Canada is 'hub' for illegal drug shipments

[CHIMO]

Source: CBC News

Canada has become a major hub for producing and shipping methamphetamines and ecstasy to markets worldwide, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday.

"Canada, which traditionally consumes a lot of cannabis and produces a lot of cannabis, is also a hub now for methamphetamines and ecstasy, which would likely come as a surprise for Canadians," said Walter Kemp, a spokesman for the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime.

According to the 314-page report by the UN agency, organized crime involved in the methamphetamine trade “has grown significantly” in Canada. Such criminal groups have also increased the amount of methamphetamines they manufacture and export.

Australia, for example, reported that 83 per cent by weight of its total seized imports of methamphetamines came from Canada. In Japan, the figure was 62 per cent.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/06/24/un-drug.html

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Last Updated: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 | 5:53 PM ET

[Mike 03]

1. This is a fascinating topic. Two years ago, it was marijuana that was the major

export from Canada.

Here is a great book to read, if anyone is interested in how this works:

McMAFIA: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld.

By Misha Glenny

Remarkable book.

[Tim01]

2. A friend of mine was in Edmonton, she said it was really scary.

She said there were random shootings all the time by meth heads. Not drug wars, just random murders.
She was glad to get back to the relative safety of D.C.
Not at all how she thought before she left for Canada.

[Posteritatis]

3. Edmonton's ugly in places, apparently

I'm in Halifax, which is struggling to take up the lead. It's making a good go at it per capita, but the "drug war" in town is something of a joke - bunch of middle-aged meth heads taking potshots at each other in the sticks more than anything else, so nobody's been injured yet who wasn't a participant. Even so...

I think we're at eight or nine homicides this year, which is about three times the average for the city most years.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Edmonton: "Land of the Five Day Sandwich."

Life has always been cheap there.

[Vidar]

7. Got to ask about "the Five Day Sandwich."

[Captain Hilts]

9. In Canada, pre-wrapped sandwiches have an expiration period of three days. In Edmondton it was 5.

The rest of Canada made sport of this in a big way.

It's a 1980s-era joke. But underlines how Edmonton is...'different'.

[CHIMO]

11. Thanks

I was wondering about that myself.
Probably knew it and forgot it.

But you are right. Social Credit has never died here. They just changed their name. Recent blubbers by government people just enforce it.

[Vidar]

12. Thanks. The long defunct Canadian World Domination forum ( a personal

favorite) would have cleared that up for me.

[Captain Hilts]

13. Well, it would be grand if Canada dominated the world.

Both sides of my family came to the US from England via Canada.

Canadian World Domination forum???

[Vidar]

19. It was a wonderful satire site set up by a couple of Canadian

IT students in '97 or '98. Lasted almost 8 years because of a great cast of characters in the forum. I believe the site itself is still available via the Wayback Machine. The forum is not. It's denizens settled elsewhere, but I, a lowly yankee lurker, was too late to the party.

[Prometheus Bound]

6. 2008 Homicides: DC (248), Edm (35) -- Population: DC (560K), Edm (782K)

Just for the record

[Ztolkins]

8. Odd

Unfortunate for your friends vacation.

I'm in Edmonton right now, have been my whole life. It has gotten a bit more dangerous, but no one should have fears of walking down the street at anytime of the day here. Most of the murders that have occurred aren't random. Almost all of them have, indeed, been related to gangs/drugs. For Edmonton, the rate of murder has been higher but are still relatively low compared with other cities within Canada and south of the border.

I guess my point is that I haven't yet felt afraid to walk down any street in Edmonton, especially where tourists would most likely end up

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. Edmonton is a really strange city

And is a draw to many transient types drawn by high wages for manual labor in the oil industry, unfortunately these "rig pigs" as they are known don't take the money and try to get ahead in life, they spend it on prostitutes, drugs and alcohol. When the work drys up for the season they spend the rest of the year getting up to no good in Edmonton.

Winnipeg is similar, but without the jobs the transients stick to year-round property crime.

[caseymoz]

5. Canada is so large and sparsely populated: they'll never find meth labs there.

They've got about a few million square miles of remote, empty space there, much of rough territory. Due to global warming, it has begun to get warmer. Then it has a border with the US that's impossible to restrict. Forget interdiction.

This is the very end of the War on Drugs.

[Captain Hilts]

10. But something like 90% of the pop. is squished within 50m of the US border. nt

[caseymoz]

18. That's my point. Drive 50 miles north, and you're in wilderness.

You could drive further north and west. Who is going to find your meth lab up there? You could set up a whole meth industrial complex.

[Posteritatis]

16. We have these things called 'cities' that prevent our even distribution across the landmass (nt)

[caseymoz]

17. Please I'm not putting down Canada.

I'm only saying that it has a landmass which is impossible to police for drugs.

Toronto has a density of 6835.2 people per square mile.

All of Canada has a population density of 3.68 people per square mile. That's quite a variance. A lot of land to hide in there.

[Posteritatis]

20. And if you take into account where almost all the population lives

You get a much higher land density. Nobody's going to be putting meth labs up in the Territories five hundred kilometers from the nearest town; the size is irrelevant once you get much distance from the border.

[caseymoz]

21. Why not? Do you know what the profit margin is for meth?

Okay, maybe not 500 kilometers, then. Maybe just 300. They can afford a little overhead for more security and quantity. You just don't have any vision here. Or is it that you don't like it suggested that this could go on in Canada? It's going on in my state like crazy. I think the people who are doing it here 15 kilometers from the nearest town wish they were 150 away. I'm certain it is happening in Alaska.

I'm not saying Canadians are even doing this. About 19 percent of Canada's population are immigrants. It has huge open borders and shorelines. Almost anybody could be doing this in remote Canada.

[Fearless]

14. I don't see how this is a surprise. There's a lot of open space...

Cops can't be everywhere. I know in this country they try, but still... :eyes: