TIGHT BORDER A LOW NOTE FOR THE HIGH TRADE

Canadian Press

Kelowna, B.C. - The price of B.C. bud is plunging as the United States
tightens its border and more growers try to cash in on the green gold.

Marijuana supplies in B.C. are outstripping demand, forcing the price of
bulk sales down.

A pound of pot grown in the province fetched $2,200 to $2,600 two years
ago, says RCMP Corporal Ray Patelle of the E Division's drug section.

Now, the price has dropped to as low as $1,500.

"There's a glut in the B.C. market," Cpl. Patelle said. "There's still
just as much demand in the U.S. for this product, but there's so much pot
in B.C., the price is down."

Pot smugglers have been curtailed by extra security at the border since the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. In some places, U.S. border patrols
have tripled in number.

American authorities seized 295 loads of marijuana from smugglers entering
from B.C. last year, said Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.

The seizures totalled 9,286 kilograms, a 23-per-cent increase from the year
before.

Border officials now have machines that use X-ray technology to detect
anomalies inside loads hauled by large transport trucks - a popular way to
smuggle the contraband.

Inconsistencies in density lead to searches that often turn up marijuana
shipments.

The drop in price is likely affecting the province's economy.

Assuming the traffickers use their profits to buy their goods in B.C., the
province could be losing millions of dollars a year in sales tax.

"We get reports of people being caught all the time smuggling pot into the
U.S. and bringing money back into Canada," said Cpl. Patelle.

The amount of pot detected moving south from Canada has increased since
2,000 to almost 15,700 kilograms last year.

But more than 20 times that amount was seized at the U.S.-Mexican border in
2003.

Still, the RCMP consider the export of marijuana to the U.S., particularly
from B.C., Ontario and Quebec, to be a thriving industry.

Cpl. Patelle estimates thousands of grow operations are operating in the
Okanagan, 700 to 900 of them in the Kelowna area alone.