quoted material :

---
Along the rugged coastline of British Columbia, more than a generation ago, the first American refugees trickled in. As the Vietnam War raged, draft dodgers who chose to flee America rather than fight an unacceptable war gravitated to Canada's west coast, to rain-washed Vancouver and northward in tiny villages astride deep fiords left by the glacial past.

A few of the new arrivals brought with them a taste for marijuana, and some began cultivating pot gardens. Isolated from the law by rugged terrain, separated from most of civilization by deep bays, a marijuana industry was born. As the tale goes, the coast north of Vancouver became a pot lover's paradise.

Now a new breed of American refugee has arrived, seeking asylum from a different kind of war--the fight over medical marijuana. By some counts, they number more than 100 expatriate U.S. citizens, many of them from California, the fiercest battleground in America's medpot fight.
---

use "cpunks/cpunks" for username and pass.

] Walters, the U.S. drug czar, says he has talked with his
] Canadian counterparts about the pitfalls of pot
] legalization and harboring of American drug fugitives.
] "If Canada wants to become the locus for that kind of
] activity," he says, "they're likely to pay a heavy
] price."

This is a really good article. I would not be suprised if Canada legalized pot. If they did, then this will segway with current conservative anger about the open border (thank you Bill "no spin (yeah, right)" O'Reilly). The result will be a very strange border situation, with major hassles involved in crossing one direction, but little trouble crossing the other direction... If this impacts the rate of trade, or if there are trade restrictions, then both sides will feel this in their wallets and their markets. The US may try to screw with the trade situation betting that it will hurt Canada more then the US. Of course, the US will have to contend with domestic pressures, both from the pot brigade, but also from corporate america and wall street...

So basically, this is worth paying attention to because it is certainly possible that there is a situation developing here that could have serious economic and policy implications. If this situation worsens rapidly this could prolong the recession.