cannabisnews.com: Ottawa's Marijuana Plan Irks US





Ottawa's Marijuana Plan Irks US
Posted by CN Staff on May 10, 2003 at 07:35:28 PT
By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff
Source: Boston Globe 
Ottawa -- Canada's plan to decriminalize marijuana, making possession of the country's potent weed no more serious than a traffic ticket, has the Bush administration fuming. The view from Washington is that the mellowing of Canadian drug law will result in even more smuggled bales of ''B.C. Bud,'' ''Quebec Gold,'' and ''Winnipeg Wheelchair'' -- the last so named because of its supposedly disabling effect on users -- reaching American pot puffers. 
For years, Canadian courts, if not police, have taken a far more lax attitude toward marijuana than do most jurisdictions in the United States. Such a laissez-faire approach, according to law enforcement officials on both sides of the border, has enabled biker gangs and Asian organized crime groups to make Canada a powerhouse of hydroponic pot production, with thousands of high-tech, indoor operations in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec yielding hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of heady product. ''Most of it is going straight to the US market,'' said a senior drug investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, requesting anonymity. That southward flow of Canadian cannabis explains why the proposed easing of the marijuana law is fast becoming a serious source of friction between Ottawa and Washington.In terms of tonnage, Canada accounts for only a small share of the marijuana smuggled into the United States. But in terms of value, some drug enforcement officials believe Canadian pot has surpassed Mexico's and Colombia's among US consumers because its high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol -- THC, the stuff that gives pot its pow -- commands much higher prices. In American cities, high-grade Canadian grass fetches more than $5,000 a pound, according to drug agencies.Last week, Prime Minister Jean Chretien surprised the United States by announcing he plans to put a bill before Parliament that will make possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana a noncriminal offense. The aim, he said, is not to legalize pot but to ensure that casual users don't end up with criminal records if caught with a few joints in their pockets or a few plants flourishing under basement grow-lights.Public opinion polls show a majority of Canadians support decriminalization of marijuana, while 47 percent endorse outright legalization.Countries such as Britain and Australia also have taken steps to remove criminal penalties for so-called personal marijuana use. But Britain and Australia don't share a 5,525-mile border with a superpower whose official drug policy is ''zero tolerance.'' Within hours of Chretien's pledge, Washington was voicing displeasure and hinting at tighter borders.''You expect your friends to stop the movement of poison toward your neighborhood,'' John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told Canadian journalists. ''We have to be concerned about American citizens. . . . When you make the penalties minimal, you get more drug production, you get more drug crime.''David Murray, special assistant to President Bush's drug policy director, flew to Vancouver and pronounced Chretien's decriminalization initiative ''a matter we look upon with some concern and some regret.'' Marijuana is smoked openly in cafes in the western Canadian city, which is known to tokers as Vansterdam, after the Dutch capital where marijuana is legal.Saying the United States already is fighting a ''flood of illicit substances'' from Canada, Murray warned that if the Chretien government loosens penalties on pot it may face tighter border security to combat drug trafficking. Such a crackdown would harm the billion-dollar-a-day trade ties between the two neighbors, with Canadian exporters -- economically dependent on the United States -- taking a painful hit.''We would have no choice but to respond,'' Murray said, echoing the view of many law enforcement officials that Canadian marijuana is so uncommonly potent it should be considered a hard drug, not a harmless high. ''This isn't Woodstock,'' he said of B.C. Bud and other varieties that have gained fame among inhalers.Hydroponic marijuana is grown indoors using heavily fertilized water, high-power lights, high heat, humidity, and lately, sophisticated plant genetics. As a result, Canadian weed has average THC levels of 15 percent to 20 percent while the primo stuff tops out at a mind-numbing 34 percent. Latin American pot, by contrast, has an average THC content of about 6 percent. Garden variety reefer smoked by hippies of the Woodstock era had THC levels of about 2 percent. ''The ingredient that gets you high has been perfected by Canadian cultivators,'' a US drug enforcement agent said. ''And way too much of it is already coming our way.''Drug traffic from Canada is largely controlled by the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, which is especially powerful in British Columbia and Quebec, and by Vietnamese crime syndicates operating from Vancouver. The smugglers can be extraordinarly bold -- in March, a helicopter swooped into Vermont from Quebec and disgorged 250 pounds of marijuana to a waiting confederate near the rural town of Lowell, 15 miles inside the border.Relations between Canada and the United