Police in Longueuil, said yesterday they have dismantled a major drug ring, arresting 21 people, including the first minor to be charged with gangsterism in Quebec. The ring -- referred to by police as the Garco organization -- operated in many of the city's boroughs selling cocaine, crack and marijuana out of restaurants and bars, Chief Insp. Marc Rodier said. In the past five months, the police have seized more than $1.4 million worth of marijuana alleged to belong to the Garco organization. [end]
More jail time for media heiress; 'If it was just a relapse, my decision might be different, but these crimes are serious' Anne-Marie Peladeau's most recent breach of bail conditions - trying to bribe someone to cover up cocaine in her urine sample - was the last chance the court will give her, a judge ruled yesterday. Instead of attending therapy sessions for severe drug addiction, the 41-year-old daughter of the late media tycoon Pierre Peladeau will be sitting in Tanguay prison until her November trial for armed robbery, Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Lortie said. [continues 320 words]
Name: Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, owner of Je L'ai, 159 Duluth Ave. E., 514-284-5393. How would you describe your store? We sell hemp products and ecologically sound cannabis-related items. Can you explain the name 'Je L'ai'? It means "I got it." But if you pronounce it a little differently it sounds like "'gele," which means stoned or frozen in French. Actually, Rupert Bottenberg, a local journalist, came up with the name and he was nice enough to let me use it. It's also a common phrase, so it doesn't arouse suspicion when it appears on a credit-card receipt. [continues 1522 words]
Student Drug Activism Makes For Higher Education McGill students can now brag to their friends at UBC about a new top-ten ranking, but its not one that university administrators will be talking about. In the October issue of cannabis magazine High Times, McGill has been ranked as the number eight counterculture school in North America. This year marks the first time any Canadian school has made the list. The rankings are based on the level of student activism concerning marijuana law reform. The number one position is awarded to the school with the strongest student activism. McGill was awarded the number eight position for having the most active student drug-policy-reform group in Canada. The first official Canadian chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy was brought about by the National Reefer Association of McGill. McGill SSDP is now working toward forming a nationwide Canada SSDP organization. [continues 289 words]
Marcello Ruggiero bought himself a BMW automobile, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a commercial property and a house with the proceeds from the drug network he built in Quebec's northern communities. But the dealer also appears to have had a selfless side. Ruggiero, 41, a former heroin addict, purchased a house in the Quebec countryside he hoped would one day offer drug users better therapy than he ever got. Yesterday, Ruggiero pleaded guilty in Quebec Court to seven counts, including trafficking, operating a criminal organization and possession of goods acquired through criminal means. [continues 289 words]
Guards Find Stash As He Enters Prison Police are investigating a religious counsellor after drugs were found in his suitcase as he tried to enter the provincial detention centre where he worked. The man, known as a pastoral animator, was working at the Riviere des Prairies detention centre on a temporary basis. He was arrested Sunday afternoon after guards discovered a small quantity of illicit drugs. The drugs were not identified. "Information was circulating that led us to believe the animator was involved in bringing drugs" into the detention centre, said Michel Hubert, president of the Syndicat des agents de la paix en services correctionnels du Quebec, the union representing jail guards. [continues 270 words]
In his dismissal of marijuana-related data, criminal-law expert Alan Young remarks, "They just keep rehashing the old literature." ("Fears of 'reefer madness' resurrected by epidemiologists," Aug. 28). Considering the subject, shouldn't his claim be that "they just keep repotting the old literature"? Or, considering the variable quality of the product, "They just keep reseeding the old literature"? Roger Jay Hampstead [end]
On East Hastings St., on Vancouver's drug-addled Lower Eastside, as many as 800 addicts go to the same address every day to inject themselves with heroin and other dangerous drugs. Since 2003, Insite has been Canada's only "safe-injection facility," operating under special permission from the federal government. That permission lapses Sept. 12, and Stephen Harper's government has been mute about the centre's future. During last winter's election campaign, Harper said, in British Columbia, "a priority of our government will not be to use taxpayers' money to fund drug use." And he has promised to consult the RCMP before making a decision. [continues 839 words]
First the good news. Adolescent smoking is down -- way down. Indeed, 68 per cent of teenagers in a recent Quebec poll said they had never smoked. Only 19 per cent of high school students now smoke on a daily basis. This number stood at 30 per cent eight years ago. The survey showed that kids, on average, first light up at 12 years of age, and that twice as many high school girls smoke than boys. More Secondary 5 students smoke than any other grade. Researchers note, however, that smoking among secondary-three students has dropped to 16 per cent -- down from 25 per cent two years ago. This augurs well for the future. [continues 396 words]
Recent reports that up to 10 per cent of Montreal high school students might be addicted to marijuana are hair-raising, indeed. How much longer are we going to leave the manufacture, distribution and sale of marijuana unregulated, untaxed and controlled by criminal syndicates? Teenage tobacco addiction has plummeted over the past two decades, as teenage cannabis use remained steady or even rose. Tobacco is sold by licensed businesses that employ clerks who check ID. Marijuana is sold by gangs. All they demand to see from our kids is the cash. There's a better way. Legalize, regulate, tax, control. Greg Francisco Paw Paw, Mich. [end]
