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UNITED NATIONS -- Vendors of cannabis seeds through Canadian Internet sites are so confident of being beyond the reach of the law they use their home pages to mock the authorities.
"Let me help you overgrow the government", says the Web site of Vancouver-based Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds, in business since 1994.
H.D. Seeds, which has been "serving Canadians since 1997", shows a picture of the Houses of Parliament on its home page. The site likes to keep the accounting books in order, however. It warns that 7% will be added to each purchase to cover Canada's goods and services tax.
Other sites glorify convicted drug traffickers. Stinky's Marihuana Seed Bank, for example, has named one its seed packages in honour of Howard Marks, described as "one of the biggest marijuana smugglers of our time".
The package is called Mr. Nice, the title Mr. Marks chose for his 1996 autobiography, which he wrote after spending seven years in a U.S. penitentiary.
Canadian-based Internet servers now host the world's largest number of Web sites selling cannabis seeds and the equipment required to grow the drug hydroponically, says the International Narcotics Control Board, a UN agency, in its 1999 annual report released today.
Police say they are powerless --for the moment -- to knock the vendors off-line because Internet investigations are too complicated and costly to justify when compared with the relatively light sentences meted out by the courts.
But the UN report warns that "indoor cultivation of very potent cannabis varieties is being promoted through" sales from the sites, especially in Western Canada and Quebec.
What's more, much of the growing is conducted by organized crime groups, which are selling the drug in Canada and smuggling it into the United States.
"We know it is a problem and we are working on a strategy to combat it", said Corporal Mike Dunbar, an RCMP drug enforcement officer based in Vancouver.
"Just saying that a vendor supplied someone with 10 seeds won't get a lot in court. We have to show the entire extent of the business", he said.
"But traditional investigative techniques can't be applied to the Internet. Sites can disappear overnight. Links can go on forever. Hosts may be in any country in the world."
Investigators need to double as cyberspace experts. But assembling teams of such experts is costly, and the results limited, when measured in terms of years in jail for convicted traffickers.
"Sentences are no deterrent and this frustrates us and the Americans", said Cpl. Dunbar. "It has been brought up at the political level."
In Quebec, cannabis growers are earning the "nice price" of $3,000 (all figures US) a pound for their crop, explained Sergeant Gilles Michaud, a Montreal-based drug enforcement spokesman.
"Its THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] level is so high that it is no longer a soft drug."
Local motorcycle gangs, Hells Angels and Rock Machine --which have contacts with the Bandidos of Texas -- dominate trafficking in cannabis in Quebec, said Sgt. Michaud.
A search of the Internet reveals thousands of sites selling cannabis seeds and growing equipment. They are too numerous to count, but an inordinate number appear to be in Canada.
The Internet address www.cannabis.com/seedselect instantly produces a list of 15 "primary sites" -- seven based in Canada, six in the Netherlands and two in Britain.
Payment is usually by cash or money order, though certified cheques are sometimes accepted. Prices range from about $100 to $300 for seed packages that will yield between 100 and 150 grams of marijuana.
All sites visited by the National Post carried a disclaimer saying purchasers should check their local laws to see if they can legally buy the seeds.
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