THIS BUD'S FOR THE U.S.

American law enforcers are blaming Canada's relaxed drug laws for a
huge inflow of potent, pricey, brand-name marijuana

It was the bus driver who noticed something suspicious. According to
school officials, a driver for Blaine High School in northwestern
Washington State thought something was strange about students'
carrying unusually full bags to school and then never taking them back
home. He alerted U.S. authorities, who boarded the bus on the morning
of Feb. 20 and allegedly found 3.6 kg of marijuana, valued at $25,000,
hidden inside a teenage girl's backpack.

Prosecutors allege that the minor, 16, was getting paid $300 a trip to
work as a drug mule for smugglers moving marijuana into the U.S. from
Canada. The teen's home, in Point Roberts, Washington, borders British
Columbia in an area with relatively light border patrol, which would
have made it easy for her to get the drugs from Canada before boarding
the bus.

Expelled from school and charged with possessing marijuana with intent
to deliver, the girl has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 23 in
Bellingham, Washington. Deputy prosecutor Thomas Verge has said he
will probably ask for an exceptionally long sentence that would put
the teen behind bars until her 21st birthday.

The controversy has upset the community. "She was a wonderful young
girl," says her principal, Dan Newell. "I wouldn't have ever thought
that if anyone was going to haul marijuana across the border, it would
be this lady."

Nor would anyone have thought that the cross-border traffic of illegal
drugs would become one of the knottiest areas of disagreement between
the U.S. and its northern neighbor.

An estimated 800 to 2,000 tons of marijuana are grown in Canada,
according to a new report from Canadian police.

About 90% of the commercial crop winds up in the U.S., where its
street value is worth at least $5 billion.

Although only 5% of the pot in the U.S. comes from Canada, the trade
is flourishing because of high demand in the U.S. and the
comparatively mild punishments in Canada for growers and
traffickers.

The U.S. confiscated more than 21,000 kg of marijuana along the
Canadian border last year, nearly double the 11,800 kg it retrieved in
2002, according to a U.S. State Department report.

There have been seizures all along the border, in Montana, North
Dakota, Michigan, Ohio and other states as well. Canadian pot has
cachet in the U.S. because of its reputation as being especially potent.

The featured brand is BC Bud--which is grown in British Columbia and
has become synonymous with the high-grade marijuana grown throughout
Canada. Once in the U.S., the pot is exchanged for cash, and sometimes
cocaine or guns, which are then smuggled back to Canada.

Although the actual potency of BC Bud varies from batch to batch,
depending on how it's grown, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) says it contains as much as 25% of the psychoactive drug
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In contrast, the pot that the hippie
generation smoked in the 1970s had only 2% thc content, and most pot
consumed in the U.S. today averages about 7% THC.

White House drug czar John Walters blames BC Bud in part for the
increased numbers of pot-related emergency-room incidents in the U.S.,
which have more than doubled, from 54,000 in 1996 to 119,000 in 2002.
Those incidents range from accidents and injuries to unexpected
reactions to the drug. "Canada is exporting to us the crack of
marijuana," Walters told reporters in April. Others dispute Walters'
claims. "Domestic American marijuana is probably a little bit better,"
says Richard Stratton, editor in chief of High Times, a magazine that
covers marijuana issues.

But the BC Bud name is so well regarded that some dealers pass off
other varieties as Canadian to fetch the $6,000-to-$20,000-per-kg price.

And BC Bud seems to be everywhere. "It's hella easy to get," says
"Angelo," 22, a Seattle resident who asked to be identified by a
pseudonym. "You can usually go to [a convenience store] between 1:30
a.m. and 3:30 a.m. and ask people who you think smoke bud," he says.

On the Canadian side, the drug is even more ubiquitous. A report
released last month by Statistics Canada suggests an increase in pot
use across the country; 12.2% of Canadians age 15 or older--about 3
million people--said they used marijuana at least once in the 12
months prior to the 2002 survey. That's almost double the 1989 figure
of 6.5%. At the popular New Amsterdam Cafe in downtown Vancouver,
customers openly smoke pot. The cafe doesn't sell the stuff itself,
but it is easy to obtain from street dealers and other shops in the
area. "People come with pot. We are a business, though, so we have a
$2 minimum cafe charge [for snacks and drinks]," says cafe manager
Scott Heardy. Inspector David Nelmes, who is in charge of drugs for
the Vancouver police department, tells Time, "I can't remember the
last time a member of the Vancouver police department arrested someone
for smoking a joint.

Frankly, who's got time?"

