Pubdate: Mon, 16 May 2005
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Darah Hansen and Brad Badelt, CanWest News Service

VANCOUVER DRUG DEALERS ARE HOMEGROWN, STUDY FINDS

VANCOUVER - Residents should stop blaming Central American immigrants for 
drug trafficking in the city and start looking at more effective solutions 
to a homegrown program that's not going away on its own, says Kash Heed, a 
Vancouver Police Department inspector and author of a groundbreaking study 
on street-level drug trafficking.

Mr. Heed's study -- conducted as part of his Masters studies at Simon 
Fraser University -- paints a picture of the average drug dealer on the 
Downtown Eastside as a Canadian-born man between the ages of 23 and 45 -- a 
repeat criminal offender who supplements his drug income with a welfare cheque.

Mr. Heed said his findings debunk the popular image of a Vancouver 
street-level drug dealer: that of a Honduran "millionaire."

Mr. Heed's study is the result of 18-months work profiling 600 street-level 
drug dealers arrested on the Downtown Eastside between 2001 and 2002. 
According to his results: "Of the 600 people arrested, no less than 469 
were actually Canadian citizens -- a finding that runs contrary to public 
belief."

Central American immigrants -- fingered for much of Vancouver's street 
dealing over the last decade -- made up only 12% of dealers involved in Mr. 
Heed's study.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman