According to a report released Tuesday by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), 800 tons of marijuana are estimated to have been grown in Canada last year.
The annual report, entitled Drug Situation in Canada, stated approximately one million marijuana plants were seized in 1999. The amount of marijuana seized dropped from 29,598 kilograms of marijuana in 1998, to 23,829 kilograms in 1999. The average of tetrahydrocannabinol levels analyzed since 1995 was six percent.
Marijuana trafficking from Canada to the U.S. remains a concern for the RCMP. The Report specifically claimed the bulk of the marijuana trade occurs across the British Columbia/Washington state border and along the Great Lakes. The RCMP also claims that Canadian marijuana is so valuable that it is traded to Americans on an equal pound for pound basis.
In other Canadian news this week, the Ottawa Citizen and the Edmonton Sun came out in support of an end to the war on marijuana.
The Ottawa Citizen published an editorial which stated: “[I]t stands to reason that with all the marijuana being grown in Canada, someone must be smoking it, and there just aren’t enough ax murderers to account for it all. There must be people who smoked marijuana and went on to be productive citizens. There must even be people who do still smoke it and are productive.”
An Edmonton Sun columnist wrote this week: “So what exactly have the rash of busts over the past few months accomplished? Have we rid the streets of marijuana? No. Are there fewer social ills because of the arrests? No.”
For more information, please contact Scott Colvin, NORML Publications Director at (202) 483-5500. Two view the report, visit: http://rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
