Tuesday April 4 11:30 AM ETSome of the Best Marijuana in North America
WINNIPEG (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Manitoba, where agriculture is the backbone of the economy, has enhanced its farming reputation by growing some of the best marijuana in North America.
Drug enforcement officials in the United States said that the province was growing such potent marijuana that recreational users of the drug were asking for it by name.
``Manitoba is a brand that people ask for as far south as Florida,'' Brent Eaton, spokesman for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, told Reuters from Miami.
``We do grow some pretty good-quality stuff,'' said Corporal Bob Ross of the Winnipeg drug section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
A drug-producing reputation is perhaps at odds with a province that greets visitors with the words ``Friendly Manitoba'' on license plates, and where locals pride themselves on being hard-working, church-going and law-abiding citizens.
News of Manitoba's marijuana -- reportedly known as ''wheelchair weed'' for its strong disabling effect -- came less than a month after a study showed the province of 1.1 million people had the highest number of problem gamblers per capita in Canada.