Canada 'sells US high-grade pot'

[RepoMan 0]

Canada 'sells US high-grade pot'

 

Canada is a major exporter of high-potency marijuana, according to the man who leads the US war on drugs.

White House "drug czar" John Walters says new cultivation methods mean marijuana sold today in the US is much stronger than in the 1960s.

 

"We have a growing problem with the expansion of particularly high-potency marijuana coming from Canada," he said.

 

Last year the drug produced in British Columbia alone was worth $9bn and most of it was exported to the US, he added.

 

High-grade marijuana is grown in nutrient-rich solutions rather than soil, and sells for as much as cocaine, according to Mr Walters, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

 

 

Today's pot is on average seven times more potent "than the marijuana baby-boomer parents may remember from their days of use or experimentation", he told reporters.

He said the change had led to a doubling of hospital emergency cases involving marijuana.

 

Mr Walters added: "Canada is exporting to us the crack of marijuana and it is a dangerous problem."

 

The Bush administration has criticised Canadian plans to reduce sentences for people caught with small amounts of marijuana.

 

Canada denies being a major contributor the United States' drug problem.

 

Ottawa says Washington's own data shows that of all the illegal marijuana seized by US agents, only 1.5% came from Canada.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

 

 

I would like to see this commen claim that pot is so much stronger now than in the 1960s. I can't imagine the ammont you'd have to smoke to get high back then. They just want Boomers who did their fair share of smoking during the 1960s to freak out that their kids are smoking up now.

 

I find this "crack of marijuana hilarious. You could say Tequilla is the "crack of alcohol" and it'd be a semi accurate anology, but crack is crack, pot is pot, and booze is booze.

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Um, what?

 

First off, lets assume that the potency level of pot has increased. You know what that means? People will smoke *less* pot, because they'll get high quicker.

 

Second...

He said the change had led to a doubling of hospital emergency cases involving marijuana.

 

How many emergency cases involve pot to begin with?

[Ripper 0]

Everyday pot causes 500 bizillion deaths in the US alone.

 

 

Harmless?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Not a single one that I've ever heard of that was actually dangerous, and involved pot and only pot. They could technically be counting the people that are od'ing on what have you, and had pot in their system.

 

9 billion dollars. How can uncle sam not want to collect the taxes they could theoretically make if they accepted that market?

 

Crack of marijuana..please. I've smoked hydroponically grown weed before, which is what they're describing with the nutrient solutions and whatnot, and it's certainly no more dangerous than what my parents smoked.

[Vyce 0]

They shouldn't run "pot kills people" ads - the message should be more along the lines of the more accurate "stoners are fucking retards".

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

^See, that I could live with. People who don't smoke would all get to feel superior, and the stoners who aren't going to quit anyway get a laugh out of being made fun of.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Legalize it all, sez I.

[Ripper 0]

Legalize it all, sez I.

Pot makes people rape babies and puppies.

 

 

Harmless?

[BUTT 0]

Here's my question: How do THEY know it's that much stronger? Hmmm............

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

They ask their kids.

 

Parents: The Anti-drug.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Mr Walters added: "Canada is exporting to us the crack of marijuana and it is a dangerous problem."

 

Mr. Dynamite Kido added: "The United States is giving us the crack of politicians and it's a dangerous problem"

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Hey, not to mention the crack of cocaine.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

What about this crack:

 

[NoCalMike 0]

I am confused. I thought Crack was the cheap ass ghetto shitty version of cocaine. So if this new canadian pot is better, more potent, and more expensive, wouldn't it be classified it as the "Pure Columbian white gold of Pot" Oh yeah, now I want some........

 

Seriously, when "Drug Czars" make comments like the "hospital cases involving marijuana" statements, I really have to laugh. I mean they ALWAYS fail to mention WHAT ELSE was in that person system.

 

"Johnny had two 8balls of coke and Ecstasy pill and some herion in his system, but what I am really alarmed about, is that joint he smoked, something has got to be done about this goddamn pot problem, get me the whitehouse"

[Slayer 0]

Pot makes Ripper like flat-bottomed women

 

Harmless?

[Crimson Platypus 0]

Legalize it all, sez I.

What do you mean by "it all"?

[cynicalprofit 0]

Im glad to know the us govt is spending all its time studying how our neighbors to north know how to grow that killer bud. Maybe we can start growing that shit state side.

[Guest Brian]

9 billion dollars. How can uncle sam not want to collect the taxes they could theoretically make if they accepted that market?

