I have seen the arguments Dan Leger makes before, but never before put together, at once, so thoroughly and concisely. I would say he is altogether right. Notable is his pointing out that the purpose of much of the police support for the marijuana laws is "to boost job prospects for police officers." It is also certainly true, as he points out, that among those most opposed to the government's taking over this trade are "professional dealers and biker gangs." [continues 192 words]
IT'S TIME to admit that one of the biggest "drug problems" in this country is the obsolete legal framework that criminalizes, stigmatizes and ultimately fails to regulate marijuana use. This spring, a United Nations agency ranked Canadians in the top five in world marijuana use. The UN calls us a land of stoners. I think that's sheer baloney, despite the occasional whiff of pot smoke I detect drifting down Argyle Street. At 53 years old and having been a high school student in the late 1960s, I know what the stuff smells like. Recreational drug use has been an issue since I was a boy. [continues 675 words]
A Halifax-based warship has spent the past few weeks carrying out a hush-hush drug surveillance operation in the Caribbean. HMCS Fredericton's presence in the region only came to light when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was photographed Thursday inspecting the frigate's crew in Barbados. "That really characterizes the Canadian approach to this type of thing. We're pretty low-profile that way and as much as we'd like to blow our own horn and stuff like that, it's pretty sensitive," said Maj. Sue Gray, a military spokeswoman. [continues 333 words]
RCMP Respond To Aboriginal Requests To Crack Down On Dealers SYDNEY -- Another 10 aboriginals from Cape Breton were busted Thursday for selling as little as a $10 gram of marijuana to undercover police over the past three months. The RCMP have charged 18 people in connection with street-level drug dealing since Wednesday, all of them arrested in their homes and placed on strict conditions before being released pending trial. However, the Mounties refused to display the recovered drugs or say how much was involved when they called reporters to a news conference in Eskasoni. [continues 269 words]
Police, Health Officials Differ On Reasons The police say it's more enforcement. Health officials argue there are simply more cocaine users to bust. New crime statistics released Wednesday show that the number of cocaine-related arrests made in Nova Scotia has almost doubled since 2005. According to the 2006 study by Statistics Canada, officers laid a whopping 48 per cent more charges stemming from the possession, use and distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine in the province. Police insist the jump is due to increased surveillance and police presence, but staff at an addictions treatment centre in New Minas believe the use of cocaine is on the rise. [continues 555 words]
SYDNEY -- RCMP in Cape Breton spent Wednesday executing arrest warrants in Mi'kmaq communities across the island resulting in the arrest of 15 suspects charged with 24 drug-related offences. For the past three months, RCMP undercover operatives were busy buying a host of drugs from alleged dealers in all five Cape Breton Mi'kmaq communities -- Membertou, Chapel Island, Wagmatcook, Eskasoni and Waycobah. RCMP have scheduled a news conference for today in Eskasoni to offer more details concerning the investigation. A police spokesperson said Wednesday the investigation stems from complaints from First Nation communities that drug abuse was having a negative impact on their communities, particularly among the youth. [continues 101 words]
To the editor: Re: David Rodenhiser's column, Smoking Pot Shouldn't Lead To Criminal Record, in the July 10 Daily News. It is the green material in pot that causes the problems when smoking. THC has a lower flash point than the green material, so it melts into vapor before the green stuff catches fire and makes smoke. THC is also a therapeutic agent, not a toxin. Therefore, stronger pot is safer, because it has a higher medicine-to-green-material ratio. [continues 82 words]
The numbers don't paint a clear picture of marijuana use in this country, but they're enough to make people sit up and take notice at least. The UN's 2007 World Drug Report found 16.8 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 used pot in 2004 aE" the highest rate among developed nations. By comparison, 12.6 per cent of American respondents said they have tried pot. Britain (8.7), France (8.6), Germany (6.9), and especially Japan (0.1) all reported much lower rates than Canada. [continues 251 words]
The numbers don't paint a clear picture of marijuana use in this country, but they're enough to make people sit up and take notice at least. The UN's 2007 World Drug Report found 16.8 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 used pot in 2004 aE" the highest rate among developed nations. By comparison, 12.6 per cent of American respondents said they have tried pot. Britain (8.7), France (8.6), Germany (6.9), and especially Japan (0.1) all reported much lower rates than Canada. [continues 187 words]
To the editor: Re: Halifax Among Cities Where Arrests Spike, The Daily News, July 9. As a federal medical-marijuana licence holder who is also married to one, I fear nothing in this world more than a Tory majority government. The Tories have been very clear about this subject. They believe marijuana is dangerous and that there's no medical use for it. Period. They also believe people who use or grow marijuana should face criminal charges - even teens and sick people. They also believe criminal sanctions are the best way to deter marijuana's use, so they believe prohibition should remain in place. [continues 263 words]
Recent Statistics Indicate How Miserably Prohibition Has Failed Probably about half the people I hang out with socially are criminals, as am I. We haven't been charged, tried or convicted of anything, but that's only been a matter of luck. About 600,000 other Canadians haven't been so fortunate and carry a criminal record for possessing marijuana. It truly is reefer madness. How else can you characterize Canada branding almost two per cent of its entire population as criminals for transgressions as minimal as smoking a joint? Honest, hard-working citizens wind up facing hurdles in gaining employment, or crossing the U.S. border, among other difficulties that come with having a record. [continues 786 words]
