UN LASHES LAX CANUCK LAWS ON POT

GENEVA -- A United Nations agency has criticized Canada for its lax
attitude toward illegal growers of cannabis and failure to control illicit
production of drugs.

In its annual report released last night, the UN's International Narcotics
Control Board says Canadian courts have been handing down sentences to
cannabis growers and couriers that essentially amount to a slap on the wrist.

DETERRENT

Canadian law enforcement agencies make a lot of effort to eradicate
cannabis, Herbert Schaepe, the board's secretary, said. But people who
illegally grow cannabis "get very, very low sentences and we wonder whether
that policy is a sufficient deterrent to get people not to cultivate cannabis."

The report singles out cannabis, the plant from which marijuana is derived,
as "the most common drug of abuse" in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

A major concern to law enforcement agencies is the spread of hydroponically
grown cannabis with a high content of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol.

Cannabis is cultivated within Canada with annual production at about 800
tonnes -- 60% of which may be smuggled into the U.S., the report says.