Probably because they couldn't control it. It is a weed you know. It grows wild pretty much anywhere. My grandmother in Kentucky used to pick it in the wild and smoke it during the Depression because the cigarettes cost too much.

[Highland 0]

Canada: Making addicts of America one toke at a time.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Legalize it all, sez I.

What do you mean by "it all"?

Every single recreational drug.

[nl5xsk1 0]

They're downplaying good American pot. I've had BC bud and it's not the be-all, end-all that people think. It's certainly not as good as in Amsterdam. Hell, I'd put the Cough from Ft Collins CO up against the best BC and feel pretty confident.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

9 billion dollars. How can uncle sam not want to collect the taxes they could theoretically make if they accepted that market?

Probably because they couldn't control it. It is a weed you know. It grows wild pretty much anywhere. My grandmother in Kentucky used to pick it in the wild and smoke it during the Depression because the cigarettes cost too much.

Sure they could. Look at cigarettes and alcohol. People can make either of those quite easily and on the cheap, but they don't. They pay a premium for convenience. As easy as pot is to grow, a major tobacco company could grow acres upon acres, thus totally bottoming out the black market trade already in existence. The dealers couldn't compete with that kind of volume, advertising, and convenience. Hell, THEY'd be buying packs of Camel Joints too. It would make untold riches as a novelty at first, then it would eventually become passe and remain in the state it's in, only legal at a bar or someplace, without dealers driving around with a qp and a .45 between their legs, running from the cops. It's still illegal because the government is stubborn.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I thought pot was still illegal because of how much money cigarette companies feed to politicians, and the reasoning is that people buying pot would mean that they'd be spending less on smokes.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

That was part of the original reason. Big tobacco just doesn't realize what a GIGANTIC goldmine they have under their nose. Phillip-Morris, RJR, Lorillard, Brown and Williamson..those four companies make, I'd estimate, about 95% of the brands America smokes. They've already got the smoking market cornered, why not branch out the product into something that will sell huge? They've got the money to lobby, after all..

[NoCalMike 0]

isn't Anheiser-Busch(sp?) the #1 contributor to the anti-pot lobby? They know a big loss is in it for them. As far as the government controlling pot. It would be a bit more difficult then Alcohol/cigarettes due mainly to sheer amount needed to get high as opposed to amount needed to get drunk/nicotine fix. To get high you barely need any weed at all, and unless you are a stoner4life type, then you probably aren't getting high daily, more likely weekends/parties. Compare that to beer, where you NEED at least a 6 pack if you are the average sized guy, probably more then a 6pack to get really hammered. So right off the bat, you would need to make a lot bigger effort to make your own daily supply of alcohol, then plant a pot seed and let it grow on it's own producing more then enough pot for a recreational user. Weed is economically viable to grow by yourself, alcohol/cigs are not. And even if you are not growing your own perse, just about everyone has "a friend" who grows enough for the neighborhood.

 

Don't get me wrong, any company professionally growing it is still going to make a ton, but there will still be a major market created due to the convenience of buying it from "johnny down the block" for probably cheaper then a drugstore would sell it for.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I personally think that legalization is a bad idea ... but I am in favor of decriminalization. Make it so that possession is legal, but only if you have proof that you bought it from a pot-store (pot store being comparable to a liquor store). Growing or distributing pot would still be illegal, so people couldn't just get it from the neighborhood grower.

 

And I think that I read somewhere that a bunch of the tobacco companies had registered names to be used if/when pot was legalized/decriminalized ... but it might have been one of those urban legend things. Does anyone else remember hearing anything like that?

[Guest Vitamin X]

I just hope in my lifetime it's decriminalized sometime.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I just hope in my lifetime it's decriminalized sometime.

that makes two of us pal....

 

*lights up*

 

oh this shit is still illegal...

 

*runs*

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Barely. But only if you're Canadian.

 

The summer of 2003 will no doubt go down as the most balls-to-the-wall summer in terms of the sheer amount of people I saw smoking weed in public places. My friend lit up a joint in direct view of a cop at SARS-Stock and nothing happened, apparently because the police were given special orders to ignore all people smoking up.

 

I loves my country.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

A subject I'm an expert in...awesome.

 

It's very true that weed is more potent now than it once was. The reason they know this for the person who asked is, that they did potency studies in the 70's and we've compared those studies to current levels of THC.

 

I've smoked Bud from all over the world and I'm being very truthful when I say BC Bud is the best. For those who had it and didn't think it was so great then you likely got it from the wrong source.

 

The further North you go in BC the better, allthough there is some prime growing locations off the coast near Vancouver Island. Ashcroft is also a very good source.