CN BC: B.C.- POT BUSTS CLOGGING UP COURTS IN U.S.

James Dennis needed money for his mounting medical bills in the United
States so he looked to B.C. to cure his financial ailments.

The 65-year-old Port Townsend, Wash., man boarded the Dolphin, his 28-foot
Bayliner, and set sail for Vancouver on March 22.

Watching the Dolphin from the air and the sea were the U.S. Coast Guard and
Washington state police.

Two days later, on its return voyage to Port Townsend, the Dolphin was
boarded by U.S. Customs officials, who found 73 kilograms of "B.C. Bud" in
six bags under the cabin deck.

The potent hydroponic marijuana, described recently by Time magazine as the
best dope in the world, would have fetched $500,000 U.S. in Seattle, about
$1 million U.S. in Los Angeles and an even bigger price on the streets of
New York.

"It's the largest maritime seizure of Canadian marijuana in Washington
state to date," said Rick Porter, a Clallam county prosecutor.

Porter said Dennis had extensive bills from recent medical problems, and
told authorities he lives on Social Security. He's poor enough to qualify
for a court-appointed lawyer.

"He faces five to 10 years in jail," said Porter yesterday.

This is just the latest in a series of busts involving Canadian pot that is
clogging up courts in Washington state, said Bellingham, Wash., prosecutor
David McEachran.

"It is straining our resources and we are looking at various options,
including harsher sentences, to handle the situation," he said.

Among the bigger cases involving B.C. drugs so far this year was a bust at
the Cap Sante marina near Anacortes, Wash., earlier in March.

Customs found 59 kilograms of "B.C. Bud". Robert Barnes of Kirkland, Wash.,
faces drug charges.

In February, two large duffle bags were taken off a boat that had arrived
from Canada at Birch Bay near Blaine, Wash. A man drove the bags - believed
to be filled with marijuana - to different locations in Oregon, picking up
packages that contained cash, according to court documents.

Federal agents arrested three men and seized more than $185,000 US.

In Whatcom county, where McEachran has been serving for 28 years, one in 10
criminal cases now involve drugs across the border.

Norvell Jackson, Whatcom counnty clerk, said drug prosecutions stemming
from border stops near Blaine and the surrounding area jumped from 103
cases in 1997 to 188 in 1998.

Those cases are "just killing" the court system, he said, slowing other
prosecutions and delaying civil suits.

Porter said one in three cases in the Olympic Peninsula now involves drugs
across the border.

"We have been told about the lenient sentences your judges are handing out
there, and if I was a drug manufacturer, I would be heading up to Canada
now," he said.