Marijuana industry booming in Canada

Christian Science Monitor ^ | March 11, 2005 | Susan Bourette

[Former Proud Canadian]

A couple of years ago there was a bust in Barrie, Ontario, just north of Toronto. What had been a huge brewery operation was closed and sold. The growers moved in and were running a massive grow op. This was located right adjacent to the main 6 lane highway (HWY 400) running north out of Toronto. Thousands of cars passed every day.

Turns out there were a lot of guys with Italian names who owned the place. I don't know what finally happened.

[Freebird Forever]

Do you really feel the marijuana smugglers are using the same routes, etc. as the old bootleggers?

Well, once a criminal enterprise lays a foundation, it requires an extensive prosecutorial effort to fully disrupt it.

I don't recall ever hearing of that happening in Canada. If anything, they have just become further entrenched through legal front organizations.

[Loud Mime]

Well, as we all know, making something illegal stops that activity....

The Prevention of Illegal Acts Act

[Phocion]

There was a civil warrant to repossess a truck. While the RCMP was escorting bailiffs there, they saw 20 pot plants. They left the premises and received a search warrant to investigate the marijuana grow-up. During this search is when the violence erupted.

[kingsurfer]

Only twenty plants? Not very much really. Maybe it could keep a small town going for a few months. A guy in a vilage I used to live in got caught with that many in his spare bedroom.

[Phocion]

He had hundreds; the police just saw 20 before getting the warrant.

[robertpaulsen]

"Is enforcement much laxer in Canada?"

From my readings, it's not so much enforcement as it is the laws themselves.

1) The Ontario Court of Appeal decided in July 2000 to strike down a federal law prohibiting the possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana (for medical use).

2) But the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, which went into effect July 31, 2002, didn't address the issue of recreational use.

3) Thus, in January 2003, an Ontario judge ruled that Canada's law on possession of small amounts of marijuana for any use was no longer valid.

4) Finally, in a judgement issued on Oct. 7, 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeal wrote new rules to make it easier for people who are ill to get medicinal marijuana legally, but in the process, it reinstated laws making possession of pot for social or recreational use illegal.

5) Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Canada said in a decision on Dec. 23, 2003, that Canada's laws against possessing small amounts of marijuana do not violate the Charter of Right and Freedoms and its protection of life, liberty and security of person.

6) A bill to change Canada's marijuana laws died in November 2003. A year later, the Liberals reintroduced it as Bill C-17 (and was subsequently referred to Justice committee November 2, 2004).

If the bill passes in 2005, adults caught with less than 15 grams of pot could be fined up to $400, but wouldn't have a criminal record. But the bill doubles the length of prison sentences for marijuana growers and introduces four new offences for growers.

[beaver fever]

That's what I thought. There is no way four Mounties would have walked into that if they knew what they were dealing with.

In rural areas Mounties work alone or at most two will answer a call. Four Mounties in one place means trouble but from the sound of it they didn't know what kind.

Stolen cars is pretty routine but a pot bust would have had their antenna up because increasingly pot and meth are showing up in the same operations.

I'm not sure about the specific circumstances but it sounds like they were caught out in the open and they didn't have a chance.

The next time will be different. The Horsemen will go in hard. There is no way they will let this happen again.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a real legal mess up there.

[robertpaulsen]

A ping to the original poster.

Thanks for the info.

[Phocion]

The punishment for possession of recreational amounts doesn't much affect growers and those shipping mass quantities across the border though. It might affect their demand, but most Canadian pot is smuggled into the US anyway. I think the punishment (not enforcement) for growing is more lax in Canada than in the US. The reform laws currently being considered lessen the penalties for possession and increase the penalties for both growing and selling, so the economic incentive for growing in Canada might disappear.

[robertpaulsen]

"I think the punishment (not enforcement) for growing is more lax in Canada than in the US."

I agree.

[beaver fever]

I wasn't aware of that particular detail but twenty plants of high quality hydropot is worth twenty thousand dollars depending on the grade.

A single bud could be two ounces at a $100 per oz. Why they needed to get a search warrant is a bit of a mystery since even twenty plants of bad pot is more than recreational use.

Plus as far as I know a search warrant for stolen property wouldn't require a second warrant for drug possession if drugs were discovered during the serving of the first warrant. At least under Canadian law.

I may be wrong but anyone familiar with the Canadian Criminal Code might want to wade in on this one.

[Phocion]

The warrant was not a criminal search warrant for stolen property. It was a civil repossession warrant that arose from a dispute between the owner and the dealer.

