Australian National Review – Increase in legally grown cannabis from US and Canada smuggled into UK

According to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), there has been a huge increase in the amount of high-quality cannabis being legally grown in the United States, Canada and Thailand and being brought into the UK by air passengers on regular commercial flights.

It is illegal to grow, possess, distribute or sell cannabis in the UK.

The NCA reported on Wednesday that 378 people have been arrested this year alone in connection with investigations into cannabis smuggling by airline passengers.

An estimated 15 tonnes of cannabis have been detected and seized at UK airports so far this year, three times the amount seized in the whole of 2023 and up from just two tonnes seized in 2022.

On Wednesday, the NCA said 184 of the arrests this year were related to cannabis from Thailand, which legalized cannabis in 2022. Of those, 47 were from the United States and 75 from Canada.

Possession and cultivation of cannabis for recreational use is legal in 24 US states, including California, New York and Washington.

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Kevin Sabet, president of the U.S.-based advocacy group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), told The Epoch Times: “In the United States, we’ve seen an influx of marijuana grown in states where marijuana is legal being shipped and seized in states where there is no legal marijuana. So it’s no surprise that this problem has been exported internationally.”

He said couriers, who may not have been aware that cannabis possession is still illegal in Britain, “are at risk of a potentially life-changing prison sentence.”

Babbage said: “In some cases it is unclear whether the mules knew what the possible punishments were, but in most cases they were operating on behalf of organised criminal gangs.”

According to the NCA, drug couriers were recruited from the United States, Canada and Thailand, paid in cash and told that if they were caught they would face, at most, a fine.

But the maximum penalty for importing cannabis into the UK is 14 years in prison.

According to the NCA, 196 people have been convicted this year, serving a total of almost 188 years in prison.

US citizen Shawn Damari Ross, 29, was sentenced to 20 months in prison last month after flying from San Diego to Manchester, via Madrid, with a suitcase containing 36kg of cannabis with an estimated street value of $1,192,000 (£1,050,000).

Canadian national Colin O’Dowda, 27, brought a suitcase of cannabis worth $474,000 (£400,000) from Toronto to London Heathrow. He has pleaded guilty to illegally importing a controlled drug but has yet to be sentenced.

According to the NCA, drug couriers were typically required to carry between 15 and 40 kilograms of vacuum-packed cannabis in their suitcases.

Courier delivered 158 kilos

But Fernando Mayans Fuster, a 51-year-old Spaniard, was caught at Manchester Airport in May this year with eight suitcases containing 158kg of cannabis after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles.

In July, Mayans Fuster was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

The NCA says organised crime gangs that have access to cannabis grown in places where it is legal are recruiting couriers to transport it to the UK, where it can be more profitable than cannabis grown illegally indoors.

But the quality of the cannabis grown on these farms (usually empty, rented homes) is far inferior to the drug grown outdoors in places like Thailand, California and British Columbia. In Britain, the street price can be ten times higher.

British Minister Seema Malhotra said: “Anyone caught bringing cannabis into the UK will face the full force of the law.”

Legalization offers ‘significant coverage’

Sabet told The Epoch Times: “The legalization of marijuana in the United States has provided significant cover for pot profiteers to expand their operations and trade their illegal drugs under the guise of the state-legal marketplace.”

“The legalization of marijuana has had a direct impact on the growth of the marijuana industry and the technology they use to make marijuana as potent and addictive as possible. It is no surprise that countries with legal marijuana industries have genetically modified these products to be more potent,” he added.

Sabet said: “Marijuana has been an unmitigated failure in the United States, leading to more drug-impaired driving accidents, more addiction, worse mental health issues, more hospitalizations and poison control calls citing exposure to children. Canada has fared no better. Thailand plans to re-criminalize marijuana by the end of 2024, so it’s clear things aren’t going well there.”