Drug Smugglers Turn to Northern Border (But it's morally-superior smuggling, eh?)

The Washington Times ^ | December 9, 2003 | Jerry Seper

[quidnunc]

Havre, Mont. – The "Ghost of Sin Ojos" is an illusive figure known all too well to the Border Patrol agents who prowl the rolling plains here under the big Montana sky, a shadowy visitor dressed in black with no eyes who moves unseen over a strip of land along the Canadian border known as the "Hi-Line."

"I've never personally seen the ghost," said Border Patrol Senior Agent Larry D. Shields as he guided his four-wheel-drive vehicle along a dirt path near a barbed-wire fence that separates the United States and Canada. "But there's no doubt he's out here."

There's also no doubt that the ghost has company, an elusive and growing number of drug smugglers, crossing from Canada into the United States — in trucks and cars, on snowmobiles and horseback, in airplanes and on foot — carrying a mountain of illicit drugs, including a new and potent hydroponically grown Canadian marijuana known as "BC bud."

Using night-vision optics and global-positioning systems to navigate the desolate and often-rugged terrain, the smugglers seek to fulfill a growing demand in the United States for drugs — particularly the high-grade marijuana that sells for up to $6,000 a pound — 10 times the price of Mexican pot.

Illicit drugs such as BC bud have become a billion-dollar industry for Canadian smugglers, and their spread into the United States was inevitable, law-enforcement authorities say.

"Canada has increasingly become a source country for drugs to the United States; there's no question of that," said Carl A. Eklund, who heads the Border Patrol's Colville, Wash., station, describing the principal exports as BC bud, high-purity heroin and precursor chemicals — used to produce synthetic drugs, primarily methamphetamine.

"With regard to BC bud, a number of organized-crime groups in Canada have been identified as suppliers, including outlaw motorcycle clubs and Vietnamese gangs, but some of those involved are simply entrepreneurs, working out of their basements."

BC bud, whose moniker derives from its origin, British Columbia, has a tetrahydrocannabinol potency rating of 20 percent to 30 percent, compared with an average of 2 percent to 5 percent for marijuana produced elsewhere. That accounts for its high cost.

The U.S. demand for Canada's growing supply of illicit drugs and no apparent shortage of smugglers has prompted some members of Congress to ask the federal government to reimburse states and municipalities for the multimillion dollar costs of prosecuting those arrested by federal authorities at the northern border.

Separate bills offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen, both Washington Democrats, would authorize $28 million a year. The bills are pending in committee.

"We can't keep sticking economically stressed local communities with the cost of prosecuting federal crimes," Mrs. Cantwell said recently. "The federal government should pay its fair share to keep border communities safe."

-snip-

[robertpaulsen]

"Another reason to legalize it."

Shouldn't that decision be left to the states as it is with alcohol?

[bc2]

you run the WOD ping list?

I will take note of this: "the high-grade marijuana (from British Columbia, Canada) that sells for up to $6,000 a pound".

In actuality, the BC marijuana is very often inferior to American weed, and it never sells for more than $4000 per pound wholesale, at least here in Upstate New York. Now, we know that the gov't loves to use the retail prices in these articles, so let's see... 8 parts to an oz, each going for $50. So if you have 16 oz's in a pound, that's 128 "1/8's", multiply that and you get $6400 retail. For once they used a low number!

[TKDietz]

This article is just plain dishonest. First, it leaves out the fact that just a tiny fraction of the imported marijuana that comes into this country is coming from Canada (less than 5% I believe). Then, the author claims that Canadian marijuana is all between 20% and 30% THC, which is false. Canadian studies show averages for Canadian hydroponically grown sinsemilla (seedless) as being much lower than 20% with an occasional sample testing out really high. Sinsemilla in the US averages around 13% or 14% give or take a couple of percent depending on which who is doing the study. Some indoor marijuana here sometimes tests out at approaching 30% THC. This stuff is grown indoors. It's not like the indoor climate in Canada is better for growing marijuana than the indoor climate is here.

Something conveniently left out of this article is the fact that historically Canada has always suffered a major trade deficit with the US when it comes to illegal drugs. This may be changing, but more drugs have always come through here and gone up there than the other way around. Still the vast majority of cocaine and many other hard drugs in Canada are being smuggled from here.

We are seeing an increasing amount of anti-Canada propaganda related to illegal drugs issues. This is mostly spurned by the fact that Canada is decriminalizing marijuana. For whatever reason, this scares the heck out of so many in the US even though as Canada softens their laws against marijuana users they are sharply increasing the penalties against growers and traffickers, and even though the laws that are going into effect in Canada for marijuana users are no less strict than they are in many U.S. states. There are several US states with even less stringent laws against marijuana users than the Canadians are proposing.

[bc2]

I live along the Canadian border in New York, and I used to live on Lake Erie when I lived in Pennsylvania, so I can share similar stories of drug smuggling. I've seen fishing boats pull right up to the beach, guys walk to the park with backpacks full of drugs and return with boxes of cigarettes.

I would say that it is equal parts democrat and republican who think that we can just pour more money into the WOD and expect different results than we've been seeing for years.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

"Yes, that worked during prohibition."

Of course it did, and it can again.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[jmc813]

Shouldn't that decision be left to the states as it is with alcohol?

What are you, some loserdopian or something?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I know a "pothead" who very successfully runs a multi-million dollar construction business and is a kind, doting, father and consumate family man. Does my personal experience negate yours?

[FierceDraka]

I feel bad for you there, Anti.

But to be brutally honest, it sounds like your old man was a selfish, irresponsible piece of sh!t, and would have been one with or without the weed.

I know LOTS of people who are responsible conservatives and libertarians who smoke it, and would rather die than see their kids go through anything like that.

[bassmaner]

Of course it did, and it can again.

So, was Al Capone just a figment of our collective imagination, or do you live in some parallel universe where prohibtion actually works?

[Wolfie]

The irony. Rum from Canada undercut the first Prohibition as well. So it goes. (BC Bud is good stuff, too).

[robertpaulsen]

Shhhh! I'm setting a trap.

[robertpaulsen]

"What is it that you claim stopped during Prohibition?"

Alcohol related deaths (excluding DUI) that exceeded 100,000 per year, every year.

[TKDietz]

"The irony. Rum from Canada undercut the first Prohibition as well. So it goes. (BC Bud is good stuff, too)."

Rum from Canada may have made up some of the alcohol supply here in the US during prohibition, but what wasn't smuggled in from Canada or elswhere was cooked up in bathtubs and stills in the backwoods. Where there is demand, it will be met.

[robertpaulsen]

No. They weren't dying at the rate of 100,000 per year.