MARIJUANA TRAFFICKING MOVING ONTO THE WEB

Pot, Paraphernalia And Instructions Available On Hundreds Of Sites

WASHINGTON - The world of marijuana trafficking once existed mostly
in shady places where the right dealers hung out or in exotic locales
such as Amsterdam. But technology, which has revolutionized almost
every other aspect of our world, has changed that.

Now, a simple Google search reveals a universe of online pot,
including hundreds of Web sites offering to sell marijuana and
paraphernalia such as bongs and marijuana seeds as well as free
directions for growing marijuana.

How many marijuana growers the Internet has instructed or how much
marijuana changes hands online each year isn't known. But experts
agree that the Internet has become the world's biggest head shop and
that stemming that digital tide will be difficult for governments.

Drug users "can obtain whatever they want (online) with more ease
than in the conventional illicit street market," the International
Narcotics Control Board, an arm of the United Nations, said in a news
release in April. The board said serious steps must be taken if
governments hope to control the Web-based drug trade.

The European Union, citing increased European marijuana use during
the past decade, adopted a resolution last July encouraging its
members to crack down on marijuana cultivation and promotional Web sites.

Allen St. Pierre, director of the pro-legalization group National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said there were at
least 200 to 400 varieties of marijuana seeds available online,
specially bred for every type of growing condition in North America.

Interstate marijuana trafficking carries a penalty of up to five
years in jail and a possible $250,000 fine for first offenders,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

St. Pierre pointed out that marijuana seeds' lack of odor and small
size make them hard to detect in the mail.

Never before has so much drug culture been so readily available,
especially to the estimated 21 million American teens who use the Internet.

Marijuana use among 12th-graders has fallen 4 percentage points
within the past year since its most recent peak, in 1997, but 34.3
percent of 12th-graders still said in 2004 that they'd used the drug
within the last year, according to Monitoring the Future, an annual
survey of drug use.

Marijuana Web sites are particularly insidious because parents don't
realize their danger, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White
House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Even parents who do
realize that marijuana is a serious problem still think ... their
teens are going to be exposed to marijuana from a shady character in
the street -- not on the computer, possibly sitting a few feet away
from them," he said. "It's a serious problem that this is on the Internet."

The DEA's hot line, (877) RxAbuse (792-2873), part of the
government's efforts to shut down illegal online pharmacies selling
prescription drugs, also can be used to report marijuana Web sites,
DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.