Drug Dealers, Their Stocks And Weaponry Becoming More Sophisticated: Cops City drug dens are becoming more dangerous places for their neighbours, the public and the police. That was the message Edmonton cops delivered yesterday while showing off some of $430,000 in drugs, $39,000 in cash and nine guns they seized in two separate raids earlier this week. "What makes this significant is the types of drugs that were seized, the volume of drugs, the weapons and cash," said acting Staff Sgt. Darren Derko, speaking before a table at police headquarters piled with bags of marijuana, hashish, ecstasy and cocaine. [continues 351 words]
Despite Rash Of Killings, Edmontonians Shouldn't Worry, Says Top City Drug Cop Four homicides in as many weeks doesn't mean people should start worrying about getting shot on their way home from work, says a top Edmonton drug cop. "Call it gangs, call it organized crime, call it whatever you want. In the end, it pretty much all comes down to drugs. If you don't traffic them and if you're not selling them on the street, statistically this city is still a pretty safe place," said Det. Clayton Sach of the RCMP/EPS Green Team. [continues 382 words]
So forcing drug-addicted kids into lock-up for five days so they can sober up and see the error of their ways works. Who knew? Who could have guessed that making a teenager do Anything they didn't want to do could turn out the way their parents hoped? I have to admit that when the province enacted the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act last year, I was right there on the sidelines waiting for the program to fall flat on its face. [continues 551 words]
Seize Huge Stash of Weapons and Drugs Two huge seizures of drugs and weapons suggest organized crime is increasingly offering one-stop convenience shopping and beefing up gang defences, police say. City police displayed a haul Friday of a wide array drugs from two related raids on west-end apartments. Seized from the gang, which police declined to name, was cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, hash, Tylenol 3s and 4s, morphine sulphate, codeine and meth. Among the weapons were three AK-47 assault rifles, a tear-gas grenade, a pump-action shotgun, five handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and three bullet-proof vests. [continues 355 words]
Red Deer's top cop welcomes the province's plan to help shut down drug houses. Supt. Brian Simpson says new legislation will support the Red Deer RCMP's efforts to target the "neighbourhood nuisance." "I think the province has heard the message loud and clear from the public," said Simpson. "It's not just the actual criminal activity - it's everything around that activity that impacts neighbourhoods." Drug houses disrupt neighbourhoods because thefts and break-ins often increase around them. Drug buyers leave needles on yards and cause traffic congestion. [continues 445 words]
Finding out a child is using or abusing drugs is a parent's worst nightmare. When the late nights become too late or many days in a row, when money or valuables go missing, grades slip and he or she is clearly a different, angry person, parents have one, very powerful weapon to combat drug addiction - a weapon that's been used over 600 times in the year it's been available. The Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act (PChAD) was a never-before-seen piece of legislation dropped by the Alberta government one year ago. Through the assistance of the court system, parents can apply for an apprehension and confinement order, and force the child to complete five days of residential detoxification - whether the child is cooperative or not. In the past, there was little parents could do for their children unless the child was a willing participant in the treatment process. [continues 635 words]
After one year in operation, a provincial program that sees youths with drug and alcohol addictions placed in protective custody for treatment has proven to be a useful tool, says Olds-Didsbury-Three Hill MLA Richard Marz. And with the increasing appearance of hard drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine in rural communities, anything that helps confront youth addictions early on is worthwhile, he said. "After a year there's been some really good data collected," said Marz. "I think we have some data that we can evaluate to improve this thing even more. [continues 388 words]
Drugs are quickly becoming a more prominent problem in small communities across Canada as deals move away from the urban centres to expand their business. To help local residents better understand common street drugs, internationally recognized drug expert and former Calgary Police Service Detective Steve Walton came to Nanton to give a presentation at the community centre on Nov. 27 and 28. More than 120 people came out to the event, including parents, teachers, health care professionals and students. The event was sponsored by the Nanton and Area Drug Coalition (NADC) and the Youth Justice Committee (YJC) of Nanton, Stavely and Claresholm with the YJC financing the event and the NADC organizing. [continues 609 words]
Innisfail's top cop is happy with his detachment's performance plan, showing an increased focus on drug and impaired driving charges. The plan, which runs from April to April, lays out issues for officers to focus on in the community. This year's issues include drug abuse, property crimes, speeding, seat belts and impaired driving. "Overall, I think the issues that have been identified, we're addressing them in the best way we can," said Staff Sgt. Lyle Marianchuk. For this year's community issue, officers were focusing on drug abuse and enforcement. They hoped to increase the number of drug charges and dealers charged in the detachment area from 35 to 40 charges. From April up to October there have been 33 drug related charges. This means officers have reached 83 per cent of their goal. [continues 543 words]
