US WARNS ON CANADA MARIJUANA PROPOSAL

WASHINGTON -- US 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 US officials said 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,
US 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, US
ambassador to Canada.

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 US border have
existed for years.

Canadian officials call US concerns understandable, but said the two
nations have a long history of cooperation.

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.