THE DRUGS TRADE: CANADA HIGH

AMERICA'S drug problems are not all on its southern border. In the past two
years the amount of marijuana coming into the United States from Canada,
calculated from the amount captured by customs and drug agents, has more
than quadrupled. In 1994 United
States customs agents in Blaine, Washington 'a popular smugglers' crossing
point had ten marijuana-related cases. In the current year (which for
customs agents began in October), 79 cases have been reported, according to
Brian Rockom, an agent in Blaine.

The reason is simple: British Columbian pot has become the champagne of
cannabis. The stuff that makes pot appealing is a chemical known as THC,
short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Most American baby-boomers, in
their mis-spent youth, smoked pot with a THC content of maybe 2%. Later,
Hawaiian grass labelled "Maui Wowie" offered an impressive 10% or 12%. Now,
British Columbia-based growers, using carefully bred seeds and
sophisticated indoor hydroponic gardens, sometimes produce marijuana with a
mind-blowing THC content of 30%.

Americans are willing to pay hefty amounts for this wonder weed: as much as
$6,000-7,000 a pound ($2,700-3,200 a kilo) by the time the stuff wends its
way down from British Columbia to Los Angeles, or ten times as much as they
will pay for the average pound of Mexican marijuana.

Why British Columbia? History and politics, says Marc Emery, a loquacious
Vancouver-based hemp entrepreneur who is the publisher of Cannabis Canada
magazine. During the 1960s, he says, Vancouver's San Francisco-like style
drew droves of Vietnam draft-resisters, many of whom brought with them
packets of marijuana seeds. In time they adapted those seeds for fast
growth in the province's relatively chilly climate, and for potency. As
word got out about Canadian marijuana, and as the profits grew, what had
been a hobby became an increasingly lucrative business. It remains an easy
business to get into, says Mr Emery. Pot is easy to grow, "all it takes is
some seed and cow dung" and it is largely tolerated, if not exactly legal,
in the province.

Mr Emery estimates that 10% of British Columbia's 3.5m residents either
smoke or grow the stuff. Big pot-growers, when caught, often escape prison.
In the United States, the growing intolerance of drugs puts pot in the same
league as cocaine and heroin, with 500,000 pot-related arrests each year.
That crackdown has made cannabis riskier to grow south of the border.

Hence "BC Bud", the brand name for the several hundred different strains of
marijuana that grow in British Columbia and pack a big punch. Mr Emery
estimates that the crop is now worth $4 billion, a figure which, if true,
would put it close to tourism and ahead of mining and farming in the
province's economy. Officials in the United States and Canada put the
figure rather lower, but still at more than $2 billion. More than 3,000
commercial pot-growing operations now cultivate as many as 2,400 plants at
a time.

Working hard to nab their output is a force of United States customs agents
stationed in Blaine. But the 158 agents have 50 miles of border to patrol
between the coast and the inland mountains. The border is unfenced, as
befits two friendly countries, and much of it is conveniently equipped for
smugglers with roads on either side. "Sometimes", says Mr Rockom, "they
just throw the stuff across."

The anti-smuggling operation is being expanded, but border officials say
that, at best, they catch only 10% of the weed that is heading south. There
are too many holes in the net to plug them all; and, despite increasing
Canadian efforts, there is still too little reason not to grow the stuff.
Moreover, pretty well anyone can be a smuggler. In one famous case,
officials arrested a 77-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman. They had 42
pounds of pot in their car.

Copyright 1998. The Economist Newspaper Limited.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)