They're liable to make rash claims and ridiculous statements.
Posted on 12/22/2004 1:56:04 AM PST by Gorons
Time, August 23, 2004 v164 i8 p36 This Bud's For The U.S. Canada's relaxed drug laws may be fueling a boom in marijuana exports to America. (Society/Crime) Anita Hamilton. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 Time, Inc.
Byline: Anita Hamilton Reported by Ben Bergman/Blaine, Laura Blue/New York, Chris Daniels/Toronto, Deborah
It was the bus driver who noticed something suspicious. According to school officials, a driver for Blaine High School in northwestern Washington State thought something was strange about students' carrying unusually full bags to school and then never taking them back home. He alerted U.S. authorities, who boarded the bus on the morning of Feb. 20 and allegedly found 8 lbs. of marijuana, valued at $25,000, hidden inside a teenage girl's backpack. Prosecutors allege that the minor, 16, was getting paid $300 a trip to work as a drug mule for smugglers moving marijuana into the U.S. from Canada. The teen's home, in Point Roberts, Wash., borders British Columbia in an area with relatively light border patrol, which would have made it easy for her to get the drugs from Canada before getting on the bus.
Expelled from school and charged with possessing marijuana with intent to deliver, the girl has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 23 in Bellingham, Wash. Deputy prosecutor Thomas Verge has said he will probably ask for an exceptionally long sentence that would put the teen behind bars until her 21st birthday. The controversy has upset the community. "She was a wonderful young girl," says her principal, Dan Newell. "I wouldn't have ever thought that if anyone was going to haul marijuana across the border, it would be this lady."
Nor would anyone have thought that the cross-border traffic of illegal drugs would become one of the knottiest areas of disagreement between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. An estimated 880 to 2,200 tons of marijuana are grown in Canada, according to a new report from Canadian police. About 90% of the commercial crop winds up in the U.S., where its street value ranges from $5 billion to $25 billion. Although only 5% of pot in the U.S. comes from Canada, the trade is flourishing because of high demand in the U.S. and the comparatively mild punishments in Canada for growers and traffickers.
The U.S. seized more than 48,000 lbs. of marijuana along the Canadian border last year, nearly double the 26,000 lbs. it retrieved in 2002, according to a U.S. State Department report. There have been seizures all along the border, in Montana, North Dakota, Michigan, Ohio and other states. Canadian pot has cachet in the U.S. because of its reputation for being especially potent. The featured brand is BC Bud--which is grown in British Columbia and has become synonymous with the high-grade marijuana grown throughout Canada. Once in the U.S., the pot is exchanged for cash, and sometimes cocaine or guns, which are then smuggled back to Canada.
Although the actual potency of BC Bud varies from batch to batch, depending on how it's grown, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says that as much as 25% of BC Bud is made of the psychoactive drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In contrast, the pot that the hippie generation smoked in the 1970s had only 2% THC content, and most pot consumed in the U.S. today averages about 7% THC.
White House drug czar John Walters blames BC Bud in part for the increased number of pot-related emergency room incidents, which have more than doubled, from 54,000 in 1996 to 119,000 in 2002. Those incidents range from accidents and injuries to unexpected reactions to the drug. "Canada is exporting to us the crack of marijuana," Walters told reporters in April. Others dispute Walters' claims. "Domestic American marijuana is probably a little bit better," says Richard Stratton, editor in chief of High Times, a magazine that covers marijuana issues. But the BC Bud name is so well regarded that some dealers pass off other varieties as Canadian to fetch the $3,000-to-$10,000-per-lb. price. And BC Bud seems to be everywhere. "It's hella easy to get," says "Angelo," 22, a Seattle resident who asked to be identified by a pseudonym. "You can usually go to [a convenience store] between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. and ask people who you think smoke bud," he says.
