soe, an expert at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
in Thailand, put the business down to the social cachet of using
imported, better quality product. He said a similar pattern could be
detected with ecstasy use in Asia, where tablets imported from Europe
are more expensive than regionally produced ones.

"On the one hand, there is enough supply here, so we really don't need
things coming from other parts of the world," he said. "But when we
talk about high potency cannabis, then it is a different story. Among
the elite and rich kids, this is like a trend: 'Let's not use local
stuff, it is rubbish.' "

A U.S. State Department report on drugs in Vietnam in 2012 said that
there was little cultivation or production of illicit drugs in Vietnam
but noted that it was becoming a transshipment destination for
amphetamine in part because of corruption at border points. "A certain
level of corruption, both among lower-level enforcement personnel and
higher-level officials, is consistent with the fairly large-scale
movement of narcotics into and out of Vietnam," it said.

While smokers say those who sell and use cannabis face arrest,
cracking down on the use of the drug is a not a priority for
Vietnamese authorities, which are more concerned with heroin and
amphetamine. Some users thought many officers didn't know what it was.
Those smoking outside the cafe were not worried about being caught.

"We are nice boys, sitting in a nice place," one said. "There is no
problem."
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MAP posted-by: Matt