Doreen Oulette appeared in Yukon Supreme Court on Tuesday on charges of drug possession, in front of an overflowing courtroom. The 32-year-old Yukoner was facing charges of possessing seven to eight grams of cocaine, after the drugs were found in her bedroom during a search of her mother's house at 810 Wheeler St. Deputy Justice Rene Foisy, who heard the case in the packed courtroom, sentenced her to a three-month conditional sentence and one year's probation, as well as 150 hours of community service. [continues 580 words]
With the Yukon Addictions Survey's preliminary results released Monday, the Yukon government will now go into more detail on addictions issues before looking at a policy to deal with the issues. "We think it's a real good start," Michael McCann, the territory's director responsible for alcohol and drug services, told reporters at a briefing on the preliminary results Monday. The survey cost approximately $150,000, with funding from Health Canada. It found that in comparing the general population of the Yukon to the rest of Canada's population, there aren't a lot of major differences in the amount of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco being consumed. [continues 1256 words]
Approximately 225 pounds (101 kilograms) of marijuana were seized by RCMP from a vehicle headed into Whitehorse over the weekend. It is the largest drug seizure in the Yukon's history, Sgt. Guy Rook said at a news conference this morning. "The marijuana seized equates to 33,000 to 55,000 joints taken off the streets," said Rook. Early Friday afternoon, RCMP stopped a suspicious north-bound vehicle on the Alaska Highway, south of Whitehorse, where police officers detained two passengers and seized the vehicle. [continues 653 words]
Re.Terry Schiavo. Would the so-called "conservatives" in the U.S. be so keen to keep Terry Schiavo alive if she needed medical cannabis to survive? Not likely. Russell Barth Educators For Sensible Drug Policy Ottawa [end]
Canada has refused to participate in the United States' unnecessary and malfunctioning missile defence shield, so the U.S. is punishing us by refusing to open the border to Canadian beef. Without the U.S. market, most Canadian beef farmers will go bankrupt. One simple solution to the problem is to let all the suffering beef farmers grow marijuana! Farmers in every province could grow fields of marijuana that could be used for both medical and recreational uses. They would be right next to fields of hemp that could be used for fibre, fuel, food, paper, building materials, lubricant, and about 25,000 other industrial applications www.hempnation.com. Canada needs the $3 billion in annual tax revenue now more than ever. The money could go to help farmers, the health care system, education, the military, the environment, even law enforcement! Imagine the look on George W. Bush's face! Russell Barth Educators For Sensible Drug Policy Ottawa [end]
As a medical marijuana user and drug law reform advocate, I would like to offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families, loved ones, and co-workers of the RCMP officers brutally gunned down in Alberta Thursday. Violence is simply not acceptable, especially when the victims are officers attempting to protect public safety. The simple fact of the matter is that it was prohibition, and not cannabis users or growers as such, that caused these senseless killings. If the cannabis-growing business were regulated, these types of things would not happen. [continues 141 words]
Re. "Drug houses' presence irks residents" (Star, Feb. 23). Addicts go to these "drug houses" because that's where the drugs are. Dealers sell drugs, because there is a demand. If the drugs were in government-run clinics, then the addicts would go there instead. If all drugs like meth and crack and heroin were regulated through clinics, then addicts would not have to steal, prostitute, break into homes, or go to weird drug houses to service their addictions. Addicts could see nurses and counsellors, get advice on how to get clean, and become active members of the community. [continues 146 words]
Some residents' anger about downtown drug houses bubbled over at a meeting on the topic Tuesday evening. NDP Leader and Whitehorse Centre MLA Todd Hardy hosted his third meeting about downtown and the drug problem in the area. During the gathering, at the Grace Church at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Wheeler Street, a nearby resident expressed his displeasure with the lack of action in getting rid of a known drug house. Mike Smith (not the Kwanlin Dun First Nation chief of the same name) told the audience of about 50, how much it bothered him living near an alleged drug house on Wheeler Street. [continues 644 words]
Re: understaffed RCMP can't fight terror. In a recently disclosed report, an unnamed senior RCMP officer said he is worried the Mounties will one day have evidence of an impending terrorist attack in Canada, but will not be able to stop it because of a lack of resources. "It is not a matter of 'if' but 'when' an incident will occur whereby the RCMP will be in possession of a piece of information and/or intelligence that could have been used to disrupt or prevent a terrorist act but could not act upon it because we were inadequately resourced to properly deal with it," he said. [continues 95 words]
As the use of crystal meth, meth and speed rises in Vancouver, RCMP in Whitehorse are preparing to deal with these drugs up north. "It will get here," Wayne Jeffery, a forensic drug consultant based in Vancouver, said in a recent interview. "In Vancouver, there's a tremendous abuse problem, and it's getting to the smaller communities and is proceeding north." Jeffery was in Whitehorse last month to teach professionals -- such as teachers, nurses and ambulance workers -- about speed and crystal meth, also known as methamphetamine, because they'll likely be the people having to deal with the drug. [continues 736 words]
