Loads Of Pot

The loads of marijuana coming across the border from Canada are getting bigger.

That might be a sign that the drug smuggling problem is getting bigger, too, said Steve Garret, assistant chief of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Spokane.

There have been fewer seizure cases along the border between the Cascades and Rockies in the first six months of this year compared with 1999. But agents have confiscated nearly twice as much marijuana in that same period, Garrett said.

In fact, the amount of marijuana seized along that stretch of the border so far in 2000 is already greater than the total for last year.

Agents have seized some 1,166 pounds of Canadian pot in 23 incidents along the Inland Northwest border, Garrett said. They had grabbed about 675 pounds of marijuana in 27 seizures in the first half of 1999, and 1,051 pounds in 35 seizures for the whole year.

“To say these are larger loads is an understatement. They (smugglers) are bolder, and they’re moving more marijuana,” he said.

Along the Mexican border, there’s a definite peak season for marijuana smuggling because the plants are grown outside. In Canada, where they are grown inside with heat lamps, air conditioners and humidifiers, smuggling is “steady yearround,” Garrett said.