States are generally at the most rancorous level in decades, the result of trade tiffs, Canadian refugee policies that have given the country the reputation of being a haven for terrorists, personal insults flung at President Bush by members of Chretien's government, and most recently, Ottawa's refusal to support the war in Iraq.Canadian news coverage of decriminalization has focused less on the pros and cons of the issue than on the efforts of Uncle Sam to weigh in. ''First we're soft on Saddam, now we're soft on pot,'' stated a recent article in the Toronto Star, which went on to describe the White House as ''stuck in a time warp, taking the world back to an earlier era of Reefer Madness.''Canadian leaders say removing criminal sanctions against people caught with 1.1 ounces or less of pot will allow police to concentrate on large-scale dealers and smugglers. Deputy Prime Minister John Manley called the US notion that decriminalization will lead to increased trafficking ''a bit of a leap.''This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 5/10/2003.Source: Boston Globe (MA)Author: Colin Nickerson, Globe StaffPublished: May 10, 2003Copyright: 2003 Globe Newspaper CompanyContact: letter globe.comWebsite: http://www.boston.com/globe/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmPot Law Changes Will Boost Production: Police http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16239.shtmlCanada Plans To Cut Pot Use by Cutting Penalties http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16236.shtmlFor Sensible Marijuana Policy, Go Northhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16225.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Lehder on May 10, 2003 at 16:05:10 PT
prohibitionists
>>Yes and look at the LACK OF trouble. No drive by shootings, no holdups outside the
   cafe, no invasions by armed gangs, nothing other than CITIZENS(ie not druggies,
   dopers, airheads,abusers,potheads,etc.) peacefully enjoying themselves. OH NO!   Peaceful co-exsitence with tolerance for diversity OR DEA land corruption, violence and
   INTOLERANCE? Utter nonsense, indeed. There are two kinds of prohibitionists. There are those who believe the utter nonsense, that mj is a dangerous drug, a narcotic, addictive, that it causes crime and violence. These beliefs are a religion for them, and it is impossible to get them to look at the facts - that prohibition is responsible for all the evils attributed to marijuana. This simple concept is too subtle for them; they are proud of their ignorance. These are the useful idiots, the cops, the drunks, the obese you see in restaurants, content to slurp butter and unable to imagine the benefits of marijuana. These are the enforcers, the dumb voters and the willing servants of the wealthier elite class of prohibitionists, the pigs who really pull the strings. The elite class of prohibitionists is in it for the money. They know the truth - and they know that their profits are maximized by the drug war. The elite class of prohibitionists also consumes drugs. Safe in their mansions, drugs of every variety are delivered to them by others who take the risks. They enjoy every luxury life offers, including a variety of drugs, and the price for their indulgences is paid by all the rest of society. There are people who belong to neither group of prohibitionists. These can be persuaded sometimes by reason and their numbers have strengthened our movement. But trying to reason with either type of prohibitionist is utter folly - they are unreachable. I'm afraid the drug war will go on for decades to come; I hope not, but that is how it looks to me.
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Comment #1 posted by lombar on May 10, 2003 at 10:50:38 PT
Utter Nonsense
"As a result, Canadian weed has average THC levels of 15 percent to 20 percent while the primo stuff tops out at a mind-numbing 34 percent."Yeah, I suppose those growers in the US are going to risk life in prison to grow shwag. Sure. Besides, it is alcohol that 'numbs' the brain....and reading the Boston Globe apparently. (never mind that this sounds like an outright lie)Funny how they never mention that Canada stops far more drugs coming from the US that the US stops coming from Canada. "''The ingredient that gets you high has been perfected by Canadian cultivators,'' a US drug enforcement agent said. ''And way too much of it is already coming our way.''"At best, growers can enhance what is there already thru genetic manipulation...the magic was done by God. How could I expect someone who makes a carreer out of 'burning heretics' at the judicial stake know anything about God..other than the mistaken belief that he is doing His work."David Murray, special assistant to President Bush's drug policy director, flew to Vancouver and pronounced Chretien's decriminalization initiative ''a matter we look upon with some concern and some regret.'' Marijuana is smoked openly in cafes in the western Canadian city, which is known to tokers as Vansterdam, after the Dutch capital where marijuana is legal."Yes and look at the LACK OF trouble. No drive by shootings, no holdups outside the cafe, no invasions by armed gangs, nothing other than CITIZENS(ie not druggies, dopers, airheads,abusers,potheads,etc.) peacefully enjoying themselves. 
OH NO! Peaceful co-exsitence with tolerance for diversity OR DEA land corruption, violence and INTOLERANCE? 
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