On the Canadian side, the drug is even more ubiquitous. At the popular New Amsterdam Cafe in downtown Vancouver, customers openly smoke marijuana. "People come with pot. We are a business, though, so we have a $2 minimum cafe charge [for snacks and drinks]," says cafe manager Scott Heardy. Inspector David Nelmes, who is in charge of drugs for the Vancouver police department, tells TIME, "I can't remember the last time a member of the Vancouver police department arrested someone for smoking a joint. Frankly, who's got time?" If passed within the year, as seems likely, new Canadian legislation would decriminalize possession of less than 15 grams of marijuana, meaning that offenders would be slapped with only the equivalent of a traffic ticket. That approach is a far cry from the one that is taken in U.S. states like Oklahoma, where a person caught smoking dope could get up to a year in prison, although probation is more common.
Canada's attitude toward small-scale toking up has led some U.S. officials to blame the northerners for the influx of BC Bud in America. "If the perception is that it will be easier to get marijuana in Canada ... then it creates problems at the border," Paul Cellucci, U.S. ambassador to Canada, said at a Toronto Board of Trade dinner in February. Indeed, the trade has led to an increase in drive-by shootings in Canada by rival dealers, and to "grow-rips," in which competing clans break into growers' houses to steal their crops, according to Canadian police. The body of the suspected ringleader of a trafficking group was found stabbed in the neck in a ditch in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in November 2002. "It's still a dangerous drug," says James Capra, the DEA's chief of domestic operations. "People are killing each other over it."
Currently, a grower in Canada who has been convicted can expect less than two years of house arrest and a trafficker anywhere from three months to five years, served either at home or in prison, compared with the minimum punishment of five to 10 years that most convicted traffickers and growers receive in U.S. federal court. But as the violence has increased and cultivation of the crop has moved into residential areas, Canada has begun cracking down on its estimated 50,000 commercial pot growers. Over the past four years, police in Vancouver have seized $288 million worth of marijuana and $8.7 million worth of growing equipment. In Barrie, Ont., in January, police confiscated 30,000 marijuana plants, worth $23 million, inside a former Molson brewery.
One hot, muggy morning in July, a TIME reporter accompanied the Vancouver police as an officer thumped on the door of a two-story brick-and-panel house on a leafy street of manicured lawns. Inside, officers discovered a basement filled wall to wall with more than 300 glossy female cannabis bushes. That bust is pretty routine, but the BC Bud keeps flowing. In the past four years, Vancouver police have made more than 1,500 others, or about one a day.
--Reported by Ben Bergman/Blaine, Laura Blue/New York, Chris Daniels/Toronto, Deborah Jones/Vancouver and Elaine Shannon/Washington
[QUOTE:]
"Canada is exporting to us the crack of marijuana." --JOHN WALTERS, White House drug czar
Article A120683522
Well, there's DEA logic for you. People kill each other over something, must mean that it's a very dangerous thing. Well people kill each other over money. Is money dangerous? I guess I should no longer carry any cash on me, someone might kill me for it.
They're liable to make rash claims and ridiculous statements.
"50,000 commercial pot growers"
How free can you be if you can't plant a seed for a flower?
Dont' forget Toilet Paper of the Outhouse Writing Paper.
It's the DEA not the MEA.
I'm sure he would.
If we can drug test transportation workers coast to coast because of safety concerns why can't public school students/teachers be tested for health and safety in education/work place?? Drug testing has cleaned up a lot of work places. It's obvious to the most casual observer the public schools are a huge market place for the sale and distribution of illegal drugs and undermining our kids future. Just last week a story was running on CNN.. the US was at the bottom of the heap in science and math skills..can't do numbers if your dizzy on dope...
Of what? I don't understand "pop".
A small percentage of DEA arrests? Of convictions? Of incarcerations? Of tons of seizures? Of dollars of seizures?* Of their overall focus/effort?
99% of marijuana arrests are made at the state or local level. Look at the DEA budget and you'll see that about half of it is for drug awareness/education and anti-drug advertising and the other half is for drug interdiction at our borders and overseas.
You can pull marijuana out and it wouldn't change a thing at the federal level.
If marijuana were legalized and regulated, I would posit that the number of DEA agents would increase to prevent marijuana exports to other countries. In addition, I agree the BATF would expand -- to the BATFM to monitor marijuana retail licensing and growing operations.