[TKDietz]

"British Columbia has long been the hub of sophisticated, high-tech nurseries capable of producing pot with nearly 30 times the kick of what was found on the street a decade ago, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency."

This is a pile of fresh steaming horse manure. That would make it well over a hundred percent THC.

[TKDietz]

They fail to mention that law enforcement estimates that Canadian product accounts for less than 5% of the marijuana consumed in the U.S.

[TKDietz]

Part of the reason is lax laws. Another part of the reason is climate. Canada is relatively cold compared to most of the U.S. Indoor growing has been popular for a long time up there, not just pot, but anything else that can be grown indoors, vegetables, flowers, and so on. There are "grow shops" everywhere up there. I live in the south and the nearest grow shop selling fancy grow lights, hydroponics equipment and that sort of thing is at least a couple of hours drive away. People don't grow down indoors much down here because it wouldn't be even close to cost effective. We have farms everywhere around here and plenty of sunshine. Just running the air conditioner enough to combat the heat those high wattage ballasts and lamps produce would be way too expensive for some guy growing tomato plants and things like that.

It's my understanding that the first place indoor pot growing took off was in northern California and Oregon, then it spread up north into Canada. Now organized crime has really taken hold up there producing expensive product. Much or most of it is exported, and I would imagine some of the resistance to clamping down on it comes from the fact that it brings a lot of money to the areas where it is produced.

My guess is that we're going to see a lot more domestic production of indoor grown marijuana in the years to come. Right now, the lions share of the pot sold in U.S. markets comes from south of our southern border. Law enforcement seizes literally in the thousands of tons of marijuana on our borders and in the interior every year and most of it is rather seedy cannabis sativa pressed into "bricks" of various sizes and wrapped in paper, plastic, and other materials and smell masking products for easy smuggling and transport. I don't even live on a border state but I live on a major interstate and law enforcement in the county where I work seize many thousands of pounds of this stuff every year in loads ranging from a few pounds on up to a ton or more. I'm a public defender and our office handles thousands of pounds worth of these cases every year. This business is controlled in large part by Mexican organized crime, but there are also Jamaican groups, and regular old white boys and others involved.

Everything is very compartmentalized with different groups bringing it over the border, stashing it in stash houses out west, others who contract to transport it across the country, and so on. The mules caught with the stuff generally have no idea who owns it. They are basically expendable. Higher ups rarely put up bond money or hire them lawyers, and they generally don't know enough to help set anyone up to get themselves out of trouble. If they do know something, opening their mouths puts them and their families in serious jeopardy.

For some reason, pot just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper even though law enforcement keeps seizing more and more of it. The indoor stuff still commands a high price but according to law enforcement sources prices are dropping on it as well, I would imagine because supply is increasing. The commercial stuff (mostly Mexican) is cheaper than it was twenty years ago. It averages in potency slightly less than 5% THC according to government sources, while the high grade sinsemilla (seedless) averages between 9% and 12% THC. The overall average of marijuana seized in this country according to government sources, commercial and high grade combined, is less than 6% THC. (So much for all of this talk about super high potency marijuana that all of the kids are smoking today.)

At some point one would think that with all of this law enforcement activity and the tightening of our southern border where going to see a reduction in the supply of cheap commercial grade Mexican marijuana. It hasn't happened yet, but it has to eventually. I think the Mexicans are already anticipating this and that's why we see more and more grown by Mexicans in our own national forests. It's safer to grow several small plots of higher grade marijuana that commands a higher price here in the USA than it is to smuggle huge quantities of lower grade marijuana across the borders. It's even safer though, to grow it indoors. But since indoor grows are generally done on a much smaller scale than outdoor grows, in order to make it profitable they are going to have to focus on growing the most potent marijuana possible so that it will command a price justifying the expenses involved in indoor growing. Down in the vast expanses of Mexico where police can be bought off they focus on quantity over quality, that changes as production moves into our interior.

Look for average marijuana potency to increase over the coming years and prices of indoor grown pot to drop as the supply increases and it becomes more the norm rather than the expensive stuff "marijuana connoisseurs" with more money than sense buy today.

[rasblue]

All this "Chicken Little" police crowing is causing more and more Canadians to say "enough" and decide that marijuana prohibition is just not worth it. Recent polling shows that support for outright legalization is over 45% and is GROWING since the Alberta Massacre.

[Know your rights]

support for outright legalization is over 45%

It's at 41% in the U.S.

[rasblue]

I meant Canada. And yeah, remember 39% of Nevadans in the last election voted for legalized marijuana.