You state that if drugs are re-legalized and regulated anytime soon, it'd be a surprise.

You may be correct, but I believe the tide has turned and more people are beginning to realize prohibition and the resulting black markets are a much greater detriment to society than drugs themselves.

My hope is that by the time my five-year-old is in high school that the drug dealers will be gone.

I may be overly optimistic, but we need the media's help to counter all the prohibitionist propaganda that is spewed by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo (like the police and prison industry), so thank you for publishing another of Kirk Muse's excellent letters.

David Lane

Santa Cruz, Calif.

(The topic deserves debate.)

[end]

Crime analysis shows marijuana grow operations are moving to bigger houses, hiding behind more bushes and growing more dope than ever.

The grow-ops' changing profile has emerged in response to authorities' crackdowns, says RCMP crime analyst Parvir Girn.

"Grow-ops tend to be located on properties five times the average lot size," she said. "This was [likely] the result of efforts to avoid detection."

Girn, 31, a civilian member of Surrey's force, spent eight months crunching numbers from 1,087 Surrey grow-ops busted during 2004-06. The result was a master's thesis for the University College of the Fraser Valley and a report to Surrey council on Monday.

[continues 246 words]

Blinds always drawn on windows. Steamy windows. Beware of Dog signs.

Unsightly yards.

They might just be anti-social slobs, but they might be pot growers.

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis says these are some of the telltale signs that a house might contain a marijuana grow-op.

"If you run them all together," Garis said of the clues, "it quite often suggests that it's likely that somebody in there has a hydroponic farm."

To combat grow-ops in the city, Surrey launched the Electrical Fire Safety Inspection program where firefighters have the power to inspect homes using high volumes of electricity.

[continues 382 words]

The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation is reminding drivers not to crash the party this holiday season by driving while impaired - and that means drugs, too.

While alcohol is still the leading cause of impairment when it comes to driving offences of this kind, drug impairment is on the rise. A report released last year by The Road Safety Monitor: Drugs and Driving found among other things that an estimated 520,000 Canadians drove after using marijuana or hashish in the previous year.

[continues 452 words]

The Alberta Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a man who had three of four drug charges dismissed, because the trial judge erred in excluding evidence obtained in the search of the accused's house as a result of charter breaches.

The Crown had argued in its appeal that city police were acting properly when they sent heavily armed, masked members of the tactical unit to use a battering ram to break down the door of Shaker Al-Fartossy's home on April 30, 2004, and thus the fruits of their search should have been accepted as evidence.

[continues 358 words]

Meth Production Fails to Catch Fire

EDMONTON - The much feared explosion of methamphetamines on Edmonton streets has fizzled.

Declared a massive threat by police just two years ago, with warnings of mushrooming underground labs cooking up the cheap drug, the meth scare has failed to materialize for mundane reasons, says Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin, head of the EPS co-ordinated crime unit.

Like any for-profit venture, he says meth production was vulnerable at its bottom line -- it was bad business.

[continues 638 words]

Gangs, Drugs Fuel Slayings

When it comes to youth crime, the media and public devote most of their attention and outrage to the minors who steal vehicles.

A disturbing trend that has emerged in recent years worsened in 2007 and went almost unnoticed.

Winnipeg police and RCMP charged at least 30 youths with murder or manslaughter compared with 18 in 2006. That leaves experts wondering how some between the ages of 12 and 17 have become so violent and developed such a disregard for human life.

[continues 731 words]

KITCHENER - In recent years, when people saw Catherine Devries of Kitchener, they saw a tiny and obviously ill woman who needed to use a wheelchair when she managed to get out of bed at all.

But her family and friends don't remember the trail-blazing medical-marijuana activist as frail. Anything but.

"Cathy was a very, very strong fighter," said her father Carl Devries. "She would not give up even when her life was extremely difficult for her."

Catherine died last Sunday in St. Mary's Hospital, at the age of 49. Most of her life, she had struggled with a host of health problems and pain.

[continues 834 words]

To the editor:

Re: "Former cop backs mandatory drug treatment," Dec. 14.

Yikes! Mike Howell writes that Dave Dickson said the focus should shift from harm reduction services to mandatory drug treatment because that is the only way women in the sex trade will change their lives. It is irresponsible to write a story quoting a person like poor Dave Dickson mentioning "mandatory drug treatment" without letting us all know what "mandatory drug treatment" is.

Kidnapping a person and holding them against their will while "treating" them is illegal and is perhaps a poor approach. As far as I know, "forced" treatment is legal for minors, so Canadian children can be locked up and "treated." I also know this approach when unsuccessful often creates a lifetime "treatment resistance" because it destroys the therapeutic value of treatment and instead associates a medical treatment with punishment.

[continues 165 words]

The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation is reminding drivers not to drive while impaired and that means drugs too.

A press release from the foundation noted that while alcohol is still the leading cause of impairment, when it comes to driving offenses of this kind, drug impairment is on the rise.

A report released last year in The Road Safety Monitor: Drugs and Driving found among other things that an estimated 520,000 Canadians drove after using marijuana or hashish in the previous year.