The Director of Public relations for the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, Fred Sandford, made a presentation to County Council on June 25th. Explaining how the Act works and what it is intended to do, Mr. Sandford said, "The Act targets illegal drug use, prostitution, the unlawful sale of liquor and illegal gaming. "This legislation gives citizens the tools to take back their communities by reporting problem residences and businesses. It holds property owners accountable for threatening or disturbing activities regularly taking place on their property," Mr. Sandford said. [continues 313 words]
MILLBROOK -- Drug traffickers may have a hard time getting around if they try doing business in Millbrook. The RCMP arrested and charged a 19-year-old from Millbrook on Sunday for possession of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana. Then they impounded the man's 2000 Chevrolet Impala. It is the second time this year they have impounded a vehicle related to drug charges and have no intentions of stopping, says Sgt. Bill Chisholm. "They got to get the message, 'You come here and you want to feed off the people here, there's a cost to pay,'" he told the Truro Daily News yesterday. "We're zero tolerance for drug dealers." [continues 155 words]
To the Editor, Once again our Conservative government wants to follow the failed American model to get tough on crime. We need more accessible community-based addiction and mental health treatment. Psychiatrists will often push prescription drug therapy with minimal talk time allotted per patient visit. I once co-facilitated an addiction support group in our county jail and often some inmates could not get out of bed to come. Many were drugged with valium frequently along with one or more antidepressants. If inmates were not addicted going into jail they were coming out. The government has closed all of the addiction treatment 28 day programs in Nova Scotia and allowed changes in treatment philosophy to a new and as yet uncertain model that dismisses active long established community based support groups. Until we end drug prohibition, stop following the American led war on drugs and force our governments to spend at least 30 per cent of addiction based profits on education and treatment things will continue to slide. An increased fear and punishment based action plan will create only more of the same negative results. Rick Toupin, Chignecto [end]
OUT IN FRONT of J.T.'s office are four parking meters with their heads clipped off. No need to fumble for coins -- the parking is free. And the amusing thing, says J.T., is that the decapitated meters are just two blocks from the main police station. J.T., whoever he is, was commenting on a Globe and Mail account of a rash of assaults on parking meters in Victoria, where he lives. The city has 1,900 meters, and in the past year nearly 500 have been damaged or stolen. Currently 200 meters are out of commission. The baddies pry off the heads with crowbars or cut them off with hacksaws. A more sophisticated (and prosperous) thief stole one meter, filed down a key until it fit the lock, and then went around the neighbourhood using his key to open and empty dozens of other meters. [continues 693 words]
To the editor: Re: High Markup On Feds' Medicinal Pot, The Daily News, April 16. If your doctor prescribed a drug to help you deal with a disease you have just been diagnosed with, and the drug did not work, you would expect the appropriate action to follow. However, when it comes to Tom MacMullen in Prospect Bay, he is left with no options. What exactly is going on here, you ask. For all we know, the people growing the pot could be selling leaves and twigs to the medicinal smoker, and keeping the bud for themselves. [continues 84 words]
They don't kick in doors, but they sometimes hang notices on them. Nearly a year after the province first announced the formation of a special squad of investigators, they've scored their first victory by evicting a person suspected of drug-related activity at a west-end Halifax apartment building. "It wasn't a big deal, but we managed to have an eviction done in an informal process," Fred Sanford, director of the province's Public Safety Investigations Section said. [continues 294 words]
Family Establishes Outreach Program Trina Hayes received countless phone calls from concerned friends after her son was diagnosed with diabetes. But when Ms. Hayes's daughter became a drug addict, the phone went silent. "When kids (have) cancer we don't fail to take them in, but with addictions, (society) still looks at it as a choice," Ms. Hayes said. "As long as I have breath, I will do what I can to create awareness of this disease. My daughter shouldn't be stigmatized anymore than (should) my son with diabetes." [continues 386 words]
WHO doesn't want safer streets? Finally, an issue that every Nova Scotian can get behind. The justice minister's task force report on crime in Nova Scotia was released last week. It contained 18 recommendations, including hiring more police officers and imposing stiffer sentences. The key message to government from the high-level report: Nova Scotians are fed up with violent crime, lenient court sentences and the lack of services for youth. There is reason for concern: Take a look at the most recent crime statistics, included in the task force's report. Nova Scotia's overall crime rate in recent years has decreased, but it remains the highest among the Atlantic provinces and marginally higher than Canada's overall crime rate. Also, unlike the national trend, the youth crime rate had increased in the three years prior to May 2006. [continues 289 words]
TRURO -- A new policing partnership is being established to help crack down on street crime in Truro and throughout Colchester County. The effort was developed through the province's Safer Streets and Communities, introduced last year, which involves providing funding for street crime units. It involves an RCMP member partnering with a Truro police officer, working in plain clothes to tackle targeted enforcement of such issues as break and enters, thefts, vandalism and some street-level drugs. "We have high expectations of our street-crime team," RCMP Staff Sgt. Hugh Walker recently told Colchester County council, while introducing the concept. [continues 258 words]
Inside Nova Scotia
