Do you need some relief from high blood pressure? Or do you just want to get high? Then Canada is for you. That is the message wafting across the border to the US, and it is driving the Bush administration crazy. There are so many Canadian pills and so much Canadian cannabis heading south, that some US officials are even having second thoughts about the term 'the longest undefended border in the world'. First, the pills. Prescription drugs are much cheaper in Canada, so more than two million Americans order their medicine from internet pharmacies here. It is a US$1 billion-a-year industry, and even though it is technically illegal, the traffic is growing every year. A few weeks ago, two chartered trains pulled into Vancouver. Out stepped 25 elderly Americans with their shopping lists - medicine for everything from acid reflux to asthma. When told her government says it is against the law, 78-year-old Carole Jacquez, of Apple Valley, California, said testily: 'They're not paying the bills - I am. They are higher and higher. Where is it going to stop?' It is a hard law to enforce. Officials are reluctant to block internet commerce, and besides, it is an election year, and all those pill-popping Americans vote. But the big pharmaceutical companies, alarmed at this lapse of consumer patriotism, are fighting back. They have put out scare adverts, warning consumers that the pills they are ordering from Canada may actually originate in other countries, which have less stringent quality controls. However, the ads have no effect. Several US states, in fact, are encouraging their citizens to save money and shop for pills in Canada. The proliferation of pot is a trickier problem. American visitors to Vancouver have recently been shocked to learn that some cafes openly sell marijuana over the counter. Police look the other way, and Vancouver's mayor says it is not a big deal. But when one cafe's owner went public recently, city fathers were alarmed, and the owner may lose her business licence. It seems that it is okay to sell it; people would just rather that you do not talk about it. This relaxed attitude to so-called recreational drugs irks the Americans. John Walters, the Bush administration's drug tsar, repeatedly lambasts Canada for not cracking down on marijuana growers and dealers. Much of their product, he says, moves south. Even though cocaine from Latin American and heroin from Southeast Asia represent a vastly more serious problem, it is the Canadian drugs that get the attention. Last month, the US military actually began sending up surveillance aircraft near the border with British Columbia. On several fronts, the message is clear: Canada, keep your drugs to yourself.