El Reservorio Acuífero

In 2014, the Canadian government continued its robust efforts to combat the production, distribution, and consumption of illicit drugs. Canada is a substantial producer of MDMA (ecstasy) for domestic use and is a significant supplier of both MDMA and marijuana to the United States. As part of its National Anti-Drug Strategy, Canada has implemented targeted initiatives to fight the trafficking of marijuana and synthetic drugs. Canada and the United States cooperate extensively in counternarcotics efforts by sharing information and conducting joint operations.

B. Drug Control Accomplishments, Policies, and Trends 1. Institutional Development

Canada’s National Antidrug Strategy was launched in 2007 and encompasses prevention, treatment, and enforcement. Funding for the Strategy is approximately $500 million over a five- year cycle spanning 2012-2017. The Government of Canada also provides additional funding for drug control activities beyond the National Anti-Drug Strategy, while provinces and territories have significant budgets related to drug prevention and treatment.

From June through August, Health Canada solicited public input on a draft regulation that would require tamper resistant properties for prescription drugs at high risk of abuse, including

controlled-release oxycodone. At the end of 2014, Health Canada was reviewing the input received.

On October 27, the House Committee on Public Safety and National Security began its study of the government’s “Respect for Communities Act” (C-2). The Act seeks to tighten federal site inspection powers and impose stricter criteria for supervised drug consumption sites.

Marijuana is not an approved drug or medicine in Canada, but the courts have required

reasonable access to a legal source of marijuana when authorized by a physician. In March, the federal government issued new regulations to ban small-scale cultivation of marijuana and to require those with a doctor’s prescription to purchase from licensed commercial

producers. Medical marijuana users in British Columbia challenged the new regulations in court, citing concerns that the new system will not have the capacity to meet demand. A court

injunction has allowed authorized users and producers to continue to grow medical marijuana for personal consumption pending a trial.

In March, the Minister of Justice indicated that the government would consider mechanisms, including legislation, to give police discretion to ticket for individuals in possession of small

Police (RCMP) is also an active member of the International Narcotics Control Board's Task Forces, which includes Project ION (International Operations on New Psychoactive Substances).

2. Supply Reduction

Cannabis cultivation and the manufacture of synthetic drugs are concentrated in British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. Canada is a primary source country of both high-potency marijuana and MDMA to the United States, and Canadian synthetic drugs and amphetamine-type stimulants are exported to Asia, Europe, and Australia. Canadian MDMA is increasingly being mixed with or replaced by substances that have similar effects, but are still marketed as

“ecstasy.” Methamphetamine continues to be produced in large quantities. Synthetic

cannabinoids are increasingly popular in Canada and are often advertised as a “legal alternative” to marijuana.

In 2014, the RCMP continued to implement the “Marihuana Grow Initiative (MGI),” which targets Canadian illicit marijuana production, and to support the “Synthetic Drug Initiative” (SDI), which involves information sharing between the RCMP and other government agencies related to synthetic drugs. Through October, the MGI centralized database listed 51 marijuana cultivation operations and 17 clandestine labs dismantled by the RCMP in 2014, mainly in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. The RCMP also participates with Canadian Armed Forces in Operation SABOT, an annual marijuana eradication operation that seized 42,051 marijuana plants in 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available).

Most cocaine available in Canada is trafficked from South America through Mexico and the United States; however, traffickers are increasing their efforts to ship cocaine directly from South America to Canada via air, parcel, and maritime conveyances.

No overall drug seizure statistics were available at the time of this report from the Canadian government for 2014.

3. Drug Abuse Awareness, Demand Reduction, and Treatment

Since 2007, Health Canada has provided approximately $8.5m annually to projects to discourage illicit drug use among youth through the Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund. Health Canada is providing approximately $71 million in 2014-15 to support First Nations and Inuit communities with addiction prevention and treatment services, and approximately $11.6 million annually to strengthen treatment through the Drug Treatment Funding Program.

On October 20, the government announced the Preventing Drug Abuse Media Campaign, which ran until December and provided parents with the information and tools needed to talk with their teenagers about the harmful effects of prescription drug abuse and marijuana use.

Canada has seven federally-funded drug treatment courts, as well as several local drug treatment courts that work in partnership with provincial, municipal, law enforcement, judicial, and

According to a 2012 report, the prevalence of cannabis use among Canadians aged 15 years and older was 10.2 percent in 2012, up slightly from 2011, but lower than in 2004 (14.1 percent). The prevalence in 2012 was significantly lower than in 2004 among youth aged 15 to 24 years (20.3 percent versus 37 percent). In a separate survey, 1.4 percent of secondary students reported using “synthetic marijuana” in the previous 12 months.

Past-year use of other illicit drugs such as ecstasy (0.6 percent), hallucinogens (1.1 percent) and cocaine (1.1 percent) remained largely unchanged since 2004. Past-year use of speed,

methamphetamine, or heroin was not reported.

