U.S. dollar deterring Canadian marijuana smugglers

[I]MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian"[/I]]Tuesday said:

WeBeHigh.com - Worldwide Marijuana Travel Guide With Marijuana Prices, Spots & Legalization Status[/URL], a Web site billing itself as “a travelers' guide for getting high.” They say pot in Nelson is “virtually legal,” and note that “public smoking is more or less OK if you're not dumb about it.”

And yet Middlemiss can tell you all about hassles with authorities, hassles he blames on the myth of B.C. bud and the infamy of large exporters.

“We have a motto around here, and it's called Canadian pot for Canadian lungs,” Middlemiss said. “We don't need the DEA blowback. We've got DEA helicopters over our gardens, and all this DEA money out of Washington being spent up in Vancouver. It's nuts.”

Also up in Vancouver is Marc Emery, the so-called “Prince of Pot,” a Canadian who for years made his living selling mail-order pot seeds. He's also head of the political Marijuana Party, and runs Cannabis Culture magazine. To Canadian officials, he's a businessman. To U.S. law enforcement, he's a fugitive for selling seeds across the border.

Emery, unlike Easton and Middlemiss, believes Canada's booming oil fields have pumped enough dollars into enough pockets that the domestic demand can, for now, absorb the homegrown pot supply, thereby keeping prices high despite the lost export market.

“We have a very strong economy here,” Emery said. “It's just like a bull running through a china shop - this economy is on the run.”

But whether Canada has enough smokers to puff up this season's entire crop - it's harvest time in Nelson right now - all agree on one thing: Exports have ceased, Montana is dry, and with California growers located so far away, the stage is set for a homegrown bonanza under the Big Sky.

“At this point, you might as well grow it locally,” said Moore, at Kalispell's Heads Up. “It's not worth the risk to smuggle it down anymore, so people will start their own operations. It's simple supply-and-demand economics.”

During the last economic recession, local busts of grow operations went way up, he said, as people turned to pot to pay bills, meet mortgage payments and feed the family.

“What's a better way of doing that than plugging in a light?” Moore said.

“Even in the good times,” he said, “people around here can't afford to buy a house. If the economy takes a dive, well, it's always easy to grow your own.”

According to Middlemiss, there's a renaissance of sorts in new technology for small, compact, low-profile homegrown operations.

Emery likewise looks for the signs of economic fallout not on Wall Street but on Main Street, where the pot changes hands every day.

The signs, he said, are everywhere. Three years ago, at least one person was caught smuggling marijuana south into the U.S. almost every day, he said. Now, whole months go by without a substantial border bust.

But don't forget the struggling peso, which down on the U.S.-Mexico border may soon be helping to fill the B.C. bud gap - albeit without the pedigree.

“They're all about quantity down there,” Middlemiss said. “We're about the quality.”

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medicineman said:

So does that mean my OZs have gone from 200 to 300, wow, I thought I was selling too cheap, ~LOL~, Only kidding,~LOL~, I don't sell weed.

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ViRedd said:

You're "selling" ozs for $200? Try growing Train Wreck or Super Silver Haze ... it goes for $400-$500 here. ~lol~ I don't sell either.

Vi

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ViRedd said:

Excellent post, cheezy. Thanks for the info ...

Vi

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ViRedd said:

You're "selling" ozs for $200? Try growing Train Wreck or Super Silver Haze ... it goes for $400-$500 here. ~lol~ I don't sell either.

Vi

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medicineman said:

I wonder, if the US dollar zeros out, does this mean the weed would be free?? I'm thinking my Iraqi Dinars may well be worth a million US dollars, soon. Then I'll cash them in for 1 dollar bills, and use them in my fireplace to keep warm this winter.

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ViRedd said:

I reread the original article that started this thread. The point was made that it costs $2000 to produce one pound of bud. Figuring really good nutrients and a 1000 watt light, it shouldn't be anywhere near this amount. What say you all?

Vi

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