MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Canadian production of high-potency marijuana is partly to blame for a doubling of pot-related emergency room cases in the United States, the head of U.S. drug policy said Wednesday. Reiterating U.S. criticism of a more relaxed Canadian attitude to marijuana, White House drug czar John Walters urged Ottawa to recognize the problem of hydroponically grown pot, which is grown in nutrient-rich solutions rather than soil. It is often grown inside under lights, and Walters said it sold for as much as cocaine. "Canada is exporting to us the crack of marijuana and it is a dangerous problem," Walters told reporters in Miami, where he kicked off a campaign to cut marijuana use by Hispanic youths. "We need to have political leadership in Canada that recognizes the problem," he said. "Addiction is going to spread in Canada dramatically. It has in many places." A longtime critic of Canadian plans to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Walters said that while the pot the hippie generation knew contained on average 1 percent of psychoactive Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, Canada's high-potency marijuana contained 20 to 30 percent THC. "It is extremely dangerous. It is one of the reasons why we believe ... we have seen a doubling of emergency room cases involving marijuana in the last several years from 60,000 to 120,000," Walters said. Disagreements over drug policy, combined with differences over the Iraq war, are among several issues that have chilled relations between Canada and its powerful southern neighbor. While maintaining that improving ties with Washington was a priority, new Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said in December he intended to press ahead with plans to end jail terms for people caught with small amounts of marijuana. And Ottawa has said that Washington's own data shows that of all the illegal pot seized by U.S. agents only 1.5 percent came from Canada. The head of the White House Office of National Drug Policy said that Canadian producers had a multibillion dollar marijuana growing business and that 80 to 90 percent of revenues came from the United States. He said Toronto authorities told him there were up to 15,000 indoor growers in that metropolitan area alone.
"It is extremely dangerous. It is one of the reasons why we believe ... we have seen a doubling of emergency room cases involving marijuana in the last several years from 60,000 to 120,000," Walters said. and these people needed to go to hospital for what???? i wish they'd elaborate more. smoking too much??.....lol.......i'd like to see the stats for all alcohol related emerencies, including the probable 60,000-120,000 deaths each year from it, and that's just in the U.K.......so god only knows the numbers for America......... why doesn't the U.S. govt just give up allready, they're never going to win...........Peace out.........Sid
I promise you if anyone did somehow end up in the hospital due to weed we would never hear the end of it..i'm once again calling bullshit