U.S. TOKERS HIGH ON MANITOBAN MARIJUANA

Police blame lenient courts

MANITOBA HAS displaced Mexico and Colombia as a preferred source of
illegal high-grade marijuana for many American pot smokers, a United
States Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman says.

The province has also earned the reputation among American and
Canadian law enforcement groups as being a net exporter of hydroponic
marijuana because Manitoba growers, with help from a lenient court
system, fine-tune their operations to produce some of the most potent
pot on the planet.

"People around (the U.S.) buy Canadian," said Brent Eaton, spokesman
for the DEA in Miami. "If somebody's taken a liking to Manitoban,
that's what they'll get, if it's available."

The secret to Manitoba marijuana is its high THC content, the active
ingredient that produces the high. In the past, when most marijuana
was imported from outdoor plots in Mexico, the Caribbean and South
America, THC levels were about three to seven per cent, Winnipeg
Police Service vice officer Det. Sgt. Ron Trakalo said.

Today, THC levels in pot plants grown indoors in Manitoba average at
15 per cent and sometimes as high as 20 per cent, he said, because
hydroponic operations allow growers to control every detail, such as
humidity, hours of light and nutrients.

The high THC level has earned Manitoba hydroponic dope the tag of
"wheelchair weed."

"Premium marijuana is grown here in Manitoba," Trakalo
said.

So much so that Winnipeg Police are also seeing an increase in people
selling clones -- marijuana cuttings to start a new plant.

Trakalo said they arrested a group last fall, who are now before the
courts, that was selling mail-order cuttings for $30 or $40 a clone.

"It's like indoor gardens," Trakalo says. "It's a beautiful bud, no
seeds or stalks in it at all. And the user likes the THC level higher.
You just can't get premium marijuana outside like that."

Trakalo said police haven't got a firm handle on how much marijuana
the province is exporting. City police have been averaging 100 grow
operation busts a year for the past three years. The majority of
operations averaged between 100 and 300 marijuana plants.

In 2000, city police have busted eight grow operations, with an
estimated value of $1.7 million.

"There are more marijuana grows happening now," Trakalo said. "It's a
huge cash business. And there are a lot more out there than that."

The largest are still the outdoor plots found in rural Manitoba. In
1998 -- a year when RCMP and Winnipeg Police hauled in $30 million in
marijuana plants combined -- 3,500 plants valued at $3.5 million were
seized from a barn near Grunthal. Later that year, police seized 5,000
plants from an operation in the RM of Hanover and found two
underground bunkers near La Broquerie housing a $1-million grow operation.

Last year, operations near Gimli and Vita resulted in 8,000 plants
being seized and 10 people being arrested. They led to the RCMP's most
lucrative year for marijuana seizures.

"It's on the increase," RCMP drug awareness co-ordinator Const.
Annette Levis said. "There are more grows happening, more
intelligence, and we're finding more."

The quality of local pot is also being improved by the availability of
any strain of marijuana seeds through the mail. Some companies -- many
based in Vancouver -- even have Internet sites detailing what you can
purchase. One company will send your order by Priority Post.

"Manitoba pot, like B.C. pot, goes for top dollar in the U.S.," said
pot activist Marc Emery, who owns Emery Seeds in Vancouver, and is the
publisher of Cannabis Culture.

Emery said he's sold marijuana seeds to about 1,000 Manitobans. He
estimates the number of people growing in Manitoba to be between 8,000
and 10,000, although many would just be growing pot for personal use.

"There are a number of growers out here from Manitoba, and they bring
a lot of skills with them. Manitoba growers have been doing it for
seven, 10, 12 years and have the technique down," he said.

Winnipeg vice Insp. Gary Walker said there are growers with longevity
in the province, but with the necessary information available on the
Internet, a lot of experience isn't necessary.

"It's not that difficult to master growing a good product," Walker
said, likening it to any kind of gardening. "It takes a little research."

Emery said the court system's increasing leniency toward
marijuana-related charges has also spurred the increase in people
willing to grow an illegal product.

B.C., for example, has effectively decriminalized use of the drug by
not charging people for possession. The courts, busy dealing with
cases involving harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine, tend to hand
out light sentences for pot-related offences.

People arrested for marijuana grow operations in Winnipeg with 100
plants have been handed conditional sentences, police say.

Walker says the public sees more of a danger in drugs like cocaine.
While that doesn't change the law, nor the areas police target, he
said public attitudes affect how police do their jobs.

"In a philosophical sense (it affects us) because we've got to answer
to the public. But we can only do so much with the resources we have,"
he said, adding the size of the drug unit has stayed the same over the
past number of years.

So police go after criminal enterprises rather than casual
users.

"Our focus is going after the bigger fish. Our preference would be to
go after the larger dealers, suppliers, distributors, rather than
possession (cases)," Walker said.