Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jun 2013
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Rob O'Flanagan

POLICE STEP UP FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS

More Officers in Drug Unit Shine Light on Problem: 'There Is More 
Drug Work Than We Can Ever Get To'

GUELPH - Guelph has a drug problem. And stepped-up drug enforcement 
appears to be bringing it more into the light of day.

Det. Sgt. Ben Bair oversees the Guelph Police Service drug unit. Drug 
enforcement, he said, is a priority of the local service and a recent 
reallocation of police resources is putting a greater focus on illicit drugs.

"We've been able to increase the number of people in the drug unit 
and, as a result, we've been able to increase the number of 
investigations and the depths of investigations," he said. "The more 
people you're putting on the problem, the more you discover the 
problem exists."

Bair believes law enforcement is only scratching the surface of what 
is out there in the city's drug culture, which crosses all 
socio-economic boundaries.

An official with Homewood Community Addiction Services said addiction 
to everything from marijuana, perceived to be a soft drug, to various 
opiates, thought of as more lethal, requires treatment through local 
services. Over the past decade, Bair said, there has been a 
significant cocaine problem locally, which includes crack cocaine. In 
more recent times, the use of crystal methamphetamine has grown. Both 
of these drugs can cause conditions such as excited delirium and 
forms of violent behaviour.

Heroin and fentanyl, a potent narcotic pain medication, are the drugs 
that most commonly cause overdose and sudden death, Bair indicated. 
Fentanyl patches are scraped into doses of varying strengths, some 
strong enough to cause overdose.

"There is more drug work than we can ever get to on a given day," he 
said, speaking of the amounts of information received about illegal 
drugs, and the number of investigations being conducted. "We have to 
prioritize based on community impact and community safety. There are 
vast amounts of information coming to us daily."

That information is coming in from all directions, via Crime 
Stoppers, the drug unit phone line, police officers on the beat, 
residents concerned about activity next door and tipsters within the 
drug subculture.

"Back around 2001, the drug unit started to see a major move toward 
cocaine, and that has remained a very large issue in the city," he 
said. "The biggest change is that crystal meth is coming in quite a 
bit right now, and it seems that most of the larger-scale cocaine 
traffickers are also trafficking crystal meth."

Prescription drugs are also a significant problem on the local drug 
scene. An issue with drugs of any kind these days, Bair added, is 
that the buyer never knows exactly what he or she is getting. Even 
marijuana has additives that can have unpredictable effects on the user.

"Almost all drug dealers that I've ever arrested describe themselves 
as businessmen," said Bair. "Drugs are the purest form of supply and 
demand. And just like products you see in commercials, the demand for 
drugs is often created."

Crystal meth, he said, was advertised as a cheaper and more readily 
available alternative to cocaine, a piece of salesmanship that made 
the transition to crystal meth relatively easy.

"If you develop somebody with a strong addiction and they have a need 
for a drug, if you provide something that will stop that craving, 
they will tend to go for it," Bair added.

Social problems and spinoff crimes from drug use are numerous, Bair said.

Breakand-enter crimes, shoplifting and other thefts are often 
motivated by the need to feed drug habits. Addicts are rarely able to 
hold down full-time employment and maintain a reasonable standard of 
living, and yet their addiction still needs to be bankrolled.

"As a result, they have to supplement their income, and typically the 
simplest form of that is to commit crimes," Bair said, adding that 
some addicts turn to prostitution to finance drug purchases. Drug 
dealers usually surround themselves with a gang culture, both to 
insulate themselves and more rapidly and more profitably distribute 
their merchandise, he said.

It's tough to know why people start using drugs in the first place, he said.

Most will say they simply tried a certain drug and got hooked. Maybe 
their guard was down or their inhibitions relaxed. They were not 
necessarily looking for an escape or an experience of euphoria, Bair said.

"In the end, most heavily addicted people seem to indicate they were 
hooked on drugs like cocaine or heroin virtually right away," Bair said.

John Wenstrup, clinical supervisor at Homewood, said at any given 
time there are just over 80 people receiving treatment for severe 
drug addiction, including alcohol. In many of these cases, he said, 
there is a correlation between drug use and mental illness.

"One of the things that we're really identifying as addiction and 
mental health providers is that often addiction and mental health go 
very much hand in hand," said Wenstrup. "We see a lot of individuals 
using drugs to self-medicate."

Homewood sees the full array of substance abuse issues, with alcohol 
and marijuana being major problems, and crystal meth, opiates and 
cocaine addiction also problems. Drugs such as crystal meth and 
Oxycodone tend to become problematic much more quickly.

"It's difficult to use crystal meth recreationally," he said. While 
the perception is that marijuana is a fairly harmless drug, for some 
it "can be very debilitating."

"One of the hard parts of marijuana is the consequences aren't really 
in your face," Wenstrup said. "Unlike if you go out on a cocaine 
bender and a couple of days later you're saying, 'Oh man, I can't do 
that.' For those people smoking a lot of marijuana on a daily basis, 
there's an illusion that they're functioning, but they're not really 
functioning. And for some, it can make their mental health symptoms a 
lot worse."

A drug such as cocaine, Bair added, is dangerous because it induces a 
contradictory combination of overconfidence and paranoia. Anyone 
living with that mix is potentially dangerous to themselves and 
others. Crystal meth has similar effects, and also deprives users of 
sleep for days on end, making them incapable of rational decision 
making. An addiction cycle of intense highs followed by depressive 
lows makes cocaine and crystal meth addicts extremely volatile.

"It creates a person that doesn't think in a rational, normal way 
about life," Bair said, adding that he has seen addicts steal a 
family member's credit card and rack up a $10,000 debt over a single weekend.

"I've seen people who have families, jobs and houses, and they are 
doing really well in their jobs, and suddenly, nine months later, 
they have nothing," he said. "It eats them away in that short of a 
time. It is extremely destructive to an individual."

Wenstrup said treatment for drug addiction is most effective with 
those who have come to an honest realization from within themselves 
that they must make a change in their lives.

"If a person is in that position, I think change is very much 
possible," he said, adding individuals who have gone through 
Homewood's addiction program have the opportunity to see what change feels like.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom