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Tighter Border Pushes Pot Prices Down in Province.
By admin | August 6, 2004
By Ethan Baron
the Province Staff Reporter.
Marijuana prices are plummeting in BC as post- 9/11 border security is making it harder for smugglers to move BC bud to the US.
The pot glut has cut the price of high-grade weed from $2,500 a pound to $2,000, and lower-grade marijuana from $1,500 to $1,200, said Staff-Sgt. Chuck Doucette, the RCMP’s Pacific Region drug-awareness co-ordinate.
“It’s harder to export than it used to be,” he said. “There’s not enough market in Canada to support all that pot. Intially you’re going to have stockpiles, then the price is going to go down.”
Doucette said police started hearing about the price decline about a week ago, from “people in the business.”
Pot smugglers have been caught in the enforcement curtain put up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said Mike Milne, spokeman for US Customs and Border Protection.
“When Sept. 11 hit, our US Congress was very generous in terms of appropriating and authorising new technologies and new resources. In some places, US border patrol tripled its presence on the US/Canada border,” Milne said.
“It’s really enhanced our narcotics-fighting efforts.”
Last year, US authorities seized 295 loads of marijuana totalling 9,286 kilograms from smugglers entering from BC, compared with 249 loads totalling 6,544 kg the year before, he said.
International Border Enforcement Teams of RCMP, Canada Customs and US border- enforcement staff have also cut the traffic, he said.
“By joining forces and playing together it really allowed these agencies to be more than the sum of their parts.”
On Monday, US White House drug czar John Walters visited Seattle to raise awareness about higher levels of THC in marijuana, and to warn people about powerful BC bud smuggled in from Canada.
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