A motion pledging to combat drug abuse in the territority was passed unanimously in the legislature Tuesday. The NDP motion stated the territorial government would work with all other levels of government to deal with the problem. By passing the motion, the Yukon government has taken on the responsibility of hosting a territory-wide summit on substance abuse where an action plan addressing the Yukon's predicament would be developed. Opposition leader Todd Hardy says drugs are causing serious problems for all of the Yukon's communities. [continues 489 words]
At a time when groups, including the RCMP, are working to address the drug problem in Whitehorse, city councillor Dave Austin doesn't think the Yukon RCMP should be losing a dog. Two members of the territory's border enforcement unit -- dog handler Const. Wayne Smyth and Labrador Luke -- have been transferred to Calgary, the RCMP confirmed today. The two were working on the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET). Smyth then became a general duty officer with the Whitehorse detachment while the RCMP decided what to do with the pair before their transfer to Calgary was decided upon. [continues 539 words]
In the midst of increased public interest in the Whitehorse drug problem, the Yukon's new police chief comes to the job as one of four Mounties who put together the national police force's strategy to combat organized crime. Chief Supt. David Shewchuk, a career Mountie born and raised in Winnipeg, took over the job of commanding officer of the Yukon's M-Division this past summer after the former top cop, Darrell Madill, headed east to take over command of the Manitoba division. [continues 1165 words]
A downtown bar with a self-admitted image problem is setting up surveillance cameras in and around the building to cut back on property crime and drug dealing. The 16 surveillance cameras and the other electronic equipment to run the system are almost totally up and running, Jonas Smith, manager of the Capital Hotel's bar on Main Street, said in an interview Tuesday. "It's something we've talked about off and on for well over a year," Smith said. [continues 532 words]
A man caught with enough pot to feed a joint-a-day habit for more than a decade is arguing he shouldn't have a criminal record. Defence counsel for Branden Bouquot, 28, said in court Monday morning that given his efforts over the past year -- he's quit smoking marijuana and is working toward becoming a journeyman carpenter -- Bouquot should get a conditional discharge. At the end of the two-year probation term suggested by lawyer Lynn MacDiarmid, Bouquot wouldn't have a criminal record if he didn't breach any of his conditions. [continues 928 words]
Drugs being sold in dark corners of Whitehorse bars and out of local crack houses first go through the hands of Hells Angels and other "organized crime" elements, the RCMP say. "We believe that the activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs down south are resulting in drugs on the streets of Whitehorse," Sgt. Guy Rook, spokesman for Yukon's M-Division, said in a recent interview. "One of those organized motorcycle gangs is the Hells Angels." While the Angels are by no means the only group with ties to drug trafficking, especially the large-scale movement of cocaine, small numbers of them have come north. [continues 579 words]
This summer, a downtown resident watched as three teenage girls cruised by her place on in-line skates, sporting backpacks -- to all appearances enjoying their holiday away from the books. Only these girls rolled right into a drug house. "Beautiful girls, first nation girls, Caucasian girls," the resident recounted last night at a public meeting about the downtown area's drug problem. Some time later, the young girls came back out, staggering. The woman recalled watching one girl follow an older, white man to his truck and climb in with him, to earn her drugs. [continues 1508 words]
The Yukon is the only Canadian jurisdiction that saw its crime rate go down last year, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada. However, the territory still holds onto third spot in the race for the highest crime rate in Canada, behind only the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Rates are based on criminal incidents per 100,000 population. In 2003, the Yukon's overall crime rate went down 2.1 per cent, to 25,998 total Criminal Code offences per 100,000 people for last year. Of that number, 3,799 offences (per 100,000 residents) were classified as violent (up 1.3 per cent), while 7,421 were property crimes (up 0.6 per cent). [continues 873 words]
The MLA tackling the downtown core's drug problem has received threats to cease and desist. Earlier this summer, Whitehorse Centre MLA Todd Hardy called a constituency meeting for late July to talk about the riding's drug situation. Residents in the area, concerned about 24-hour traffic and used needles stemming from nearby drug houses, had approached Hardy about the problem. "It was indicated to me maybe I shouldn't be involved in this," Hardy said in an interview this morning of the threats he received before the first meeting. "I took it to a certain degree as a threat." [continues 769 words]
A man who says he smokes pot to ease his medical problems will have to find his alternative medicine through legal routes. Deputy Judge Cunliffe Barnett opted for a suspended sentence Friday afternoon with an 18-month probationary term for Norbert Bujold, halfway between the lengths suggested by the Crown and defence. Bujold, 52, had pleaded guilty to growing marijuana in his rented home's basement, along with possessing an unlicensed shotgun and careless storage of the same shotgun. In court Friday, Bujold was told if he wants to keep smoking weed to help him with his diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis, he must get a doctor to OK it. [continues 436 words]
Inside Yukon Territory
