DRUG CZAR POINTS HIS POT FINGER FIRMLY AT CANADA

WASHINGTON -- The number of American teenagers 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 yesterday.

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

"It has grown dramatically," he said. "The question that is always . . .
'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 Canadian
marijuana means it can no longer be considered a soft drug, argued Walters,
head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

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.

But Walters focused yesterday on the marijuana problem.

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.

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.

Walters said most people, especially those who grew up in the 1960s and
1970s, view marijuana as a soft drug. But the higher potency means that one
in five pot-smoking Americans age 12 to 17 progress to needing treatment or
"intervention" for pot abuse.

"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. But he said prosecutors have told him that the current
Criminal Code sanctions are not stiff enough to deter grow-op criminals.