In 2012, 1.5 percent of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported they abuseda psychoactive pharmaceutical, compared to 0.7 percent in 2011. The overall rate of psychoactive

pharmaceutical use among Canadians aged 15 years and older rose slightly between 2012 (24.1 percent) and 2011 (22.9 percent), while the rate among youth increased from 17.6 percent in 2011to 24.7 percent in 2012.

4. Corruption

The Government of Canada has strong anti-corruption laws and policies and holds its officials, including law enforcement personnel, to a high standard of conduct. Civil servants charged with corruption are subject to prosecution. No senior government officials are known to engage in, encourage, or facilitate illegal activity associated with drug trafficking. Corruption among law enforcement officials is rare.

C. National Goals, Bilateral Cooperation, and U.S. PolicyInitiatives

The United States and Canada exchange forfeited assets through a bilateral asset-sharing agreement and exchange information on customs offenses through a customs mutual assistance agreement. Judicial assistance and extradition matters operate under a mutual legal assistance treaty, an extradition treaty, and related law-enforcement protocols, including the long-standing memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and RCMP by which their representatives can work directly with each other on drug-related matters.

U.S. federal, state, local, and tribal entities interact with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), RCMP, provincial and local police, and other Canadian law enforcement authorities to combat illegal drugs. Bilateral cooperation is coordinated through the Cross-Border Crime Forum and other fora. Integrated teams consisting of RCMP, CBSA, and U.S. federal law enforcement authorities operate in 24 locations along the border, including four locations where Canadian and American intelligence analysts are co-located. The Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) is an investigative taskforce model that incorporates personnel from

numerous U.S. and Canadian agencies.

In 2014, the Integrated Cross-border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations (known as

more than 185 patrols and 322 boardings. The RCMP and U.S. Coast Guard plan (USCG) to deploy two new Shiprider teams in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway in 2015-2016.

Canada continues to participate in the North American Maritime Security Initiative (NAMSI) with Mexico and the United States. Canada and the United States also continue to exercise a memorandum of understanding regarding the deployment of USCG law enforcement

detachments on Canadian Navy ships in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.

D. Conclusion

The United States cooperates extensively with Canada on bilateral law enforcement matters and acknowledges the strong and consistent anti-drug message from Canada’s federal government.

The United States will continue to work with Canada to stem the flow of narcotics across our shared-border, and enhance regulatory frameworks to prevent access to precursor chemicals and lab equipment for criminal use.

Chile

Chile is a transit country for Andean cocaine destined primarily for Europe. Long, porous borders with Argentina, Peru and Bolivia present special challenges to its efforts to combat drug trafficking. Restrictions on inspecting Bolivian-originated shipments (pursuant to a Bolivia- Chile treaty) impede efforts to interdict shipments of illegal narcotics. Chile is not a major producer of organic or synthetic drugs.

Drug control is a priority for Chile. Chile has invested heavily in counternarcotic efforts in the north of the country through its Northern Border Plan, a four-year initiative begun in 2011 and overseen by the Ministry of Interior. The $70 million program focuses on combatting drug and contraband smuggling along roughly 590 miles of border with Peru and Bolivia. Also in 2014, the Government of Chile began developing a national strategy to combat drug trafficking, which will include enhanced interagency cooperation (currently a significant impediment to

information sharing), institutional development and international cooperation.

Operations Capricorn and Masquerade were among Chile’s major counter narcotics

accomplishments of 2014. Operation Capricorn, the result of a four month wiretap investigation, culminated with the arrest of eight Chilean nationals and the seizure of over 1.79 metric tons (MT) of cocaine base, 1.21 MT of marijuana, and three MT of cocaine hydrochloride (HCL cocaine). The seven-month long operation Masquerade resulted in the seizure of 1.87 MT of marijuana and 539 kilograms of cocaine base.

Despite relatively static figures in internal consumption of HCL cocaine and cocaine base, there have been significant escalations in the amounts of drugs seized and number of drug processing labs found. For example, 17 drug processing labs were raided in the Santiago Metropolitan area in 2014 compared with six in 2013. In addition to enhanced drug interdiction capacity, senior officials in the Ministry of Interior have suggested that the rise in drug seizures and processing laboratories indicates an increase in the use of Chile as a conduit country for drug exportation.

The National Service for Drug and Alcohol Prevention and Rehabilitation continued effective demand reduction and drug treatment programs in 2014.

The United States partners with Chile to strengthen the capacity of Chilean institutions to

confront drug trafficking and actively collaborates in the areas of container inspection, advanced drug interdiction techniques and fighting the production and distribution of synthetic drugs. The Government of Chile also coordinates assistance, dialogue and information sharing on

counternarcotics efforts with other governments in South and Central America, as well as Europe.

The United States and Chile are parties to an extradition treaty that entered into force in 1902. A new treaty is awaiting ratification in both countries. The United States and Chile do not have a mutual legal assistance treaty, but cooperate under the Inter-American Convention on Mutual

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