U.S. OFFICIAL: CANADIAN POT NO SOFT DRUG

White House Drug Czar Claims High-Powered Marijuana Sends Teens To
Emergency Wards

WASHINGTON -- The number of American teenagers and adults who are 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 into the pockets of organized crime north of the border and said
Canadian prosecutors tell him they need tougher laws to combat the
growing-operations 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 -- which is the active ingredient in pot -- of
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 a growing anxiety among
some politicians and government officials 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 marijuana.

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, said the official.

The phenomenon has paralleled a growing potency of marijuana available in
the 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 that 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 cooperation 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 that the current Criminal Code sanctions are not stiff enough to
deter growing-operation 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.

Denise Rudnicki, a spokeswoman for federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler,
noted that new legislation before Parliament that would de-criminalize
simple possession of marijuana would also double maximum penalties for
those running marijuana growing operations to 14 years from seven. In some
cases, judges who did not impose a prison term would have to provide
written justification.

Meanwhile, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan has said that judges need
to get tougher on those behind the operations and suggested the marijuana
bill could be further strengthened.