I'm still fairly new to the Detroit area, and it's easy to forget that Canada is just across the river -- the nearest city being Windsor, Ontario. While I hate to think that my mind has been programmed by big media and political pundits, the fact is that when I hear about "illegal immigrants" and "drug smugglers" I tend to associate these with Mexico and not "our fine neighbor to the North."

So I am finding it a bit startling to read stories like this one (headlined "Patrols guard against smugglers on Michigan-Ontario border"):

Drugs and illegal immigrants are the main cargo coming into Michigan. Authorities say they believe criminal rings are involved in the smuggling of many of the illegal immigrants. For $2,000 to $3,000, almost anyone can get a trip across the river, they said.

Officers also suspect increased security at land crossings, such as bridges, is leading to an increase in narcotics smuggled across the water. Border agents found an undocumented Albanian last March in a riverside park in Detroit with a hockey bag filled with about $28,600 worth of marijuana.

Interesting. There wouldn't be much work for any illegal aliens around here. There are far fewer Hispanic workers in the area; not once when I've gone to Home Depot or Lowes have I seen aliens hanging around looking for work. (In California there are so many you can barely drive into the parking lots.)

Other than smuggling, I don't know what an Albanian might be doing here.

I noticed also that the smuggling seems to be a two way street:

Law enforcement agencies hope to slow down the smuggling -- primarily narcotics and illegal immigrants coming into Michigan and alcohol and cigarettes going into Canada -- by beefing up equipment and patrols.

What drugs do they have that we want so badly that people are going to risk prison to smuggle them across? Are they cheaper there?

According to the State Department, it's mostly marijuana and ecstasy:

Drug Flow/Transit. Marijuana is smuggled primarily from British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec into the U.S. by all modes of conveyance. Significant seizures of MDMA from clandestine laboratories indicate they are larger and more sophisticated organized crime operations. Prior to 2004, MDMA arrived mainly in tablet or powder form from Europe. Shipments of MDMA powder and tablets were intercepted at Canadian ports of entry, notably Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The CBSA reported that (as of September 30) it had seized 54,194 doses of MDMA at the border.

The U.S. State Department says Canada should do more to curb the production and trade in ecstasy and other illicit drugs.

The 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, released Friday, says Canada has become the top source of ecstasy available in the United States.

"Canada's continued role as a source country for ecstasy to U.S. markets highlights the need for greater co-operation in tracking precursor chemical activity," it says.

The State Department report also complains about Canadian meth labs, but what I found most intriguing is the attempt to meddle with Canada's harm reduction programs:

The State Department also cast a critical eye on harm-reduction programs across Canada, such as a controversial supervised injection site in Vancouver.

It pointed to a 2007 report of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which said a Vancouver Island "safe crack kit" program violated the 1998 UN Drug Convention.

"Canada should implement the INCB's recommendations to eliminate drug injection sites and drug paraphernalia distribution programs because they violate international drug treaties."

The report also quoted Canadian officials as saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted to increase penalties for drug production and trafficking, but not for drug use.

What are we trying to do? Spread the misery?

The United States has also gone to war against a Canadian who sells marijuana seeds.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Psychedelic rock booms through The Vapour Lounge. In the store, young and some not-so-young people smoke pot through a variety of devices. And owner Marc Emery stands in the middle of it all, proclaiming his goal of defeating the U.S. war on drugs.

Known as the Prince of Pot, Emery has sold millions of marijuana seeds around the world by mail over the past decade. In doing so, he has drawn the attention of U.S. drug officials, who want him extradited to Seattle. Emery has agreed to plead guilty in Seattle to one count of marijuana distribution in exchange for dismissal of all other counts, and the U.S. District Attorney is pressing for a sentence of five to eight years in a U.S. prison.

The case is the latest twist in Emery's two-decade-long fight against the prohibition of marijuana in North America. To his supporters, he is a brave crusader for the use and sale of a drug with both recreational and medicinal value. To drug officials, he is a criminal and the biggest purveyor of marijuana from Canada into the United States.

Emery sits "right smack in the middle" of the North American debate over marijuana prohibition, said Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. St. Pierre predicted that Emery's trial would "kick-start it all again."

But drug officials say they are simply going after one of the world's top 50 drug traffickers. U.S. authorities claim Emery's seeds have grown $2.2 billion worth of pot.

As any horticulturalist knows, seeds can't grow by themselves themselves into $2.2 billion worth of pot; they need soil, water, warmth, sunlight, fertilizer, and pesticides. And who is supplying that soil, water, warmth, sunlight, fertilizer and pesticides? Seriously, don't they also bear a large share of responsibility for these dangerous pot precursors?

Until I stumbled onto him today, I'd never heard of the seed man before, and it's tough to take this seriously. But the DEA takes him very seriously -- as a threat to the United States:

"He's a drug trafficker, plain and simple," said the DEA's Rodney Benson in 2006. "Marc Emery is a significant threat to the United States."

I couldn't make this up if I tried.