cannabisnews.com: Canadian Pot a Growing Concern, U.S. Says





Canadian Pot a Growing Concern, U.S. Says
Posted by CN Staff on March 02, 2004 at 08:38:42 PT
By Barrie McKenna
Source: Globe and Mail 
Washington -- A doubling of marijuana busts on the Canada-U.S. border, along with the discovery of increasingly sophisticated growing factories, has convinced the Bush administration that the Canadian pot problem is far worse than previously thought.The warning is contained in the U.S. State Department's annual report card on international narcotics control efforts.
While Canadian officials caution that the Americans may be reading too much into recent seizure statistics, the report released yesterday in Washington says Canada is a major source of highly potent hydroponic marijuana. It also identifies Canada as a transit-point for vast quantities of pseudoephedrine, which is used in making synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines.Both industries are of significant and growing concern to the Bush administration because so much of the production winds up south of the border, U.S. assistant secretary of state Robert Charles said."Any government which does not . . . take more seriously the production and transshipment of a schedule-1 narcotic is going to face serious follow-on questions," Mr. Charles said.Schedule-1 drugs are the most potent and harmful drugs classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Other schedule-1 narcotics include LSD and heroin.The otherwise favourable report identified a "significant increase" in pot seizures along the Canada-U.S. border in 2003 -- 48,087 pounds (21,772 kilograms), up from 26,435 pounds the previous year.This has led the administration to conclude that "production in Canada may be higher than previously estimated," according to the report. Without making a precise estimate of its own, the report said the increased seizures mean that the "U.S. government believes that the figure could be much higher."The RCMP has traditionally estimated that Canada produces roughly 800 metric tonnes of marijuana per year, but a State Department official said Canada is likely producing at least 1,000 tonnes a year. The Mounties are sticking by their estimate for the time being."It is an estimate. Now that estimate, while it is admittedly conservative, it is based upon the actual seizures that are made in Canada which have remained relatively constant over the last several years," RCMP spokesman Staff Sergeant Paul Marsh said.The force hasn't yet released its 2003 statistics. The increased marijuana seizures could indicate a drastic increase in border security measures rather than a huge spike in Canadian pot production, Staff Sgt. Marsh said.The U.S. report says Mexico remains the largest foreign supplier of marijuana to the United States.Last year, an RCMP report on marijuana cultivation trends said that "no city or town in Canada can claim to be absolutely free of any marijuana growing activities." It also said that Vietnamese and biker gangs have gone national, setting up increasingly sophisticated grow operations that produce for export. In January, 25,000 pot plants were discovered inside a former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont., where up to 50 employees worked.With reports from Todd Hurman and Colin FreezeSource: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Barrie McKennaPublished: Tuesday, March 2, 2004 - Page A5 Copyright: 2004 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.com/Related Articles:How To Stop Grow-ops? Legalize Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18373.shtmlLighten Up on Pot Growers, Canada's on a Rollhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18161.shtmlPot Bust Worth $30 Million, Police Sayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18130.shtml 
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Comment #9 posted by Dankhank on March 03, 2004 at 07:18:25 PT
Dangers ...
SGDLSD has no real physical dangers that anyone can speak to. Usually any physical problems came with adulterants mixed during manufacture, such as strychnine, or some kinda speed. Pure LSD comes on you so unexpectedly it's like magic. Oh, and watch out for mirrors ... you can stare at your face for a long time ... sometimes can alarm your friends, till they catch a glimpse of themselves in that mirror. Mentally, a different story emerges. Even experienced users may find themselves mentally following a chain of logic that results in terrible woe, fear, confusion or any other possibly disturbing feelings. Tripping with others is a good idea. All should conbine to ensure a train of "happy thoughts" to preclude the oft-mentioned bad trip.I am here to say that even after 50+ journeys, I never thought I could fly. 
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Comment #8 posted by MikeEEEEE on March 02, 2004 at 17:33:40 PT
Schedule-1 
It's only schedule 1 because of many years of US prejudice.The US is losing it's subculture war. It's losing not only at home but at its borders. It's a hard pill to swallow for them. There logic has been fight, fight, fight; but it never wins an ultimate goal. Something made of lies evenually crumbles.
