CANADA'S ILLICIT DRUG TRADE GROWING: UN

'Easy-To-Penetrate' Border Partly to Blame

Canada has emerged as an increasingly important exporter and transit
point for illicit drugs -and partly to blame is the
"easy-to-penetrate" border, a senior drugs-monitoring official warned
Wednesday at the United Nations.

The statement by Melvyn Levitsky of the International Narcotics
Control Board (INCB) comes as Canada is working to resist demands by
some members of the U.S. Congress to apply stronger checks along the border.

"The Canadian government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have
done a good professional job (in combating drug trafficking), but the
market in the United States is a big one, and the border is a
peaceful border which is relatively easy to penetrate," Levitsky told
Postmedia News.

He stopped short of calling for tighter border security, but said
"remaining vigilant" and resisting "pressure to cut (anti-illicit)
drug and related budgets" was essential.

Canada's standing in the international league of illicit
drug-trafficking countries is detailed in the North American section
of the board's 2010 annual report, which Levitsky presented at a news
conference.

The report says Canada is self-sufficient in illicit cannabis
production, but also provides the United States with a "significant
amount" of the homegrown cannabis, some of which is traded for
"cocaine and other contraband, such as firearms and tobacco." Canada
also supplies a "significant share" of the international market for
methamphetamine. And it continues to be a "major source"
internationally of MDMA, a party drug whose street name is ecstasy.

Beyond production, INCB says Canada is "increasingly being used as a
transit country for cocaine."

"Cocaine shortages persisted in many areas of the United States in
2009, as evi-denced by higher prices and lower purity levels," the
report says. "Criminal groups are smuggling cocaine into Canada,
mainly through Mexico and the United States, to be sold on the
illicit market in Canada or shipped overseas."

Levitsky said cocaine traffickers clearly focused on Mexico and
Central America as transit hubs after seeing their transit operations
in the Caribbean progressively curtailed. But the relative ease with
which they could cross the U.S.-Canada border also made Canada a
transit target.

"Traffickers do not just give up; they find new routes for doing
things," Levitsky said. While it is "principally Mexico" that
supplies the United States with cocaine, he added that Canada's "long
border has made it a supplier."

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, whose ministry is the umbrella group
for the government's anti-trafficking efforts, and Public Safety
Minister Vic Toews were unavailable for comment, but their
spokespersons said officials had started to study the report.