CANADA BLAMED FOR GREATER U.S. POT PROBLEM

More Teens Seek Treatment As Supply Of High-Potency Drug Soars, Official Says

WASHINGTON - The number of American teens and adults ending up in emergency
wards or seeking treatment because of marijuana use has soared in recent
years and seems linked to the "dramatically" growing influx of high-test
Canadian pot, the White House drug czar said Thursday.

John Walters estimated the industry is also funnelling "billions" of
dollars to organized crime north of the border and said Canadian
prosecutors tell him they need tougher laws to combat the grow-operation
bonanza.

"It has grown dramatically," he said of the northern pot trade.

"The question that is always on our side of the border, and on theirs, when
these problems arise is, 'How many more people will suffer until we are
able to change the trend line?' "

The elevated THC content -- the active ingredient in pot -- of the Canadian
marijuana means it can no longer be considered a soft drug, argued Walters,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

His concerns, voiced at a news conference, reflect growing anxiety in the
United States about Canada, a country not traditionally viewed as a major
supplier of drugs.

The export of ecstasy pills made in Canadian labs and of the chemical
ingredients of illicit narcotics, such as methamphetamine, have also caught
the attention of the Americans, as underlined in a State Department report
released last week.

But Walters focused Thursday on the marijuana problem and how, he contends,
it is affecting young Americans.

The number of Americans admitted to hospital emergency wards because of
marijuana use has doubled to 120,000 annually in the last five years, he
said. Meanwhile, the number of teenagers seeking treatment for marijuana
dependency has grown to the point where it is more than for all other drugs
combined, including alcohol, he added.

The phenomenon has paralleled a growing potency of marijuana available in
North America, from containing one to two per cent THC less than a decade
ago to eight to nine per cent and, in some cases, 20 per cent or more in
recent years, he said.

Other countries, such as Mexico, do supply such high-powered marijuana,
Walters acknowledged. "But the big new factor on the scene is ... the
enormous growth of very high-potency marijuana coming from Canada."

He said most people, especially those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s,
view marijuana as a soft drug that does not warrant much concern. But the
higher potency means one in five pot-smoking Americans age 12 to 17
progress to needing treatment or "intervention" for marijuana abuse, he
said. "That was not the way marijuana use was moving a decade ago or two
decades ago."

Walters praised the co-operation that American authorities have had from
Canadian police, especially the RCMP, which he described as "one of the
finest police organizations in the world." But he said prosecutors have
told him current Criminal Code sanctions are not stiff enough to deter
grow-op criminals and "without the ability to use more extensive
enforcement pressure, they're concerned about how this will continue to grow."

A spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington said Thursday that
Canadian marijuana still only accounts for one to two per cent of the
product sold in the U.S., while Canada imports most of its cocaine from the U.S.