For the third time in less than two weeks, RCMP have busted a large-scale marijuana grow operation in Red Deer.

Police seized several hundred marijuana plants and related equipment from the partially dismantled operation in a residence on the city's west side.

While no arrests were made during the raid, charges are anticipated against a number of individuals, said Red Deer RCMP Cpl. Kathe Deheer.

Police seized more than 1,100 marijuana plants worth more than $1.5 million from two residences earlier this month. Four people have been charged in those cases.

"We're making a big dent in the drug culture in the city," Deheer said of the three recent raids.

[end]

Health Region IDs 69 Condemned Drug Homes Compared To 93 A Year Ago

The number of city houses ordered condemned because of damage done by marijuana grow-ops is down 25% compared to this time last year, according to numbers compiled by the CHR.

The Calgary Health Region reports on its website illegal drug operations have rendered 69 homes unlivable so far this year, a figure that is significantly lower than the number of houses condemned in the region up to this point last year.

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Drugs, Alcohol Plague Transient Workers Living On Fringes Of Oilpatch Boom Towns

Even when living in the remote work camps of northern Alberta, Ken was never far from his next fix.

If cocaine wasn't being used inside his camp of 3,000 oil workers in the outskirts of Fort McMurray, it lingered just outside in the pockets of the drug dealers who prowled outside the gates like predators.

"I could get it quicker than I could get a pizza," says Ken, not his real name.

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I write regarding Bill Kaufmann's "Total reform key to war on drugs," (Aug 17). I have to stand and applaud Kaufmann for his courage to write the truth. Sadly, with so many years of reefer madness and outright lies, there is a real nasty stigma attached to cannabis. As for the other drugs, the only real workable solution is regulation. Just like alcohol and cigarettes. There is no way to stop some people from taking mind-altering substances, no matter how harmful the results can be to themselves, let alone adding the increased harms provided by prohibition into that equation. Harm reduction with truthful education -- the real, cold hard truths only -- regulation and treatment will set us free of a lot of current prohibition-related problems.

Keith Fagin

(The current war on drugs is clearly not working.)

[end]

The simplest way to reduce crime is to give all the dopies all the dope they want. Have a place where they can get their dope free. Hopefully most of them will overdose and the rest won't be committing crime to support their habit. Now wasn't that easy?

(It's more complicated than that, but many would agree.)

[end]

Tools of the trade were showcased for law enforcement officials on Tuesday, including some that are off limits for Canadian police agencies because of national legislation.

A roadside saliva test that can test for drug use with a simple swipe of the tongue or cheek was one of hundreds of law enforcement tools on display at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Conference.

However, Canada has yet to join Germany, Finland, Switzerland and some U.S. states by putting them into use on the streets.

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Increase Of 20 Per Cent, CISC Report Says

Canada has 950 known organized crime groups operating across the country, a jump of nearly 20 per cent from the past year, says an annual report by the Criminal Intelligence Service.

But RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said the increase is probably due more to better reporting of their activities by police than to an actual change in the number of criminals.

"The good news is that we're better at identifying these groups than ever before," Elliott said in Calgary yesterday.

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A lot has been said recently about our Police Service and the perception of our city's safety. Over the past few weeks, Calgarians have been focused on who's to blame and who's going to fix it. Unfortunately, one person or organization will not solve our current problems. Simply throwing dollars or police officers at the problem will not solve the long-term issue. It requires a multi-faceted solution to a complex problem. It will require teamwork from our city council, the province, the federal government, and the police.

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There's no denying Calgary's prosperity has attracted all kinds of people to the city, including some involved with organized crime. Indeed, in less than 12 months, known membership in the city's 12 street gangs has doubled to at least 300, police sources say. As the initiative inevitably rests with the criminal, the situation has been challenging for the Calgary Police Service.

But, does this mean the police have no idea what they are doing?

Somehow, that's what comes across when Ald. Madeleine King says the service needs "new vision." It's the kind of comment that could make a reasonable reader suppose our bumbling flatfeet just don't get it, but could easily be jump-started with clever ideas from new, charismatic leadership that sees at a glance what has eluded its predecessor.

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Michael Coren's absurd rationalization (in his Aug. 6 column) to continue persecuting and caging humans for using the God-given plant cannabis hinges on comparing it to theft, rape and assault. But he conveniently misses the fact that with those issues, there are victims. With cannabis use there is arguably no victim unless it's the user being arrested. Then it's the government doing the victimizing.

Stan White

(When it comes to pot, Mikey doesn't like it.)

[end]

He'll Be Tested For HIV, Hepatitis After Stepping On Piece Of Discarded Syringe

EDMONTON - In the past year, Nicholas Hermansen has complained repeatedly to police and health officials that drug users are littering his Boyle McCauley neighbourhood with discarded needles.

Now the 34-year-old electrician and father of two needs a series of blood tests for hepatitis and HIV after he stepped on a broken needle tip in his back yard about a week ago.

"Every time you think about it, your stomach gets butterflies. You just have to be logical and think about the fact that the chance of catching something is very, very remote," he said Saturday.

