CANADA'S NEW MARIJUANA LAW COULD BRING BORDER PROBLEMS

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials, already concerned about illegal drugs coming
across the Canadian border, are warning that a Canadian plan to
decriminalize marijuana use could lead to more inspections and long border
delays.

"We don't want the northern border to be a trafficking route for drugs,"
said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security
for the Department of Homeland Security.

Hutchinson and other U.S. officials say the Canadian proposal is especially
troublesome, considering how drug seizures along the vast northern border
soared following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - in part because of
heightened security. The amount of marijuana seized from Canada quadrupled
in the year after the attacks.

Seizures have subsided slightly since, but remain well above historic
levels.

If Canada approves a plan to decriminalize marijuana for personal use, U.S.
officials fear drug smuggling could spike, further burdening the justice
system and hindering trade. More vehicles may be stopped and searched at
checkpoints along the 4,000-mile border, slowing movement of the $1 billion
worth of goods traded between the two countries each day. "If the perception
is that it's easier to get marijuana in, then some border officials'
antennas will be up," said Paul Cellucci, U.S. ambassador to Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's administration introduced
legislation in late May that would essentially make the penalty for
possession of small amounts of marijuana equivalent to a traffic ticket. The
bill would boost penalties for growing and trafficking marijuana.

The Canadian proposal "is amazing to us," said Dave McEachran, prosecuting
attorney in Whatcom County, along the Washington state border. McEachran's
office prosecutes hundreds of federal drug cases a year resulting from
arrests at the Blaine, Wash., border - the busiest crossing west of Detroit.

Canada has long had tolerant drug policing. British Columbia alone is home
to a $4 billion industry in marijuana that is more potent than Mexican
marijuana. Problems with smuggling over the U.S. border have existed for
years.

Canadian officials call U.S. concerns understandable, but say the two
nations have a long history of cooperation.

That cooperation is especially close on law enforcement, said Paul Kennedy,
senior assistant deputy solicitor general for Canada. There's smuggling
going both ways, Kennedy noted. While marijuana enters the U.S., cocaine and
guns tend to travel north.

While the decriminalization plan has set off alarms, the flow of marijuana
from Canada pales in comparison to the amount grown in the United States or
imported from other countries such as Mexico and Colombia. In the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, 2002, some 20,213 pounds of marijuana was seized
along the northern border, compared with more than 1.2 million pounds along
the southwest border, Customs figures show.

"There's a lot of talk about B.C. bud, but we are just a small part" of the
U.S. drug trade, Kennedy said.