Dear Editor: Regarding Rob Merrifield's Nov. 26th column: When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven failures. If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern neighbor would be a "drug-free" America. That's not the case. The U.S. drug war has done little other give the former land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. The drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Drug prohibition finances organized crime at home and terrorism abroad, which is then used to justify increased drug war spending. [continues 92 words]
Dear editor, Re: New RCMP position brings back DARE (which appeared in the Nov. 19 edition of the Parklander). As a federal medical marijuana license holder who is also married to one, I consider DARE nothing short of hate propaganda on par with holocaust denial. Drug use is a health issue and we should have nurses instructing kids about them, not cops. Sending in a cop to talk to kids about drugs is like sending in a priest to teach them about sex; "Just don't do it, mister, or you'll be in big trouble." [continues 269 words]
Council Plans To Combat The Drug Problem In Mayerthorpe Through Education Mayerthorpe's Peace Officer wants to take a bite out of the drug crime in Town. Municipal Enforcement Officer Gord Sedgewick put a suggestion forward that the Town holds drug education seminars. "The proposal is to bring a highly qualified drug lecturer to Mayerthorpe to educate first responder personnel, as well as care giving adults, in various areas surrounding illicit drugs," explained CAO Karen St. Martin. Sedgewick explained the importance of the seminars in a report to council: [continues 313 words]
Calgary Cops Doing Their Homework To Ensure Criminals Obey Curfew From Spruce Cliff to Douglasdale and from Applewood to McKenzie Lake, they are there. No part of the city is immune to the company of gang members. But few people know just how close to home the criminals are, says Organized Crime Operations Centre Det. Gord Eiriksson. "It's easy for them to blend in -- people really don't have a clue," Eiriksson says, adding many live with mom and dad in the 'burbs. [continues 2045 words]
Drug-Addicted Kids Forced Into Treatment More than 600 families have used a new Alberta law that allows them to send their drug-addicted children to detox. Nearly half of the youths served under the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act voluntarily continued with treatment after being discharged, a review shows. But while 81 per cent of parents and guardians thought the five-day term was too short for the program, 86 per cent of youths thought it was too long. [continues 87 words]
Tough-On-Crime Rhetoric Misses the Mark If you were to listen to the politicians at all three levels of government affecting Calgary, you would reasonably assume that we are under attack by a swarm of bloodthirsty criminals. This comes at a time when the crime rate has dropped significantly in Alberta and across the country, and a recent report from Statistics Canada says our incarceration rate has risen for the first time in more than a decade. The federal Conservatives recently announced new tough-on-crime measures for identity theft, drugs and youth crime. The provincial government wants more police, to clamp down on repeat offenders and address addiction, while in the city, council approved funding for more bylaw and police officers and increased funding for a drug court. [continues 652 words]
Addiction Workers Helped to Develop Coping Strategies to Deal With Steady Exposure to Traumatic Stories EDMONTON - People who have to listen to traumatic stories involving violence, death, abuse and loss in their job are susceptible to "compassion fatigue," a conference heard this week. "Sometimes our clients speak to us in such graphic detail you can see it all happen in front of you," Kathryn Irwin-Seguin told an audience of about 150 addiction workers. "We all take our stories home with us ... so many stories." [continues 251 words]
Re: Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's Wednesday letter. It is a popular misconception that "illicit drugs fuel organized crime and foster petty crime." Some so-called drug-related crime is aggravated by the disinhibiting effects of drugs. For example, alcohol is implicated in half of all homicides. However, most illicit drugs are not criminogenic. With no recourse to the law, drug gangs settle their disputes with violence. Vendors of legally regulated drugs, like alcohol, tobacco and coffee, settle their disputes in court. The stated intent, to fight crime, is laudable, but experience and research tells us that it is drug prohibition, not drugs per se, that fosters organized and petty crime. Matthew M. Elrod (Booze is, historically, the worst drug of all.) [end]
Re: Tuesday column by Mindelle Jacobs. Is she serious? Or better still, is UCLA professor Mark Kleiman serious? Are we to believe that a drug dealer's sentence should be based on his behaviour? So if he comes to court with a nice haircut (one year off his sentence), a nice suit (two years off), expresses himself well (another two years off) and gets triple time off for time spent in pre-trial custody, the Crown will owe him three years and he'll sue for wrongful incarceration. Justice in Canada. Dennis Petruk (Kleiman was speaking of a dealer's community behaviour.) [end]
A select group of determined Grade 12 students from Georges P. Vanier school are fighting back in the war against drug use. "We've initiated a program to educate students about the dangers of drug use and effective ways to avoid peer pressure situations," says Grade 12 student Samantha Eldridge. She's one of about 15 local students to recently form an anti-drug use alliance aimed exclusively at bringing an end to random incidents involving the illegal use of narcotics and other drugs among students. [continues 620 words]
The toughening of sentences for drug possession and use are designed to provide the extra customers who will be required when the prison system is run by corporate business as is being proposed by the Conservatives. Non-violent offenders will be targeted as they are easy to house and control. Corporate profits will be the reigning factor, not social responsibility. The U.S. has followed this plan for the last decade with disastrous results. Bruce Adams (The Tories have no plans for private sector prisons.) [end]
Inside Alberta
