HIGH ON POSTAL SERVICE

Canada Post Inspectors Seize Crack, Ecstasy, Pot and More Moving
Illegally Through the Mail

The pot's in the post.

Canada's federal mail service has intercepted hundreds of illicit
shipments of drugs, booze, weapons and cigarettes in the past 16
months, nabbing everything from ecstasy en route to Happy Valley,
Nfld., to magic mushrooms and marijuana bound for the west.

Documents obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information show
Canada Post inspectors discovered crack cocaine, knock-off Gucci bags
and bottles of rum, whiskey and vodka stuffed into parcels and
illegally sent in the mail between January 2007 and May 2008.

Top Secret

Nicole Lemire, spokeswoman for Canada Post, said employees are
well-trained to detect contraband goods, using a variety of methods
to spot dangerous and non-mailable items. She would not divulge specifics.

"It would be like telling people the combination to your safe, and
the more people you tell the less effective it becomes," she said.

Inspectors are always on the lookout for such things as traces of
powder, a leaking substance or a certain odour. The lack of a return
address or an incomplete recipient's address also raises eyebrows, she said.

"When suspicions do arise, we work with appropriate authorities," she said.

Non-mailable items include tobacco, firearms, perishable goods,
animals, plants and material considered obscene or indecent.

According to the lists obtained by Sun Media, packages with illicit
items have been destined for big cities and small towns from coast to
coast. Shipment sizes range from a few joints or bottles of booze to
a large-scale drug haul worth $1 million.

But the most common illicit shipments contain marijuana.

Pot activist and Cannabis Culture magazine publisher Marc Emery
believes the seized stashes represent a tiny fraction of the weed
moving through Canada's postal service on a daily basis. He said many
Canada Post employees turn a blind eye to the contents, while senders
are getting more clever about how to disguise the weed.

"I think the amount of marijuana going through the mail is
dramatically higher than it ever has been," he said.

Unless they are a legal supplier of medicinal marijuana, senders
usually use bogus return addresses and store the goods in plastic
containers and vacuum sealing to elude detection.

Canada Post is the transport mode of choice, since courier companies
require signatures, Emery said.

"Unless you really believe your legal rights can be upheld in court,
you should avoid signing anything," he said. "Once you start signing
things, you are leaving a paper trail from who's sending it and
receiving it, and you tend to avoid that."

Undeliverable

Canada Post does not carry out routine inspections and cannot open
any package without the approval of a senior postal inspector.
Suspect packages removed from the normal mail stream are sent to one
of two "undeliverable mail offices" in Toronto or Nova Scotia, while
illegal items are turned over to police.

On one online forum, writers trade tips on how to safely disguise
weed in the mail, including wrapping in duct tape then sprinkling in
powder and dipping in candle wax. Another recommends packing the pot
in coffee beans to mask the pungent smell of marijuana.

Lawyer and drug policy expert Eugene Oscapella said some people
likely choose mail because it's cheaper and easier than other
methods, such as personal delivery or hiring mules.

"People use many methods of transporting drugs, and there's no reason
to think people wouldn't mail it," he said.