U.S. DRUG POLICE PLAN B.C. OFFICE

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is planning to open an office in
Vancouver as early as next year, in part to coordinate investigations with
local police of B.C.'s booming marijuana industry.

A spokesman with the United States Embassy in Ottawa said Friday that the
office -- the agency's first in Canada outside of Ottawa -- will likely be
staffed by a supervisor and two special agents.

"It will be a substantial office, not just a liaison office with one
person," embassy spokesman Buck Shinkman said.

In December, the DEA published an intelligence brief, BC Bud: Growth of the
Canadian Marijuana Trade, that said the province's marijuana industry had
become "a billion-dollar industry" and that "traffickers smuggle a
significant portion of the Canadian harvest into the United States."

Shinkman said the DEA office in Vancouver will work with Canadian police on
combatting all areas of the drug trade, but added the marijuana industry is
one of the key reasons for the Vancouver office.

"You place your staff where there's the most business to be done," Shinkman
said.

Sergeant Mike Dunbar of the RCMP's drug enforcement branch said the
Mounties already work closely with the DEA office in Blaine and he looks
forward to the agency having a presence in Vancouver.

"We've had a relationship with the DEA for some time," Dunbar said. "Many
of our investigations are international in scope."

But both Dunbar and Shinkman stressed the DEA officers in Vancouver will
only be involved in gathering and sharing intelligence, and will not be
conducting their own investigations north of the border.

"They're not going to be operating as police officers here," Dunbar said.

"They're not up here to conduct investigations," Shinkman agreed. "They're
up here to cooperate in bilateral investigations=C9. They don't do anything
on their own."

The DEA maintains 78 offices in 56 countries around the world. Most offices
are attached to embassies. But a few countries, notably those in Central
and South America, have two or more DEA offices.

The DEA maintains the most offices -- eight -- in Mexico.

With the Vancouver office, Canada will become one of only three western
countries with DEA offices outside their capital (the other two are in
Frankfurt, Germany and Milan, Italy).

But Shinkman said plans for a DEA office in Vancouver have more to do with
the close working relationship between U.S. and Canadian law enforcement
than concerns about B.C. becoming a major source of drugs to the U.S. market.

"It's a reflection of the ease with which the two law enforcement
communities cooperate," he said. "It's not a reflection that this is a
particularly bad area. But there is a problem on the border, or we wouldn't
have people there."

The RCMP also has officers posted abroad, including three offices in the
U.S. in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

While the U.S. government is eager to crack down on the marijuana trade,
several recent polls have shown British Columbians are deeply divided on
the issue.

Earlier this month, a national poll by Leger Marketing found 52.4 per cent
of B.C. residents support the legalization of marijuana, compared to 46.8
per cent nationwide. Only Quebecers were more in favour of legalization, at
52.7 per cent.

Even police in B.C. have taken a lenient approach to marijuana use.

Statistics show only 17.2 per cent of all reported incidents of marijuana
possession in B.C. lead to a charge, compared to a high of 70.8 per cent in
Ontario.

Even in Quebec, the province with the second-lowest rate of possession
charges after B.C., 55.2 per cent of reported incidents end up in court.

Most cases of marijuana possession in B.C. are handled outside the court
system, usually through "no-case seizures" in which police seize and
destroy the marijuana they find and write up a report, but do not recommend
charges.