Border patrols have already confiscated over 13,000 pounds of weed smuggled into the United States from Canada

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In the first five months of 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials seized over 13,000 pounds of Canadian weed that smugglers were trying to bring onto U.S. soil.

It used to be rare for illegal weed to be smuggled into the U.S. from Canada, but after the Great White North boosted adult sales in 2018, cannabis seizures on the U.S.-Canadian border rose 75 percent. The weed seizure rate rose even further last March after the border closed to halt the spread of the pandemic. In 2020, CBP officials seized over 70,000 pounds of weed at the border.

With the traditional border crossings closed, smugglers had to use unusual tricks to get their goods into the United States. Last April, the CBP arrested a nurse who tried to use COVID-19 credentials to smuggle 150 pounds of weed across the border. And in July, Michigan police caught a smuggler who was carrying hundreds of pounds of Canadian flowers across the Detroit River in a submarine.

This year, border police made 9 major cannabis seizures at border crossings in New York, North Dakota and Vermont. Similar to last year, almost all of the smuggled herb was in the form of dried flowers, but CBP officials confiscated 134 pounds of cannabis extract at the Pembina port of entry between Winnipeg and North Dakota in March. In total, border police seized over 13,000 pounds of grass worth over $ 20 million this year.

In April, Pembina border police seized another massive seizure, seizing 2,796 pounds of flowers hidden in a straw shipment. The following month, authorities seized 3,765 pounds of weeds at the Port of Entry portal between Saskatchewan and North Dakota. And in Vermont, CBP officials looted 1,331 pounds of buds disguised as a shipment of “food products” from Quebec.

CBP officials also made seven other major cannabis seizures at entry points between New York and Canada. In January, police officers found 1,281 pounds of grass in hockey bags on the back of a truck crossing the Ontario border. Later that month, another £ 1,545 pot was discovered on a commercial broadcast claiming to be “used rolls of film” and an additional £ 936 confiscated from a broadcast labeled “Telephone Accessories”.

The remarkable number of weed seizures suggests that the CBP could break another record for weed seizures on the Canadian border this year. But things look very different on America’s southern border. In March of this year, the DEA reported that border seizures of cannabis imported from Mexico have decreased by 80 percent since 2013. Now that adult cannabis is legal in three of the four US states bordering Mexico, the demand for Mexican black market weed has plummeted significantly.

However, five US states on the Canadian border are still banning weed, and those states also act as a conduit to the Midwestern Prohibited States. The massive demand for cannabis in these arid states is likely to continue to convince smugglers to keep bringing Canadian cannabis to the US, at least until the federal government finally gets to commit to serious cannabis reform.