POLICY ON POT IRRITATING U.S.

Fear Flood of Drugs; Murder of Mounties Underlines Concern

The murder of four RCMP officers in Alberta last week may or may not
end up having much to do with the marijuana grow operation the killer
maintained. But the incident has still managed to generate fresh
irritation and fear south of the border over the growing flood of
potent Canadian pot into the United States.

As if the two countries needed another irritant, the murders have only
underlined concern among officials and politicians in Washington that
Canada's relatively lax treatment of grow-op criminals is fuelling the
influx of drugs.

There are calls for more agents at the northern border and parallels
drawn between Canada and what has traditionally been considered a much
more lawless neighbour - Mexico.

The fears were embodied in the headline for a recent front-page New
York Times article: Violent New Front in Drug War Opens on the
Canadian Border.

The problem is especially bad in British Columbia, which is showing
early signs of becoming a "narco-province" along the lines of some
South American countries, charged Representative Mark Soude of
Indiana, chairperson of the congressional sub-committee on criminal
justice, drug policy and human resources.

"In British Columbia, one of the things they seem to be in a state of
denial about is that they have become a huge exporter of this really
lethal form of marijuana," he said in an interview.

"It's close to getting out of hand. ... I feel sorry if
four

police officers died because of the mistakes of politicians."

He acknowledged the pot is being traded for cocaine and guns from the
United States, but said the marijuana business is fuelling that exchange.

Just a day after the killings in Mayerthorpe, Alta., the State
Department coincidentally made public its annual report on the illegal
drug business around the world.

It concluded Thailand is no longer a major drug-producing country,
praised Haiti for the anti-narcotics strides it has made - and warned
lack of judicial sanctions is leading to a "burgeoning" marijuana
sector in Canada, managed by organized crime.

"We've tended to view Canada as our front door. And we've certainly
come to the point where we don't feel that we can leave the front door
unlocked anymore," said Chris Sands, an expert on Canada at the Centre
for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"Stories like the one about the officers being murdered and increasing
violence associated with this trade are going to only make the
Americans think what we usually think about these things - that we're
right and maybe you'll finally realize it."

He called the issue another example of the culture clashes that have
been erupting between the two nations as their trading relationship
draws ever closer, he said. While U.S. police pursue crime
aggressively and almost competitively, they perceive Canadian law
enforcement as more reactive, or at least hampered by a lack of
resources, Sands said.