| 14th MAY 2003 | Canada to Decriminalize Marijuana |
McLellan
puts conditions on easing marijuana lawThe health minister says the move must be accompanied by a new drug strategy.
Canada's plan to decriminalize marijuana, making possession of the country's cannabis no more serious than a traffic ticket, has the Bush administration fuming. The view from Washington is that the mellowing of Canadian drug law will result in even more smuggled bales of "B.C. Bud," "Quebec Gold," and "Winnipeg Wheelchair" -- the last so named because of its supposedly disabling effect on users -- reaching American pot users.
For years, Canadian courts, if not police, have taken a far more lax attitude toward marijuana than do most jurisdictions in the United States. Such an approach, according to law enforcement officials on both sides of the border, has enabled biker gangs and Asian organized crime groups to make Canada a powerhouse of hydroponic pot production, with thousands of high-tech, indoor growing operations in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec yielding hundreds of millions of dollars worth of product.
" Most of it is going straight to the U.S. market," said a senior drug investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, requesting anonymity. That southward flow of Canadian cannabis explains why the proposed easing of the marijuana law is quickly becoming a serious source of political friction between Ottawa and Washington. ... ...
* READ MORE »»»
www.sfgate.com
<1>,
<2> www.canoe.com