Up in Smoke? Many believe Canada's medical marijuana program isn't working. But the recent expiration of the government contract to Manitoba's Prairie Plant Systems to supply medical marijuana may just give the program the shot in the arm it needs. Despite the fact the Canadian government has already spent more than $5.5-million on the program, fewer than 200 Canadians are currently enrolled in the program. The Canadian AIDS Society reports only 1.7 per cent of Canadian medical marijuana patients take part in the government's program, while 85 per cent of them obtain their marijuana on the black market. [continues 220 words]
Ruling Ended 2-Year Battle Against Deportation Rizzuto Called Godfather Of Canadian Mafia MONTREAL--Reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto, frequently described as the godfather of the Canadian mafia, has been extradited to face conspiracy charges in the murder of three New York gangsters after the Supreme Court of Canada turned down his last-ditch appeal to remain in the country. A panel of three justices refused to hear Rizzuto's appeal of a 2005 federal extradition order, ending a two-year legal fight. The justices provided no explanation for their decision, as is the custom. [continues 953 words]
Shipment Of Hashish Destined For Montreal, Valued At $225 Million, Intercepted By Cops Peter Toman, the kingpin in a failed plot to import 22.5 tonnes of hashish by boat from Pakistan, was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in a federal prison. In accepting the sentencing recommendations of the Crown and the defence, Quebec Court Judge Martin Vauclair noted that Toman, 59, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import drugs and trafficking, and had no previous record for drug offences. [continues 348 words]
Peter Toman, the kingpin in a failed plot to import 22.5 tonnes of hashish to Quebec by boat from Pakistan, has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. Quebec Court Judge Martin Vauclair said yesterday he took into account the fact Toman pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import drugs and trafficking and had no previous record for drug offences. His arrest followed an RCMP undercover operation in which agents contacted Toman to pick up the drugs off the coast of Angola and transport them to Halifax. They then brought a tonne of the drugs to an address in St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que. The Crown seized the initial transport payment of $195,000 that Toman unwittingly handed over to the undercover agents. Another $9-million had been promised on delivery. The drug bust was one of the "most significant seizures" in Canada, federal Crown prosecutor Silvie Kovacevich said. [end]
The federal justice minister wants to put 10-year-old kids in jail? Vic Toews said no such thing. But that was the sensational spin some people were quick to put on comments by the Conservative minister on how to deal with children under 12 who commit crimes. What Toews did say is that we need a more satisfactory way to deal with serious delinquency by 10- and 11-year-olds, and that reducing the age of criminal responsibility from the current 12 is the way to do it. [continues 403 words]
Montreal's hazardous marijuana grow operations are a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Legitimate farmers do not steal electricity to grow produce in the basements of rented homes. If legal, growing marijuana would be less profitable then farming tomatoes. As it stands, the drug war distorts market forces so that an easily grown weed is literally worth its weight in gold. Rather than continue to subsidize organized crime, Canadian policymakers should ignore the reefer madness of the U.S. government and instead look to their own Senate for guidance. In the words of Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue." Robert Sharpe Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington [end]
Judge Sets Long List Of Conditions A police officer has the same right to get out of jail on bail as other citizens charged with serious criminal offences, a Quebec Court judge ruled yesterday. Judge Gilles Cadieux ordered Montreal police Constable Pierre Goulet released from detention, pending his trial on charges of conspiracy to import drugs, money laundering, drug-trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime. Goulet, 41, is alleged to have taken part in a network that smuggled cocaine into Canada from February 2000 to February 2002 through the border town of Lacolle and the states of New York and Florida. [continues 395 words]
Be careful - that charming little split-level in Terrebonne (or St. Constant or Greenfield Park) you're thinking of buying, the one with the nice double garage and well-groomed shrubs, might be less innocent than it appears. The previous owners might have used it to raise not a family but a very lucrative crop of marijuana, and that could mean major trouble for you down the road. This is no isolated problem. The Association des courtiers et agents immobliers du Quebec, the professional group that represents real-estate brokers and agents, says that thousands of perfectly ordinary-looking homes across the province were once used to raise cannabis. [continues 411 words]
Re: "Useful tool on the war on drugs" (Editorial, Aug. 2). When the police's new front line of defence amounts to relying on snitches and property searches without warrants - in other words, fishing expeditions - you know the war on drugs is over and the criminals have won. Gang-controlled marijuana is more abundant, of better quality and cheaper than ever before. Instead of giving small farms $550 million in handouts because they can't compete with large factory farms ("Family farms cost us all too much," Editorial Aug. 2), let only farms up to a certain size grow legal marijuana to sell in the liquor stores. That would deal a blow to organized crime, make pot sales to minors more difficult, generate millions of tax dollars and free up precious police resources to combat real crimes. Bill Parker, Val des Lacs [end]
11 Residents Wanted in U.S. After Bust A Quebec judge has shut the door on a U.S. request to extradite 11 residents of the Bedford area of the Eastern Townships to face charges after a massive marijuana bust there last year. "We're evaluating the decision, still, and are going to explore our options once we fully do that," Tristram Coffin, assistant U.S. attorney for the district of Vermont, said yesterday from his Burlington office. "I can't comment beyond that." [continues 424 words]
Inside Quebec
