Pubdate: April 15, 1998
Source: Calgary Sun (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Author: PETER SMITH, Calgary Sun

COPS BURN POT MYTH  --  DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE

City cops have shattered the myth circulating round the globe that
Calgary's home-grown pot is the tops in the world.

Duped drug-runners in the U.S. have been known to do a straight swap -- one
pound of Calgary home-grown pot for one-pound of cocaine -- so powerful is
the reputation of Calgary's marijuana.

But it's all a giant smoke-screen, say police, who yesterday burst the
hydroponics marijuana bubble.

Destruction of the myth will come as a shock to traffickers in the U.S. and
Europe, where buyers pay top price believing their Calgary product to be
superior to all the rest.

"We've heard the myth, everyone has, but that's all it is -- a myth," said
Det. Pat Tetley, of the city police drug unit.

"We have done numerous tests on the THC content of Calgary's marijuana, and
it is no higher than that from Vancouver, or Winnipeg or anywhere else," he
said.

Tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC) is the active ingredient in marijuana.

It's known to be more than five times higher in today's marijuana compared
to pot smoked popularly in the 1960s -- but Calgary's is no better than any
other.

"Not at all, that's just a myth," said Tetley.

"Calgary's growers export it to the States, to the Yukon, to Europe, and
they command a big dollar for it.

"In Seattle, Washington, we know of a person who traded one pound of
marijuana straight across for one pound of cocaine.

"In Los Angeles, pot that goes in Calgary for $3,000 a pound, goes for
$9,000 a pound.

"There is a huge demand for it."

Growers have carefully nurtured the myth Calgary's pot is the best in the
world to boost prices -- even publishing articles in underground drug-world
magazines.

"All this shoots their sales through the roof," said Tetley.

"These magazines have no compulsion to report accurately."

Tetley, who's often testified in court as an expert on the strength of
drugs, regularly quantifies the THC content of marijuana to keep tabs on
what's on the market.