By Gerard Young, VTC Staff

POLICE CITE LAX PENALTIES IN HUGE MARIJUANA TRADE

B.C.'s marijuana is worth more than the Canadian dollar in the United States and that's not sitting well with the Americans.

(Marijuananews note: With which Americans? And what does that mean anyway? The Canadian dollar is around 65 cents DEAland. Canadian marijuana does not bring a premium over comparable marijuana grown here, or wherever. )

B.C. pot is such high quality that a pound of hydroponic bud can be traded straight up south of the border for an equivalent weight in cocaine, say law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border.
(Marijuananews note: In other words, narks on both sides of the border tell the same lies. It may be a bit much to ask that the media actually check their facts, but this has been repeated just like the rest of the lies that they never bother to check. If Canadian marijuana is selling for the same price as cocaine, that is a coincidence that is the result of marijuana prohibition, not some magic number in THC content.

"The Americans aren't happy with us," said Cpl. Pete Zubersky, a drug awareness co-ordinator with the RCMP drug squad headquartered in Victoria.

(Marijuananews note: Drug awareness co-ordinator? Is this the purpose of the RCMP? To make DEAland narks love the Canadian prison system?)

"You know the difference between growing pot here and in Blaine, Washington?"

The penalties for getting caught are stiffer in the United States, he said.

The lenient attitude toward buyers, sellers and growers in B.C. is a problem for his jurisdiction, said Craig Chambers, deputy prosecuting attorney for Watcom County in Washington state.

That has helped turn communities near the border, such as Blaine and Bellingham, into distribution centres, he said. And only a small percentage of dealers shipping their pot into Washington get caught, he said.

"It brings a lot of criminal persons into the community," Chambers said, adding the drug trade attracts a variety of other criminal activity such as prostitution.

(Marijuananews note: Prostitution? Of the sort being practiced here in which a reporter and editors take paychecks for lying to their readers? At least most sexual prostitutes give their customer the real thing. In any case, the solution is to legalize marijuana, not to lock up more Canadians for longer terms to make DEAland thugs happy.)

Mounties estimate the B.C. outdoor and hydroponic pot growing is conservatively a $3-billion-a-year industry. And its links to organized crime make it a particularly ruthless and dangerous business, police say.
(Marijuananews note: This is another lie. Most of the people that I know in the Canadian and DEAland marijuana business are much less dangerous than the police and far more honest than this reporter.)

Zubersky said police believe the outdoor pot is sold domestically while the hydroponic is exported. But the two varieties are often mixed without informing the buyers, he said.

B.C. hydroponic bud goes for about $6,000 a pound across the border. Whereas the THC content (the drug that provides the buzz) in outdoor plants can be seven per cent, it is double that amount in plants grown indoors with sophisticated lights and precisely controlled fertilization.

(Marijuananews note: There is no data to support this. The average potency can only be determine by large scale representative sampling. In any case, why would Canadian indoor marijuana be twice as strong as Dutch marijuana?)

See
The Prohibitionists In Stockholm Reveal The Shocking Truth
About The Potency Of Dutch Marijuana

And that is what makes B.C. pot among the best in the world. The stuff from Jamaica, Maui or Acapulco, which was considered strong in the 1960s, is mild by comparison.

(Marijuananews note: And there it is. There is no data on potency from the 1960s! These people are professional liars.)
See
Marijuana Prohibition And Potency, Price, And Safety -- 
"Is Marijuana Stronger Than It Was Back In the '60s, When Everyone Thought It Was Harmless?"
Analysis By Richard Cowan

(Marijuananews note: U.S. Customs marijuana seizures, which don't include drugs caught by other agencies, during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 1998:
Seizures came to 831,000 pounds for the Southwest border, and 955,000 pounds nationwide. Along the Southwest border, seizures are up this year. Customs seized 521,000 pounds of marijuana for the five months ending March 31, up 34 percent from the same period a year earlier.

In other words, almost 90% of all marijuana seized by DEAland Customs was seized on the Mexican border. Last year there were only 4,000 pounds seized along the BC/DEAland border, or roughly one half of one percent of the total from Mexico. This does not include huge amounts of Mexican marijuana seized inland from the border, or marijuana smuggled by sea from other countires. It obviously does not include domestically grown marijuana which may make up half of the market.
See
Marijuana Ranks Fourth Largest Cash Crop In America Despite Prohibition
Is this really about DEAland marijuana supplies? Of course not! It is about power over the Canadian people to maintain marijuana prohibition in DEAland.)

"It's a seamless border," said Thomas O'Brien, of the Drug Enforcement Administration's field office in Seattle.

Canadian and American drug authorities work closely and share information on the cross-border drug trade. "We work together daily," O'Brien said.

Zubersky said the number of people arrested may be low but studies indicate that the level of risk affects whether people take chances.
(Marijuananews note: Are these the same studies that have conjured up non-existent data an THC levels from the 60s? Actually, most studies indicate that the likelihood of getting caught is a greater deterrent than the severity of the penalties. After all a plane crash will probably kill you, but there is only a very remote chance of crashing, so it is rational to take the risk. This is what economists call "rational expectations." There is really no way of knowing what the chance of getting caught may be. We don't know how many people are in the business.

Of course, "rational expectations" would undermine the premise of the article. Wrecking the lives of Canadian marijuana entrepreneurs who do get caught will do nothing to stem the traffic. It certainly has had no impact at the Mexican border.)