Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jan 1999
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Author: Gary Fields

NEW MARIJUANA STRAIN BOOSTS DRUG TRADE

A new grade of marijuana grown in British Columbia is so potent it is
being traded pound-for-pound for cocaine in the United States, U.S.
and Canadian authorities say.

The drug trade is prompting concerns among law enforcement officials
who have seen drug seizures and arrests soar.

Marijuana smuggling arrests along the border of British Columbia and
Washington state have risen from six people in 1995 to 358 in 1998.
Seizures of the marijuana, nicknamed ''B.C. Bud,'' have risen from
less than 10 pounds to 2,613 pounds during the same period, Customs
officials say.

Although the statistics are modest when compared with other drug
seizures, authorities say they are fearful of the destructive
potential the newly invigorated drug trade could have in the Northwest.

B.C. Bud is the No. 1 drug being smuggled into the United States from
British Columbia. Authorities in British Columbia say cocaine obtained
by Canadian drug dealers in exchange for the marijuana has begun
fueling a fledgling crack cocaine trade north of the border.

''The real significance of B.C. Bud is this circular pattern it's
created with cocaine,'' U.S. Customs Director Raymond Kelly says.

Cpl. Brian Hall of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's drug awareness
section in British Columbia says the marijuana appeared in the
Vancouver area in the mid-1980s.

Canadian authorities estimate there are 3,500 to 5,000 indoor growing
operations in the Vancouver area alone. They produce an illegal crop
worth $600 million a year.

The marijuana is grown inside with the use of artificial lights. ''You
can control the growing conditions, the nutrients, the lighting and
the temperature,'' says Dave Rodriguez, director of a Seattle-based
task force of state and federal agencies created by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. ''You can get a much better product.''

The chemical in marijuana that produces the euphoria and sense of
relaxation is delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Mexican marijuana,
which is the most common, has a THC level of about 5% in a plant. The
THC level in B.C. Bud is about 25%, and authorities say they have
found plants with levels as high as 30%.

In addition, the British Columbia-grown marijuana costs about $1,500 a
pound in Vancouver and $7,000 a pound in southern California. Mexican
marijuana goes for about $600 a pound.

Hall says the marijuana growing operations are spreading in Canada.
That is causing concern because the border between the United States
and Canada is nearly 4,000 miles long and open, unlike the Mexican
border.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry