cannabisnews.com: Tight Border Security Slows Trafficking










  Tight Border Security Slows Trafficking

Posted by FoM on September 20, 2001 at 10:38:48 PT
By Adrian Humphreys, National Post 
Source: National Post 

The week-long war against terrorism declared by George W. Bush, the U.S. president, seems to have inadvertently done more to hurt drug lords than most initiatives his father enacted in his 10-year-old war on drugs.An unexpected benefit of the enhanced security efforts at borders and airports following the Sept. 11 hijackings and suicide dives is a curtailment in illicit drug shipments into the country, police and custom officials said.
"If Canada and the U.S. had put the kind of effort into stopping the drug trade as they've ploughed into confiscating nail-clippers at the airport this week, we'd be hearing a lot less from both the drug cartels and the street pushers," said a police officer who has been investigating drug cases for about 15 years. Because of the public sensitivity over the bombings, he did not want his name printed.While there is no statistical evaluation comparing the volume of drugs flowing into Canada last week to other periods, police officers and customs officials suspect there is a sharp reduction."It will certainly not be business as usual for the drug importers. It's cramping their style," said RCMP Staff Sergeant Bill Matheson, Commander of Toronto Airport Drug Enforcement Unit."They'll sit back and wait to see what is going on at the airports and borders, see what the weaknesses are now. They'll be sitting down, putting their heads together and thinking things through -- until the new security systems put in place get to be known and importers find their way around them, like they always do," he said.He said the RCMP's drug officers welcome the increased border security, not only to protect citizens from terrorist attack but for making life more difficult for drug importers.Detective Sergeant David Brownell, head of Toronto police's major drug section, said the stepped-up searching will discourage major importers from initiating shipments."Generally, when you're dealing with imported drugs, people only attempt to ship what they can afford to lose. They will send five shipments off expecting to loose a percentage of them to scrutiny," said Det. Sgt. Brownell.The percentages have tilted too far away from the drug lords right now, he said.Mark Butler, a spokesman for Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, said agents looking for possible security risks will undoubtedly be uncovering more contraband, although it is not the focus of the searches. "With the increased vigilance, anything that is there to be found will be found much more readily," he said.A similar phenomenon was observed when cattle in Europe faced an epidemic of foot and mouth disease, and government agents increased scrutiny of mailed packages from Europe, looking for animal products that might carry the contagion."There was a significant increase in seizures of certain types of drugs that are mailed into the country, specifically Ecstasy and marijuana," said Det. Sgt. Brownell.There has been no observable jump in the street price of drugs, but a short-term increase is likely. The drug trade will soon overcome the difficulty, the officers said."Unfortunately, where you are going to benefit from the upside of increased security, the criminal mind is always flexible and they will start to place an increased emphasis on drugs they can manufacture locally," said Det. Sgt. Brownell.Staff Sgt. Matheson agreed any reduced supply will soon be filled."For sure they are not going to stop forever," he said. "Historically, we have seen that when you stop one way of smuggling drugs it doesn't take long before they find another."Source: National Post (Canada)Author: Adrian Humphreys, National PostPublished: September 20, 2001Copyright: 2001 Southam Inc. Contact: letters nationalpost.com Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Related Article & Web Site:FTE's Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htm Unguarded Border Easy To Penetrate http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4087.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=canada