Canada's new Health Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, says he is concerned
about the apparent rise in use but is still committed to
decriminalizing the drug. "My view is that if you make something
illegal, some people are more attracted to it," Dosanjh told reporters
when the StatsCan survey was released. "If you allow people to possess
it in small quantities for personal use, the allure kind of
disappears." The Liberals say that when Parliament resumes in October,
they will reintroduce legislation that would decriminalize possession
of less than 15 grams of marijuana, meaning that offenders would be
slapped with the equivalent of a traffic ticket.

That approach is a far cry from the one that exists in U.S. states
like Oklahoma, where a person caught smoking dope could get up to a
year in prison, although probation is more common.

Canada's attitude toward small-scale toking up has led some U.S.
officials to blame it for exacerbating America's drug problems. "If
the perception is that it will be easier to get marijuana in Canada
. then it creates problems at the border," Paul Cellucci, U.S.
ambassador to Canada, said at a Toronto Board of Trade dinner in
February. Indeed, according to Canadian police, the trade has led to
an increase in drive-by shootings in Canada by rival dealers and
"grow-rips," in which competing clans break into growers' homes to
steal their crops.

The body of the suspected ring leader of a trafficking group was found
in a ditch, stabbed in the neck, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in November
2002. "It's still a dangerous drug," says James Capra, the U.S. DEA's
chief of domestic operations. "People are killing each other over it."

Currently, a grower who is convicted in Canada can expect less than
two years of house arrest and a trafficker anywhere from three months
to five years, served either at home or in prison, in contrast to the
minimum punishment of five to 10 years that most convicted traffickers
and growers receive in U.S. federal court.

But as the violence has increased and cultivation of the crop has
moved into residential areas, Canada has begun cracking down on its
estimated 50,000 commercial pot growers.

Over the past four years, police in Vancouver have seized $288 million
worth of marijuana and $8.7 million worth of growing equipment.

In Barrie, Ont., this past January, police confiscated 30,000
marijuana plants, worth $23 million, inside a former Molson brewery.

One hot, muggy morning in July, a Time reporter accompanied the
Vancouver police on a raid at a two-story brick-and-panel house on a
leafy street of manicured lawns.

Inside, officers discovered an entire basement filled with glossy
female cannabis bushes.

This bust is now pretty routine, and so is the response by the
growers.

They simply set up shop elsewhere in town. --Reported by Ben
Bergman/Blaine, Laura Blue/New York, Chris Daniels/Toronto, Deborah
Jones/Vancouver and Elaine Shannon/Washington

Blowing Smoke: The Branding of BC Bud

What's in a name? About $150 more an ounce.

That's the premium that U.S. pot smokers are willing to pay for BC
Bud, even though Canadian pot is no better than the high-quality
domestic stuff.

Why fork over so much more for the same buzz? For the same reason
fashionistas buy $180 designer jeans when they can buy store-label
jeans for a third of the price.

Canada's cannabis is cooler.

"Basically, BC Bud is marketing," says Michael Delaney, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration supervisory special agent who oversees
marijuana investigations in Northern California. Like old-favorite
labels Acapulco Gold and Maui Waui, BC Bud is among the brand-name
elite of marijuana by virtue of its availability, its consistent
quality and the status the brand confers. All make BC Bud more
attractive to consumers than cheaper generics.

Like Cuban cigars, BC Bud also has the contraband cachet of being
singled out. "Our government here has puffed up that product," says
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the U.S. National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Along the borders, law enforcers
have been stepping up their numbers, concerned not only about BC Bud
but also about the money-laundering rackets and encroachment by
Canadian organized-crime groups that accompany it. Border drug busts
have spiraled upward.

This creates news and reinforces the brand equity.

With headlines like POTENT POT PROBLEM ARRIVES and A TRIP TO
"VANSTERDAM," U.S. newspapers hype Canadian marijuana--and the notion
that it's much stronger than other marijuana imports.

Comparisons to Mexican marijuana, which typically arrives in the U.S.
in compressed bricks containing stems and seeds--as opposed to just
the bud or flower of the plant, as BC Bud's name suggests--make BC Bud
seem like some kind of superdrug.

Still, the principal promoters of BC Bud are the ones who stand to
make the most from it: dealers and growers working hard to market
their product. And, as with so many chichi brands, counterfeiters pass
off fakes to cash in on a hot label. "If you grow marijuana here in
San Francisco, and you do a good job, and it's good stuff," says
Delaney, "you can say, `Hey, this is BC Bud,' and people will pay more
for it." And even if they do get cheated, they aren't going to call
the cops to complain. --By Laura Blue