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Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on March 02, 2004 at 13:20:36 PT
We're the smartest stupid people in the world
Those dumb highly sophisticated potheads smoking that mind numbing weed, boy are they lazy, look at what successful business people they are, pot robs them of ambition, and we should all fear their political ambitions, marijuana numbs their minds so much, they can outwit the US government and smuggle pot into America during wartime.Gosh was that confusing? Talk about sending mixed messages on drugs.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on March 02, 2004 at 10:24:25 PT:
This is getting embarrassing
Immediately after 9/11, it had been posited here and elsewhere that as soon as the inevitable border tightening took place, the United States would become it's own largest cannabis supplier...for obvious reasons.As it has. If only because of one basic fact: population density. There's simply more people here in the States, and therefore, more potential growers. A fact that cannot have slipped by even the densest LEOs.Yet, the American government seeks to lean *even harder* on the Canadian government...for a problem that exists solely within the national borders of the US. The amount of Canuck weed being intercepted is still a drop in the bucket compared with US domestic production.This is why I keep stating that the recent flurry of anti-cannabis activity taking place within both the US and Canada is actually a campaign on the part of US anti forces - aided by their ever loyal tag-along Canuck buddies - as an apparent last ditch attempt to sway public opinion in their favor by trying to stage a reversal of *Canadian* public opinion regarding cannabis decrim.One glaring aspect of this is the Barrie Bust.Consider: the antis in Canada are constantly howling about biker gangs and Viet Namese crime syndicates taking over the cannabis production. (Of course, they RARELY admit that the ones who these groups are supplanting are the harmless "Mom & Pop" operators who are unarmed. That might cause some reporter not afraid of LEO intimidation to ask why the police would want to allow that by making the situation worse, as they so evidently have.) One big problem with that: in the Barrie Bust, all the perps were Caucasians (kinda hard to hide a Viet face in predominantly 'vanilla Ontario', as my friend from TO calls it) with no known biker associations.I will continue to say that this entire matter is being engineered from Washington DC, and that it's sole purpose is to try to derail, through innuendo and outright lies, the eventual (less than perfect) decrim that will pass up there.All this is, of course, being funded from US and Canadian tax revenues that could go to much more socially and fiscally profitable measures such as treatment centers for opiate and amphetamine addicts.The gravy train is slowing down; the boiler is losing steam. This is just a frantic attempt to find some more fuel to stoke it before it stops completely.
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Comment #5 posted by SystemGoneDown on March 02, 2004 at 09:54:01 PT
LSD
From what I've read about, LSD has overrated dangers just like marijuana. I've heard it doesn't get to your central nervous system so it is in no way addictive. The reason it is schedule I is just like marijuana, it is perceived by government as unAmerikan. That, plus the little-known fact that the gov't secretly conspired to prescribe acid to patients as an expirimental gut spiller, in the 50's.
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on March 02, 2004 at 09:23:08 PT:
Counter-point:
Battle For Canada #15: The Myth of BC Bud - Battle For Canada with Richard Cowan Running Time: 18 min Date Entered: 19 Feb 2004 Viewer Rating: 8.30 (5 votes) Number of Views: 766 "How The Prohibitionist Propaganda Machine Created A Phoney Excuse For War. Sound Familiar? It Isn’t The Weed They Fear. It Is The Freedom." http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2508.htmlThe USA is its own largest supplier of cannabis, followed by Mexico, and somewhere down the list Canada. Of course, Bush is welded to his role as Commander-in-Chief, not his role as Leader of the Free World, or even President, hence the raids on medical cannabis providers and paraphernalia vendors.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 02, 2004 at 09:21:37 PT
Related News Article from The CBC
Washington State Judges Urged To Keep Canadians Locked Up, Too Many Jump Bail March 02, 2004SEATTLE (AP) - So many Canadians charged with drug-smuggling in western Washington state are jumping bail judges are being asked to keep them locked up pending trial, government lawyers said. Canadian bail jumpers who scoot back across the border are beyond the reach of U.S. arrest warrants. They face few if any repercussions in Canada, and extradition can take years, assistant U.S. attorney Patricia Lally said. "Our office is becoming increasingly concerned about the disappearance of our Canadian national defendants," Lally said. "If we have to seek extradition in every case where a Canadian doesn't appear, we would be spending all our time just processing extradition documents," she said. Complete Article: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/040302/w030246.html
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on March 02, 2004 at 08:58:16 PT
a quick reaction
"Any government which does not . . . take more seriously the production and transshipment of a schedule-1 narcotic is going to face serious follow-on questions," Mr. Charles said.Oooh... sounds like a THREAT to me. If that's how it is, maybe other countries should start threatening the US with "serious follow-on questions" about all the things we do in other parts of the world that create pollution and destroy lives and property!- Schedule-1 drugs are the most potent and harmful drugs classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Other schedule-1 narcotics include LSD and heroin. -LSD is not a narcotic. Perhaps the author of this story should do a little homework on the basics of drug info. Yes I know that is probably how LSD is defined in the Schedule 1 language, but that's just one more reason the whole thing needs to be reviewed and overhauled. Decriminalize and tax it, you dolts.
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Comment #1 posted by Truth on March 02, 2004 at 08:50:33 PT
northern lights...
You grow Canada!
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