POTENT POT LIGHTS UP CANADA BORDER ACTIVITY

Pricey marijuana much stronger than what comes in from Mexico

BLAINE, Wash. - For decades, the drug smuggling war has raged to the south
in dusty Mexican border towns or along the sparkling waters of the
Caribbean.

But in the cool evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, a new front has
opened up, thanks to a potent breed of pricey Canadian marijuana.

B.C. Bud is so sought after in the United States that it has been known to
trade on the street, dollar for dollar, with cocaine, federal law
enforcement officials say.

Named for its birthplace in British Columbia, the high-grade pot is wreaking
havoc on the once-sleepy northern border. Enterprising smugglers are using
kayaks, horse trailers, Army trucks and even a cage holding a live bear to
sneak it into the United States.

They tuck packages into fishmeal or coffee to avoid drug-sniffing dogs.
Private planes dip into U.S. airspace and drop hockey equipment bags filled
with pot to couriers waiting in the woods on all-terrain vehicles.

While seizures of marijuana along the southern U.S. border declined in
fiscal year 2002, along the northern border they exploded -- soaring more
than 300 percent from the prior year, according to U.S. Customs and Border
Protection officials.

In exchange, shipments of cocaine, guns and money are flowing north to
Canada.

"It's the new frontier," said Peter Ostrovsky, an agent with Immigration and
Customs Enforcement who came to the Northwest after working drug cases in
Miami. "This is the only place in the U.S. I've seen where there's two-way
traffic. Drugs coming in and out."

The surge in seizures is due, at least in part, to heightened security at
the border in the wake of the terrorist attacks. More car trunks are being
popped, and sophisticated new X-ray equipment allows agents to peek inside
idling tractor-trailers without ever opening a door.

Margaret Fearon, port director at the border checkpoint in this small
outpost 30 miles south of Vancouver, said that when more vehicles are
searched, more drugs are found.

But law enforcement officials on both sides of the border also believe the
number of drugs on the move has risen and is pushing eastward.

Things could get worse, now that Canada appears poised to decriminalize
marijuana for personal use. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's
administration introduced legislation in late May that would make possession
of small amounts of pot equivalent to a traffic ticket.

U.S. officials are not pleased about the potential legal change in Canada,
which shares a 4,000-mile land border with the United States.

Canada and the U.S. do about $1 billion of trade a day, and top U.S.
officials have warned their Canadian counterparts that easing marijuana laws
could lead to heightened inspections along the border, White House officials
have said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are struggling to control the
explosion but admit their hands are tied by a justice system that is
notoriously lenient when it comes to marijuana.

Only rarely do marijuana offenders do jail time in Canada, and when they do,
it's for an average of just a few months, said Sgt. Brian McDonald of the
RCMP's Greater Vancouver Drug Section.

Most of the stiffer sentences have been struck down by the appeals courts,
he said.

"We are hurt by the Canadian Justice system. It's a gripe," said RCMP
Superintendent Bill Ard.

Police in Canada have had to make do with shutting down some of the 11,000
marijuana growing operations, only to watch them spring up again somewhere
else.

The marijuana plants are nurtured carefully indoors hydroponically -- rooted
in water and nutrients, not soil -- often using high-tech equipment to
precisely regulate temperature and light so growers can harvest up to six
lucrative crops a year.

The resulting supercharged pot is worth about $2,000 a pound in the
Vancouver area. That price tag doubles as soon as it crosses the border into
the U.S. Once it reaches Southern California, it can reach $6,000 a pound.

Why such a demand? The high is a lot higher. Woodstock-era marijuana had a
THC content, or potency, of 2 percent. The crop coming from Mexico averages
6 percent. B.C. Bud's THC content can rise to 25 percent.

The trade is run largely by Vietnamese gangs and outlaw biker gangs like the
Hell's Angels. Competition between them has become increasingly violent,
fueled by the guns that are streaming back into Canada as part of the
illicit drug trade, Ard of the RCMP said.