Financed by marijuana taxes, of course. But those agencies will grow.
* Marijuana represents about 15% of what Americans spend on illegal drugs.
A small percentage of people who are taking cocoa and opium derivatives, between 6% and 8% last I saw the numbers.
99% of marijuana arrests are made at the state or local level. Look at the DEA budget and you'll see that about half of it is for drug awareness/education and anti-drug advertising and the other half is for drug interdiction at our borders and overseas.
Then why are greater than half of people in federal prisons there for those offenses?
Ah, so the DEA budget doesn't allow pursuit and prosecution of cannabis related offenses, there being no money in the budget for them?
You can pull marijuana out and it wouldn't change a thing at the federal level.
LOL
15% of America's drug money goes to cannabis? And 8% are using cocoa and opium derivatives? And The taxpayer is spending billions on this "war", gouging the constitutions, corruption of law enforcement agencies with "funding" from asset seizures, destroying families, killing people, escalating costs for incarceration and filling the prisons for that?
I would hazard a wild guess that they were either trafficking or dealing illegal drugs, that's why.
The DEA focuses on federal drug offenders, the majority of which end up in federal prison. Unlike local law enforcement, where a drug arrest will end up, most likely, in a probation.
"Ah, so the DEA budget doesn't allow pursuit and prosecution of cannabis related offenses, there being no money in the budget for them?"
If the DEA had the money and the manpower to go after cannabis users, they'd be all over California, arresting people by the thousands. They go after the marijuana traffickers and dealers.
"The taxpayer is spending billions on this "war", "
About 1% of the budget is spent on the WOD, about half of that at the border where they can use the additional help anyway.
...the government is already involved in large scale drug testing ie.transportation,military,air traffic control,police-fire commerical truck drivers..the mechanics at the dealer I do biz.with tests all his mechanics and tech's. I'am not willing to give the drug dealers a "safe place to hide" in our public schools or else where. The supreme court handed down language to the feds years ago that allowed the testing of safety sensitive workers, " diminished expectation of privacy" due to the responsibility they have to the public to provide a safe and reliable service or product to the public. We can continue to fool our selves and allow drug dealers to thrive and profit off our kids..or we can make the necessary changes needed to provide a safe and reliable learning environment by employing the tools at hand and available with a proven track record in the work place. After all..aren't we supposed to be preping and training kids for entry into the work place?? How are they going to get a job if they can't pass a pre-employment drug test?? Or worse yet..because we didn't provide a drug free learning enviroment and they ended up in trouble with the law and now have a criminal record..they may never qualify for any worth while job. I've seen the positive life saving effect of drug testing and know from first hand experience it works. We need to change with the times..the drug dealers are taking full advantage of our williness to resist change consequently providing criminals..sellers and users a place to hide in our learning institutions and school yards. I'am not willing to ignore the obvious...
What's a "federal drug offender" that is not a state drug offender, except those actually captured coming on the American shores?
Probation or not, over half of the space in federal prisons is wasted by cannabis offenders. That, right there is a money drain. Then we have the entire due process course from investigation to sentencing that costs money.
About 1% of the budget is spent on the WOD, about half of that at the border where they can use the additional help anyway.
I'd think it would be a lot more. Got a source?
I doubt seriously that if cannabis were dropped from the schedule, we would have a DEA as such.
"The crack of marijuana."
That's a lot like Tuna of the Dirt chicken. And Turkey of the Jungle bananas. And Pork of the Orchard apples.
I would have said, "Like chicken of the sea", bu that's just me talkin'.
I say decriminalize it all! Let adults do what they want and give life in prison to anyone who supplies a kid. If we do this, some will do till they die, literally. For others, being legal will ruin the appeal. Problem solved. We can spend the money on the deficit and the military.
Did you hear about Jessica's original problem with "Chicken of the Sea"? That's what the SNL sketch is taking off on.
Every few years, we keep hearing about this more potent ganja that will supposedly corrupt our minds. Well, I've tried everything sourced from cannabis and, no, I have never become a dope fiend.
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