US cops confiscated nearly 5,000 pounds of Canadian weed at the border last year.

When US cops brag about their tight border security and eagle eye for drug smugglers, the feds are usually talking about the country’s controversial crossing into Mexico. But in the wake of Canadian cannabis legalization, border patrol cops are reporting a significant increase in weed seizures at American entry points throughout the Great White North’s border.

For Canadian cannabis experts, the growing cannabis seizure statistics are a potential symptom of larger local issues, including a bloated black market and pressure from local authorities pushing illicit operators to do business out of country. But at the same time, struggles in the legal market have left plenty of room for underground dealers north of the border, adding a bit of confusion to the supposed increase in international pot trafficking.

“There’s the possibility that if they lose the Canadian market, that they’ll focus more effort on shipping it to the United States, places where it is still illegal, or to other countries for that matter,” University of Ottawa drug policy expert Eugene Oscapella told CBC. “But I don’t know that we’ve been successful enough in getting people to shift to the Canadian legal market, that it’s really dented the profits of criminal organizations significantly here.”

But no matter the reason for the increase in weed moving across America’s northern border, cops on both sides of the invisible nation line urged travelers to the leave the weed at home, no matter the legal status of the place they’re visiting.

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