FREDERICTON - Military officials are saying little about reports that some Canadian soldiers training for deployment next year to Afghanistan have failed mandatory drug tests. Sources told the Fredericton Gleaner that between 16 and 18 per cent of the soldiers tested recently at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B., were found to have traces of illegal substances in their systems. Marijuana, cocaine, speed and even heroin were among the drugs discovered, the newspaper reported. Maj. Jay Janzen, public affairs officer for Land Force Atlantic Area, confirmed this week that soldiers from Gagetown are being tested before deployment to Afghanistan in February. [continues 51 words]
A Scanner Darkly Attacks the War on Terror, Drugs, And Poverty What if terrorism came in pill form? What if the War on Terror and the War on Drugs became one and the same? With not-so-subtle references to these ideological wars, as well as to homegrown terrorism, Richard Linklater's adaptation of Philip Dick's acclaimed novel has one clear message: it is impossible to wage a war on the symptoms without first addressing the underlying causes. The militant war on drugs portrayed in the film is intricately tied to the need to cut off terrorists' cash flow. But the clients are everyday Americans, and the US, through its own misdirected use of force, becomes the agent of its own downfall. [continues 615 words]
Crack House Torched On New Brunswick Island It was a spontaneous act of vigilante justice, but many residents of this tiny island say it was a long time coming. It has been five weeks since a suspected crack house was burned to the ground by a mob that three RCMP officers were unable to control. Now, five men charged in the incident have been released on bail, and residents have started a red-ribbon campaign to show their support. They're tying the markers to their homes and cars, and posting signs with slogans like "Free Our Boys" in convenience stores and on lampposts. Even the mayor has a red ribbon. [continues 917 words]
GRAND MANAN, N.B. - The leader of New Brunswick's Liberal party is promising to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with drug addiction in the province. Shawn Graham made the announcement Saturday on Grand Manan Island, where a suspected crack house was torched last month amid growing outrage over local drug trafficking. If the Liberals are elected on Sept. 18, the party would work with health-care providers, community groups and justice officials to find ways to help addicts and prevent addiction, said Graham. [continues 228 words]
ST. STEPHEN - A 24-year-old Grand Manan man has been charged with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and with unsafe storage of five firearms in the wake of an RCMP investigation into a vigilante mob attack on a residence in the early morning hours of July 22 on Grand Manan Island. Carter Wayne Foster made a brief court appearance Monday afternoon, and was remanded to custody until Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., when he will appear back in St. Stephen Provincial Court for a bail hearing on the two indictable charges. He is also expected to elect his mode of trial at that time. [continues 802 words]
Grand Manan, N.B. -- RCMP say eight arrests have been made so far after a July 22 melee on Grand Manan Island that ended with the burning of a suspected crack house. During a public meeting Wednesday night, Grand Manan residents appealed to police to do more to address the drug trade on the island. Earlier in the day, a police helicopter found a small marijuana grow op on the island. [end]
It is an island you've probably never heard of unless you've gone there as a tourist, drawn to its high cliff trails along old shipwreck sites, or to watch seabirds and whales, but, as its tourism association warns: If you "desire" the mainland's neon signs and busy nightlife, Grand Manan, N.B., is not a vacation spot for you. Unless of course, you wanted to take in a riot that had 50 armed vigilantes running a suspected crack dealer out of town and burning down his house for good measure. [continues 969 words]
Three Men Arrested After A Near-Riot On N.B. Island "Release Our Heroes" reads the sign on a truck on the picturesque island of Grand Manan, a small, normally quiet island off the coast of New Brunswick. The "heroes" are three men arrested by the RCMP following a near-riot in July when the house of an alleged crack dealer was set on fire. "The feeling is still that these men are concerned citizens who have done a service for Grand Manan," said the hamlet's Mayor, Dennis Greene. [continues 660 words]
The normally peaceful New Brunswick island of Grand Manan may not have seen the last of the violence that ended in a suspected crack house being burned to the ground by a mob of so-called vigilantes. "The rumour that's out around is that they're gonna clean the place up and this was just the start," Mayor Dennis Greene said Tuesday. "They seem to be very determined people." The RCMP is still investigating a four-hour street fight early Saturday morning when two groups brandishing guns, knives and baseball bats battled it out. [continues 379 words]
Grand Manan, the pretty archipelago in the Bay of Fundy, is typically tranquil, best known for its pudgy puffins and mouth-watering lobster. It's a sleepy tourist destination and, for those who call it home, a peaceful place where people are used to leaving the doors unlocked at night. But residents' anxieties over creeping drug problems in the community sparked a violent, vigilante attack against suspected dealers on the weekend -- and many are concerned that others will take the law into their own hands. [continues 751 words]