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What Police Did This Week Downtown Was More Than Public Relations

The great New York City journalist Jimmy Breslin was assigned to cover the funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

While every other reporter was following the funeral procession and getting the identical story, Breslin was at Arlington National Cemetery ... interviewing the Irish-American gravedigger who'd dug Kennedy's grave.

In that great newspaper columnist tradition of finding the angle that wouldn't occur to anybody else, my colleague Rick Bell went out with the cops on Operation Riverwalk, the much-ballyhooed response of the Calgary Police Force to our recent crime wave. (Yeah, I know it's technically called a "Service." The minute they throw away their pistols and stick daisies in their holsters I'll call them a "Service" instead of a "Force.")

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The ongoing debate as to whether marijuana should be legal or not seems like it will never end. The fact is the majority of the people in this country toke up. I know lawyers, doctors and even cops and politicians who use it regularly. How many deaths in the past have been caused by it, compared to alcohol? Yet drinking is still legal.

C. Dolliver

(True, drinking has killed far more people than pot.)

[end]

I applaud Health Canada for seeing the value in Sativex for pain management and approving it for use in Canada. What I find to be very strange, though, is that cannabis remains illegal. Sativex is an extract from cannabis. So this would be like making it legal to buy coffee from Tim Hortons but sending you to jail if you brewed your own. Could someone please explain the logic of this? Is cannabis only useful if a drug company makes a fortune from it?

Derek Telasco

(Your first mistake? Don't ever try to figure out the feds.)

[end]

Properly funding and expanding the Calgary Drug Treatment Court will help curb the seemingly rampant rise of crime and drug use in the city's downtown core, said committee chair Mark Tyndale.

The program, which sees selected addicts undergo rehabilitation and job training rather than face prison time, has had just two applicants since the court's first sitting May 10.

However, Tyndale said the small number of cases reflects the small percentage of addicts responsible for the bulk of drug-related crimes.

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Should Canada decriminalize marijuana? Licia Corbella took the affirmative and Michael Coren the negative on Monday in our Point/Counterpoint debate. Here's what some of you had to say in reply.

While she is usually pretty level headed, Licia Corbella sounds like a complete fool in her debate with Michael Coren regarding the issue of legalizing marijuana. First she claims that billions of dollars could be saved if police would not spend time arresting people for small personal possession of marijauna. Then she flips completely around and accepts Coren's contention that since police are only focusing on major drug dealers and not users, the drug should be legalized anyway. She then makes the ludicrous claim that marijuana is not harmful to one's health. These very same arguments are repeated ad nauseum by virtually every pothead I've ever talked to.

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When You Turn The Dedicated Men And Women Of The Thin, Blue Line Loose, You Get Streets Empty Of Thugs

You want good news.

It is good to see the cops out in full force on the downtown river pathway, the foot soldiers of Operation Riverwalk, a thin blue line standing up for us and against those who figure they can do what they damn well please.

Yes, it is mighty good to see the drug-dealing dirtbags crawl back into their holes, nowhere to be seen, not smoking their crack in our faces, not selling their stuff shamelessly in open view, not looking to prey on an easy mark, not strutting around like they own the place when they contribute sweet tweet to this city except grief.

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Canada Is a World Leader in Pot Use. Should Our Laws Change to Reflect National Attitudes?

Should marijuana be decriminalized? Licia Corbella and Michael Coren examine the issue from both sides.

CORBELLA: If Albert Einstein is right, that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," then it's safe to say Canada's policy on marijuana use is crazy. Recent news reports show that Canadians are toking up more than ever even as police are laying an increasing number of charges against those who possess pot. Indeed, according to the United Nations World Drug Report 2007, Canadians hold the dubious distinction of being the biggest potheads on the planet. It's time to try something new. It's time for decriminalization or perhaps even legalization.

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Afghan Mission Has More Than One Purpose

By staying tuned to the mainstream media, we assume that Canada's role in Afghanistan is to help an international coalition take out the Taliban and allow the fledgling Afghan democracy to flourish through the rebuilding of infrastructure and institutions.

That's only partially correct.

The byproduct of this military operation is what it does to the dynamic of the international heroin trade.

The Mounties have warned at least two federal agencies Afghan heroin is "increasingly" making its way to Canada and poses a direct threat to the public, despite millions of dollars from Ottawa to fund the war-torn country's counter-narcotics efforts, newly-released documents reveal.

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Fell Into Path Of Train

CALGARY (CNS)-- Before he was pushed into the path of an oncoming transit train in Calgary, 17-year-old Gage Jeffrey Prevost was arguing over $10 worth of marijuana, say friends.

And according to a witness, Prevost appeared to be fighting with a woman before he fell between two moving trains on Wednesday.

"She pushed him in his lower abdomen and he leaned back too far," said Morgan Hunter, 20.

"It looked like a hard shove with both hands. She was lower than he was and putting force into it. He fell backwards, and I was like, 'Oh, no,' and the train came to a skidding stop."

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