[continues 163 words]

Lorne Mayencourt Hopes To Have 100 Recovering Addicts In Treatment By The End Of Next Year

PRINCE GEORGE - MLA Lorne Mayencourt has quietly opened a rural drug treatment facility near Prince George.

New Hope already has five clients living on a decommissioned U.S. military base about a 10-hour drive from Vancouver. It is not due to open officially until mid-January.

Mayencourt hopes to have 100 clients living in refurbished Cold War-era buildings by the end of next year.

[continues 752 words]

City's Top Cop Calls For Restrictions On Criminals Likely To Reoffend

More money and co-operation among the justice and health systems is needed to deal with criminals who are drug addicts, police Chief Mike Boyd says.

A number of addicts are repeat offenders in other types of crime, he said Friday in a year-end interview.

"The collective we -- not just the police -- need to do something about that," he said.

Boyd applauded the two-year-old drug treatment court program, which is designed to keep local drug addicts both off the street and out of jail. In return for a guilty plea, addicts have weekly court meetings, random drug tests and counselling.

[continues 506 words]

Right now in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows adults who need to go to a detox centre have to go to Surrey, Vancouver or Chilliwack for help. But they don't always get in because those detox beds are often full.

That's not good enough for NDP MLA Michael Sather and Kathie Chiu, executive director of the Salvation Army and others who work with people suffering from addictions.

Sather said forcing people from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to go to Surrey, Vancouver or Chilliwack is "totally inadequate."

[continues 623 words]

The Editor,

Re: "Firefighter faces drug charges in fall," the Now, December 21.

If what we are reading in the papers is true, if anyone has the expertise to run a so-called "dangerous" grow-op, it's a firefighter.

Of course, that is only the case if these home gardens are actually dangerous. Health Canada doesn't seem to think so: they issue grow-op licences from coast to coast to coast for medical marijuana patients, and there hasn't been an outcry over their dangers.

Indoor growing, done properly, is perfectly safe, but a well-crafted propaganda campaign on behalf of anti-marijuana groups (basically just the police, those experts on medical issues) seems to have infiltrated the national conversation.

Ottawa

[end]

In Our View: It's Better to Be Prepared for What's Ahead

It's reassuring to know that the Fredericton Police Force is keeping an eye on drug trends in the city -- especially when it comes to the highly addictive crystal meth.

Although crystal meth has yet to establish a toe-hold in Fredericton, the force says it's ready for its arrival.

Fredericton Police Chief Barry MacKnight, who chairs the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police drug abuse committee, said the force has the framework of a strategy in place to deal with crystal meth.

[continues 326 words]

VANCOUVER -- The B.C. Association of Social Workers is calling on the province to show the public how it deals with children taken from marijuana grow operations.

The appeal follows the Dec. 11 removal of three children under the age of 12 from an Abbotsford grow op that had dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide.

The children were put into the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

According to a BCASW news release, there is no way to evaluate if children from drug houses are being properly protected or if the ministry has provided sufficient guidance to its child protection social workers.

[continues 224 words]

Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies knows all about the war on drugs, especially after a trip earlier this month to New Orleans, where she saw the effects of the Bush administration's policies. For one, she told the Georgia Straight, there is too much of a focus on "crime and punishment", which she claimed has "destroyed" millions of lives in the U.S.

Davies was attending a drug-policy-reform conference, where she picked up the Gerald Le Dain Award for her liberal views regarding harm reduction. (Le Dain was the former Supreme Court of Canada justice who headed the commission on the nonmedical use of drugs. He passed away at the age of 83 on December 18.)

[continues 662 words]

Drug, Abuse, Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) is a course that Agassiz Christian School has taken for the last 10 weeks.

Grades 5-7 have very much enjoyed having Constable Parr. For some of us, this has been our second year. Our class has learned to handle peer pressure. Knowing that our classmates have been through the same program as us makes us feel more secure around town.

D.A.R.E. has taught us many interesting things about alcohol. We have gained many skills on how to avoid alcohol and the temptations that come with it. It's OK when you're 19 and up, but you have to drink responsibly. We are still growing; therefore alcohol has more severe effects on us.

[continues 91 words]

When Saanich police set up a roadblock just days before Christmas, they said they weren't surprised to see a man drive up with a joint hanging out of his mouth. He'd tried to finish it before he reached the officers, but apparently didn't make it in time.

It's not just drunk drivers that Vancouver Island police say they've been catching this holiday season -- increasingly, people behind the wheel are high on some sort of drug, as well.

[continues 571 words]

Police raids have resulted in the forfeiture of an estimated seven to nine homes since the Civil Forfeiture Act took effect in April 2006. "Many more" properties are frozen pending litigation, according to the civil forfeiture office, which is part of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

But while officials-including members of a new regional antigang task force-say the legislation is a valuable tool, some lawyers and professors have their concerns.

Rob Kroeker, the civil forfeiture office's executive director, said that his team recommends that the Crown pursue a forfeiture whenever there is evidence that property has been obtained through criminal activity or is being used to commit a crime.

[continues 632 words]