From The Vancouver Province
provedpg@pacpress.southam.ca

http://www.vancouverprovince.com/newsite/news-c.html

By Alan Ferguson, Staff reporter The Province

B.C. MARIJUANA TRADE SOARS

Cops worry that the new, highly potent pot is turning some users violent—even murderous—and they want soft judges to get tough on the rising number of smugglers and growers they bust.

A cross-border trade in illegal drugs smuggled between B.C. and the United States has reached proportions that put the age of Prohibition in the shade, senior police and customs officers say.
(Ed. note: Bogus comparison. No one really knows the numbers now or then. Moreover, the population of the Northwest in both countries has increased enormously in the last 65 years. However, they should think about how the last Prohibition ended and start looking for honest jobs.)

Arrests of smugglers and drug seizures show a pattern of barter in which high-potency marijuana grown in B.C. is being exchanged pound for pound for cocaine from the U.S.
(Ed. note: Really? Just how frequent is this? This is very questionable. First, the price of cocaine and marijuana will vary independently of one another. Second, why barter anything on a regular basis? Both countries have hard currencies, which are freely exchangeable for all sorts of goods and services. This makes no sense, except that prohibition puts marijuana and cocaine in the same distribution channels to a degree. Most marijuana users do not want cocaine, although many cocaine users will need marijuana. I challenge anyone to produce evidence that there is a regular barter of any size.)

Police efforts to crack down on the smugglers are hampered by the ease with which they operate across the unprotected border.
(Ed. note: Shall we militarize the US/Canadian border in order to stop marijuana smuggling? If this is their proposal, then say so!)

Along Zero Avenue in Langley, where only a ditch separates parallel roads in Canada and the U.S., drug movement has become so prevalent it has been christened by police the "Ho Chi Minh Trail," after the smuggling route used by the communists for supplies during the Vietnam war. (Ed. note: Carpet-bombing, anyone? And how did that war end?)

On the U.S. side alone, more than $12 million in illegal drugs was seized last year. Police say this represents a fraction of what is getting through in a trade that may be worth as much as $3 billion a year.
(Ed. note: A total of $12 million is stopped out of $3 billion? Oh, really! Why do they bother? Where do they get the $3 billion number? What is the basis for the $12 million? Police estimates of the value of contraband are notoriously inflated.)

They say cocaine coming into Canada quickly finds its way on to the streets of Lower Mainland communities, where it is often injected with shared needles, fuelling the spread of HIV.
(Ed. note: Perfect! Now we have a connection between marijuana and AIDS, in addition to murder and cocaine. This is just thrilling! This is an argument legalizing marijuana -- and for needle exchange, but I don’t think that this is what they have in mind.)

Doug Whalley, assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, said: "My concern is not so much the Canadian marijuana coming down here; it’s the cocaine flooding in from our side that I fear is going to have an awful impact on your young people."
(Ed. note: Gosh, a US Attorney says he is not so much concerned with marijuana coming in here. I hope he never wants to be US Ambassador to Mexico, if ol’ Jesse hears about this. Isn’t it interesting that DEAland manages to get vast amounts of cocaine imported without having marijuana to export? Clearly the "marijuana/cocaine barter" is now the hot new product for the prohibitionist party line for the Northwest.)

Prosecutors in Whatcom county are "completely swamped" with border drug-trafficking cases, says Whalley.

Sometimes the quantities are "mind boggling," he says.
(Ed. note: Now we are given numbers out of context to make this sound like a BIG deal, unlike a mere 600,000 arrests for marijuana in DEAland, or 30,000 in Canada, which are not a BIG deal, and therefore not worth mentioning.)

"Two Canadians admitted bringing in a total of 1,700 pounds of marijuana in 10-pound loads. And we made one seizure of $200,000 in profits being taken back to Canada."

Enormous profits are being made by the B.C. marijuana growers, says Staff-Sgt. Rick Lawrence of Langley RCMP, which last month set up a special squad to bust "grow ops."

The marijuana is being grown in indoor hydroponic gardens.

The RCMP’s Drug Awarenesss Unit estimates that there are at least 1,000 grow ops in the Lower Mainland and another 1,000 in the Interior.
(Ed. note: Again, how could they know?)

"It’s bigger than during Prohibition," says Lawrence, speaking of the era when Canadian booze was smuggled into a "dry" U.S.
(Ed. note: Again, how could they know?)

Lawrence shows off a $100,000 haul of Mexican Red marijuana, packed in plastic bags ready for export, that was recently found abandoned on Zero Avenue. (Ed. note: $100,000 out of $3billion?)

Most growers hire "runners" to take the dope across the border, he says, paying them between $2,000 and $3,000.

On July 28, an open meeting will be held at the Langley civic centre where landlords will be warned that most grow ops are set up in rented properties by people who make every show of being "normal" citizens.

In fact, say police, most of the drug trade is controlled by organized-crime gangs—mostly bikers—and, increasingly, they are armed. Firearms were found in one in five grow ops raided in Surrey.
(Ed. note: Most of the trade is controlled by "organized crime," but only 20% are armed. The Canadians are so civilized! In DEAland more than 20% of all homes have guns.)

Also in Surrey, three homicides last year were linked to gang rivalry. In Kamloops, there have been drive-by shootings attributed to the same cause.
(Ed. note: Does this have anything to do with marijuana? Even marijuana prohibition? Violence is a function of prohibition, but not all gang violence is related to marijuana prohibition.)

"Rips"—raids by one gang on another’s crop—are common. In at least 10 cases in Surrey, police have had to intervene to prevent violence. (Ed. note: This is an argument for legalizing marijuana.)

A six-month police undercover operation in Kamloops, involving wiretaps and surveillance, revealed insights into how dope gangs operate.

What emerged in a court case last month was the existence of a provincewide network organizing the procurement of huge supplies of marijuana for eventual export.

"It was a highly organized effort, with the surveillance showing people meeting with their contacts," said a source close to the investigation.

In one seizure alone, $28,000 US was found stuffed into false-bottomed spray cans of lubricant. (Ed. note: Ooo! Out of $3 billion, one seizure alone had a whole $28,000!)

Sgt. Dennis Ryan, head of the RCMP south central drug district, says: "The (Kamloops) organization has been neutralized. The main players were convicted."

But he admits that the unnamed "contacts" escaped scot-free.

Of the five men charged in the case, one was sentenced to 18 months, another to only 90 days. The rest escaped with fines.

Although police confidently assert that "70 per cent of commercial grow operations are controlled by the Hells Angels," no biker has yet been convicted of such an offence.
(Ed. note: They don’t really know how big the industry is, and no bikers have been convicted, but they are confident that 70% is controlled by the bikers. Is this Canadian algebra? Divide an unknown by an unknown and then multiply by zero and get an answer of 70%!

In fact, marijuana production is highly decentralized with many small players producing for both local markets and distributors. If there are really so many small producers, then there is no need for the bikers to be involved in cultivation on a large scale. There are all kinds of business reasons why they shouldn’t be.)