The Rise And Fall Of Manitoba's Crystal Meth Kingpin ON July 10 , 2004, a truck pulling a horse trailer approached the U.S. side of the busy Queenston-Lewiston Bridge border crossing just east of Niagara Falls. The driver, an American named Louis Russo, was coming from the Hamilton area. He'd made the trip often; crossing the border had never been a problem. But this time, officers with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were waiting for him. For months, the DEA and Royal Canadian Mounted Police had listened in on his phone conversations; secretly watching Russo, his family, his friends and their acquaintances on both sides of the border. [continues 7092 words]
Local RCMP Report Busy Year With Drug Seizures Throughout District RCMP raided a home on Route 950 near Shemogue last Wednesday where they seized 20 pounds of marijuana and a number of unsecured firearms. Three area residents, Gaston LeBlanc, Remie LeBlanc and Joel Gould, all in their early 20s, were arrested and later appeared in Moncton Provincial Court. Cpl. Don Moore, of the Sackville detachment, said on Friday that this seizure is just one of many which have taken place in the area over the past few weeks. [continues 274 words]
FREDERICTON -- Police in New Brunswick say the seizure of more than 40,000 marijuana plants in the past few days is proof that Asian crime lords are moving their operations from West to East. Raids in three rural New Brunswick communities this week have uncovered large marijuana-growing operations and resulted in arrests of five people of Asian descent. The raid in Adamsville, near Moncton, netted over 20,000 plants -- one of the largest outdoor marijuana seizures in Canadian history. A recent bust in Torbrook, N.S., nabbed 9,000 marijuana plants. "We call it the green tide," RCMP Staff. Sgt. Bob Power said Thursday. "We've seen a proliferation of marijuana grow-ops move from West to East over the past three to five years." [end]
Teen Challenge to open first centre in Atlantic Canada A 25 bed facility, which will treat young men with chemical dependence, is slated to set up outside Moncton early next year and will be the first of its kind in the Maritimes. Teen Challenge, an interdenominational faithbased program, has one of the highest success rates in the world helping young people overcome drug and alcohol addictions and will begin to set up in Memramcook later this fall. Teen Challenge, designed to treat men ages 18 to 45, is committed to serving the people of Atlantic Canada and has been searching for the ideal location for their new treatment facility, says Dan Morand, director for Teen Challenge Atlantic Canada. [continues 491 words]
ST. JOHN'S -- Although it was Newfoundland and Nova Scotia that first raised alarms about the abuse of so-called "hillbilly heroin" in Atlantic Canada, it is New Brunswick that accounts for most of the prescriptions for the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone, a new Health Canada report says. During the first six months of 2005, more than 92,500 prescriptions were filled for oxycodone-based painkillers such as OxyContin at 651 retail pharmacies throughout the Atlantic provinces. New Brunswick generated 44 per cent of those transactions and had the highest number of practitioners prescribing oxycodone -- 133 for every 100,000 residents. [continues 391 words]
A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a pregnant woman to jail -- forcing her to have her baby behind bars this summer -- after selling marijuana in what she claims was a cannabis compassion club for medical users. Lynn Wood, 32, is six months pregnant. Her lawyer had pleaded with New Brunswick provincial court Judge Murray Cain to place his client under house arrest to let her deliver her baby at home. But Cain insisted on a prison term Wednesday, saying Wood was likely to keep selling pot if not jailed. He said she would have access to medical care while having the baby in prison. [continues 291 words]
(CNS: CP) A pregnant New Brunswick woman convicted of selling marijuana for what she insisted were medicinal purposes will have to deliver her baby in jail. Lynn Wood, 32, owner of the Cannabis Cafe in Saint John, N.B., was sentenced to one year in jail on Wednesday for trafficking in marijuana in a case that raised questions about the sale of pot to people who say it eases their pain and suffering. Wood, 32, who is six months pregnant, defended her cafe as a compassion club where people who wanted to purchase marijuana had to prove to her that they needed it for medicinal purposes. [continues 367 words]
The pregnant owner of New Brunswick's Cannabis Cafe was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail on charges of trafficking. Lynn Wood, 32, who is due to give birth in August, operated what she called a "compassion club" in Saint John. She says she sold marijuana, but only to people who swore an affidavit stating they needed it for medical reasons. Police arrested her in April 2004 after she sold marijuana to an undercover officer. She was arrested again two months later. [continues 78 words]
SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- A pregnant New Brunswick woman convicted of selling marijuana for what she insisted were medicinal purposes will have to deliver her baby in jail. Lynn Wood, 32, owner of the Cannabis Cafe in Saint John, was sentenced to one year in jail yesterday for trafficking in marijuana. Wood said the cafe was a compassion club where people who wanted to purchase marijuana had to prove to her that they needed it for medicinal purposes. [end]
A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a pregnant woman to a year in prison, even though she will have to give birth while in jail in August, and also has three other children at home. Lynn Wood, who with her husband owns the city's Cannabis Cafe, was convicted this year on two counts of trafficking marijuana. Wood maintains she was only selling pot to customers for medicinal purposes. Outraged cannabis activists say she is the first Canadian to go to jail for distributing pot to medical users. [end]
Inside New Brunswick
