From the Calgary Sun

callet@sunpub.com

http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/

By PETER SMITH, Calgary Sun

COPS BURN POT MYTH -- DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE

City cops have shattered the myth circulating round the globe that Calgary’s home-grown pot is the tops in the world.
(Ed. note: Talk about delusions of grandeur!)

Duped drug-runners in the U.S. have been known to do a straight swap—one pound of Calgary home-grown pot for one-pound of cocaine—so powerful is the reputation of Calgary’s marijuana. (Ed. note: Or so cheap is cocaine.)

But it’s all a giant smoke-screen, say police, who yesterday burst the hydroponics marijuana bubble.

Destruction of the myth will come as a shock to traffickers in the U.S. and Europe, where buyers pay top price believing their Calgary product to be superior to all the rest.

"We’ve heard the myth, everyone has, but that’s all it is—a myth," said Det. Pat Tetley, of the city police drug unit.

"We have done numerous tests on the THC content of Calgary’s marijuana, and it is no higher than that from Vancouver, or Winnipeg or anywhere else," he said.

Tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC) is the active ingredient in marijuana.

It’s known to be more than five times higher in today’s marijuana compared to pot smoked popularly in the 1960s—but Calgary’s is no better than any other.
(Ed. note: There is no data from the 1960s; so how reliable is this expert?)

"Not at all, that’s just a myth," said Tetley.

"Calgary’s growers export it to the States, to the Yukon, to Europe, and they command a big dollar for it.

"In Seattle, Washington, we know of a person who traded one pound of marijuana straight across for one pound of cocaine.

"In Los Angeles, pot that goes in Calgary for $3,000 a pound, goes for $9,000 a pound.

"There is a huge demand for it."

Growers have carefully nurtured the myth Calgary’s pot is the best in the world to boost prices—even publishing articles in underground drug-world magazines.

"All this shoots their sales through the roof," said Tetley.

"These magazines have no compulsion to report accurately."
(Ed. note: And what about the Edmonton newspaper? Or the Calgary paper, for that matter?)