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Comment #11 posted by Rambler on September 21, 2001 at 06:26:25 PT
buy American
I actually prefer domestic weed.It's much fresher,and we need to keep that money in the country to support the war effort,and to do our part by donating money to help bail out the airlines,and providing funds to help the government out with the expenses involved with increased surveilance.
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Comment #10 posted by kaptinemo on September 21, 2001 at 06:12:18 PT:
Canadian realism vs. Amerikan pipe-dreams
""They'll (smugglers) sit back and wait to see what is going on at the airports and borders, see what the weaknesses are now. They'll be sitting down, putting their heads together and thinking things through -- until the new security systems put in place get to be known and importers find their way around them, like they always do," he said."and ""Unfortunately, where you are going to benefit from the upside of increased security, the criminal mind is always flexible and they will start to place an increased emphasis on drugs they can manufacture locally," said Det. Sgt. Brownell. "For sure they are not going to stop forever," he said. "Historically, we have seen that when you stop one way of smuggling drugs it doesn't take long before they find another."In other words, they know that they have been asked to clean the Augean Stables...and Hercules, they ain't. They know it's pointless. So, the question that must be asked is, if they know this, why persist? The answer is because the US forces pressures them to. And that pressure is going to increase in the next few months.Which will cause domestic American cannabis production to increase over the next year to heights undreamed of previously.Just like an idiot child squeezing the balloon. They never learn.
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Comment #9 posted by freedom fighter on September 21, 2001 at 00:14:01 PT
censorship??
Click on pufftuff's link and check on his link and it is blank.. censorship in effect?? ff
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Comment #8 posted by freedom fighter on September 21, 2001 at 00:10:12 PT
Rest assured
there will be growers growing more than ever before. More people heading to prisons because of this whole thing. Our largest army is sitting in the prisons with nothing to lose.
Just count them. There are more prisoners than we have in our armed forces.
Some genius said that our next war will be fought with sticks and stones.ff
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Comment #7 posted by puff_tuff on September 20, 2001 at 20:54:28 PT:
It flows both ways
The tighter security has slowed the movement of BC Bud INTO the US as outlined in this article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sept 20 2001Border crackdown hurting B.C. pot growers CBC VancouverThe increased security along the B.C.-Washington border since last week's terrorist attacks are wreaking havoc on B.C.'s multi-billion dollar marijuana business. B.C. Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery says growers are having a tough time finding people willing to run drugs across the border in boats, small planes or on foot. "The thought that there's increased penalties, or that the United States may shoot on sight or are a bit jumpier and more security conscious means there's more marijuana backed up here," he says. He says mules are being offered twice as much for the risk – up to $1000 for a half kilo of B.C marijuana – and that price is being passed on to Americans. Emery says that's lowering the cost of drugs in B.C., but doubling it in the United States. http://vancouver.cbc.ca/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Considering that marijuana production is an estimated 6 billion dollar industry in BC (it's largest industry) the ramifications of virtually no distribution will be harsh.
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Comment #6 posted by aocp on September 20, 2001 at 17:19:36 PT
WTF?!?
While there is no statistical evaluation comparing the volume of drugs flowing into Canada last week to other periods, police officers and customs officials suspect there is a sharp reduction.Substitute "evidence" for "evalutation" and what is a synonym for this article? Try: empty. What they claim may very well be true, but they're merely speculating to this own spin at the current time. The media laps it up like the curs they are in this country. Filth. aocp out.
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Comment #5 posted by Sudaca on September 20, 2001 at 14:11:57 PT
helpful things
to the war on drugs:
- fear
people will give up their civil liberties for security. 
- hatred
people will buy stereotypes and nonarguments on why the enemy is the enemy
- intolerance
people will be willing to turn against the diverse neighbors for the above two reasons 
- xenophobia
people will be willing to turn against the countrie's diverse neighbors.. bla bla.You know what else could help? A complete worldwide recession, and a higher unemployment rate, then less people will have money to buy drugs. I hope they're happy those fine drug warriors..
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on September 20, 2001 at 12:13:04 PT:
you have a new war to fight
Yeah that is a real benefit that we have because of the terrorist attack- a chance to put more people in jail for something that should have never been made illegal.Why does everyone have such a problem with admitting they are wrong? The tide is going out and history will remember the lies that the government has spread and kept alive. End the war on peace. Protect me from the bad guys like the constitution requires and give me my freedom to smoke MJ back. You can count on me to vote the way I talk.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 20, 2001 at 11:35:48 PT
Dankhank - Green
Hi Dankhank, You are green when you leave an email address and red like I'm going to do if you don't put an email address in.
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Comment #2 posted by Dankhank on September 20, 2001 at 11:18:13 PT:
Test
What color am I now ...  ?
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Comment #1 posted by MDG on September 20, 2001 at 10:47:02 PT
Exactly: it won't stop drug traffic.
I can't believe police are acknowledging this fact! But, rest assured, they will be calling for more of this in the future...knowing it won't "help".
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