"Canada�s relaxed attitude toward street drugs might be no one�s concern but its own � if the consequences weren�t always spilling over the country�s border.

As it happens, Canada�s relatively tolerant approach to drugs � including heroin and cocaine � has made it an ideal base for drug-trafficking operations that reach into the United States. A particularly appalling example is the OxyContin smuggling ring organized by a young Lummi Indian, Eugenia Phair.

As reported Monday by The New York Times, Phair built a drug-smuggling �business� that � at its height in 2003 and 2004 � employed 12 to 15 other Lummi women as mules.

From the Lummi reservation just south of the Canadian border, they would drive to Vancouver to buy OxyContin, a prescription narcotic that produces a morphine-like high when ground into powder. Each woman would buy 60 to 80 pills, stow them in condoms hidden in body cavities, then sneak them back to the reservation."

Get the Story:
How the B.C. connection devastated the Lummis (The Tacoma News-Tribune 2/22)
pwpwd

Related Stories:
Jourdain blasts comments in NYT story on drugs (2/21)
NY Times: Drug trafficking in Indian Country (2/20)
St. Croix Band hears dangers of methamphetamine (01/19)
Chippewa Cree Tribe launches anti-meth campaign (01/12)
Tribe's public defender held on meth charges (01/04)
Tribe's public defender charged in meth conspiracy (12/21)
Opinion: Tribes, state to combat meth problem (11/28)
Washoe Tribe joins fight against meth (11/01)
Crow Chairman: 'We have a meth epidemic' (10/26)
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe hosts meth summit (10/07)
NAIHC expands program to deal with meth problem (09/29)
U.S. claims 400 meth arrests in 'Operation Wildfire' (08/31)
Washoe Tribe says meth invading communities (08/18)
Methamphetamine called a big problem for tribes (8/11)
Navajo Nation counts 32 active gangs, 500 members (08/05)
Reservation meth dealer given life prison sentence (07/08)
Nevada tribe concerned about methamphetamine use (06/22)
Plan seeks to combat meth problem in Montana (03/22)
Navajo police find methamphetamine in car (03/04)
Meth use a serious problem among Native youth (02/25)
Officials praise Navajo methamphetamine law (2/21)
Navajo Nation Council passes methamphetamine law (02/14)
Methamphetamine use explodes on reservation (2/7)
Idaho tribe to sign law enforcement agreement (02/03)
Navajo Nation peyote, meth legislation on hold (11/11)
Reservations called breeding ground for meth (11/08)
Navajo community worried about meth trafficking (10/20)
Film to expose dangers of meth on Navajo Nation (06/17)
Task force cracks drug rings in Indian Country (06/07)
Authorities bust drug ring on Oklahoma tribal land (05/06)
Calif. tribe, local police break up drug ring (01/29)