CANADA GOES TO POT

BACK in the 1920s, when the United States had Prohibition, quite a
few Canadians grew rich running booze over the border to intoxicate
their neighbours. Now they are trying their luck with marijuana. Over
the past decade, British Columbia has earned a reputation for growing
the most potent marijuana in North America. The drug is said to be the
province's most lucrative export crop, worth an estimated C$2 billion
($1.4 billion) a year.

Given British Columbia's cool soggy climate, this may seem odd: the
strongest cannabis generally comes from tropical countries, such as
Jamaica. No longer. The sophisticated growers of British Columbia use
plant genetics and "active indoor hydroponic technology", some of it
computer-controlled, to achieve higher yields and potency. Whereas
Jamaica's strongest ganja contains 12% tetrahydrocannabinol, the
compound that produces a "high", the new stuff from British Columbia
has, on average, 15-20%. This has made "BC bud" America's pot of
choice.

The incentive to export is great. A pound of pot can fetch about
$6,000 in California, up to twice what it fetches in Canada. So
British Columbia's cannabis farmers find ingenious ways to smuggle
south most of the estimated 800 tonnes they grow each year. The United
States border patrol reckons that dope-smuggling has soared tenfold in
the past two years alone.

Another reason for this booming export business, grumble the Canadian
and American police, is the leniency of British Columbia's courts.
Plenty of people are prosecuted: the police laid 2,329 charges for
growing and trafficking marijuana in 1997, and have stepped up their
efforts since. But, according to the Vancouver Sun, only one in five
of those convicted of growing marijuana in Vancouver over the past
three years received a jail sentence. One in four served no time in
jail, and paid no fine; and 58% received a fine that averaged less
than C$2,700. The average pot grower, who pockets C$150,000-250,000
per crop, treats such light fines, complains one Canadian policeman,
"simply as the cost of doing business--a business licence".

Nor do locals seem much bothered. Many British Columbians smoke pot
regularly, or have at least tried it. In a recent poll, no less than
63% thought possession of marijuana should be decriminalised, more
than in any other Canadian province.

Marijuana is still considered by many to be a relatively harmless drug
grown by ageing hippies with beards and beads. In fact, the industry
has become big, sophisticated and nasty, and is increasingly run by
organised criminals. Gangs use specialised technicians to grow
hundreds of cannabis plants at a time; clandestine "dial-a-harvest"
teams pick the crops, and a network of brokers market the product in
America--and bring back guns and cocaine. The gangs are not shy of
protecting their interests; 15 people in the dope business have been
killed in Canada in the past three years.

Trouble is spreading. Recently, a member of Parliament from Quebec,
Yvan Loubier, was given 24-hour police protection after he had exposed
a racket in his constituency. He claimed that gangs of pot growers
were forcing local farmers to let them hide plantations in the middle
of their sprawling fields of corn, sometimes by threatening the lives
of their families. Mr Loubier said that, on a recent flight, he could
see a dozen patches of pot not far from Montreal, each with between 40
and 2,000 plants.

Just as the United States was angry about Canadian whiskey-smugglers
80 years ago, it is increasingly edgy about cannabis today. In May,
the State Department took the unprecedented step of considering
placing Canada on its narcotics blacklist--alongside Myanmar -- for not
doing enough to combat the drugs trade. Nothing came of it after
Canada protested. But, as one Mountie says, "It's embarrassing that we
get a wake-up call from the US to say that we have a serious problem."