POLICE SAY THEY ARE POWERLESS TO HALT SEED SALES ON WEB
Canadian Sites Flourish: Investigations Too Complicated, Costly,
Authorities Say

(UNITED NATIONS) - Vendors of cannabis seeds through Canadian Internet
sites are so confident of being beyond the reach of the law they use
their home pages to mock the authorities.

"Let me help you overgrow the government," says the Web site of
Vancouver-based Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds, in business since
1994.

H.D. Seeds, which has been "serving Canadians since 1997," shows a
picture of the Houses of Parliament on its home page. The site likes
to keep the accounting books in order, however. It warns that 7% will
be added to each purchase to cover Canada's goods and services tax.

Other sites glorify convicted drug traffickers. Stinky's Marihuana
Seed Bank, for example, has named one its seed packages in honour of
Howard Marks, described as "one of the biggest marijuana smugglers of
our time."

The package is called Mr. Nice, the title Mr. Marks chose for his 1996
autobiography, which he wrote after spending seven years in a U.S.
penitentiary.

Canadian-based Internet servers now host the world's largest number of
Web sites selling cannabis seeds and the equipment required to grow
the drug hydroponically, says the International Narcotics Control
Board, a UN agency, in its 1999 annual report released today.

Police say they are powerless --for the moment -- to knock the vendors
off-line because Internet investigations are too complicated and
costly to justify when compared with the relatively light sentences
meted out by the courts.

But the UN report warns that "indoor cultivation of very potent
cannabis varieties is being promoted through" sales from the sites,
especially in Western Canada and Quebec.

What's more, much of the growing is conducted by organized crime
groups, which are selling the drug in Canada and smuggling it into the
United States.

"We know it is a problem and we are working on a strategy to combat
it," said Corporal Mike Dunbar, an RCMP drug enforcement officer based
in Vancouver.

"Just saying that a vendor supplied someone with 10 seeds won't get a
lot in court. We have to show the entire extent of the business," he
said.

"But traditional investigative techniques can't be applied to the
Internet. Sites can disappear overnight. Links can go on forever.
Hosts may be in any country in the world."

Investigators need to double as cyberspace experts. But assembling
teams of such experts is costly, and the results limited, when
measured in terms of years in jail for convicted traffickers.

"Sentences are no deterrent and this frustrates us and the Americans,"
said Cpl. Dunbar. "It has been brought up at the political level."

In Quebec, cannabis growers are earning the "nice price" of $3,000
(all figures US) a pound for their crop, explained Sergeant Gilles
Michaud, a Montreal-based drug enforcement spokesman.

"Its THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] level is so high that it is no longer
a soft drug."

Local motorcycle gangs, Hells Angels and Rock Machine --which have
contacts with the Bandidos of Texas -- dominate trafficking in
cannabis in Quebec, said Sgt. Michaud.

A search of the Internet reveals thousands of sites selling cannabis
seeds and growing equipment. They are too numerous to count, but an
inordinate number appear to be in Canada.

The Internet address www.cannabis.com/seedselect instantly produces a
list of 15 "primary sites" -- seven based in Canada, six in the
Netherlands and two in Britain.

Payment is usually by cash or money order, though certified cheques
are sometimes accepted. Prices range from about $100 to $300 for seed
packages that will yield between 100 and 150 grams of marijuana.

All sites visited by the National Post carried a disclaimer saying
purchasers should check their local laws to see if they can legally
buy the seeds.