RCMP RETRACT `POUND FOR POUND' ASSERTION

Police made an honest mistake by telling The Reminder that marijuana
is sometimes traded pound for pound with cocaine, according to the
RCMP National Headquarters.

Paul Nadeau, the Mounties' national drug enforcement director, said
police have no evidence to support this recently-reported "urban myth."

"Personally, I have never heard of one instance where we've been able
to corroborate that," he said from his Ottawa office.

Nadeau said the fallacy is so widespread that it's believed by
criminals, lawyers and some of the many thousands of police officers
- -- RCMP and otherwise -- across the nation.

"It's so powerful, I guess we haven't passed on the information to
everybody in our organization," he said, adding that his department
will distribute a clarification to officers on the drug beat.

While there is no evidence of pound-for-pound trading, is it at least
possible given the unknown number of drug transactions each year?

"It doesn't compute, frankly," said Nadeau, adding that "it's pretty
clear that cocaine is still much more valuable than marijuana."

Still, it's not uncommon, Nadeau said, for pot to be used as a
criminal form of currency that is traded for smaller quantities of
cocaine.

It's also true, he said, that marijuana and other drugs remain a major
source of revenue for organized crime.

Nadeau, who previously led the RCMP Drug Section in Vancouver,
believes lax sentencing is one of the reasons pot has become such a
concern in Canada.

The pound-for-pound statement was included as part of an Aug. 9
Reminder article outlining how today's marijuana is much more potent
- -- and of greater concern to police -- than the pot of yesteryear.

Within days of the story running, members of the pro-marijuana lobby
from across Canada fired off e-mails and letters to the editor
ridiculing the claim. They read the article online.