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.

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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.

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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.

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Re: "Drug rings grow more refined: RCMP; Mounties especially worried about use of 'budder' and 'cheese'," The Journal, Dec. 18.

The RCMP's Drug Situation Report 2006 is cited as claiming that "organized crime is a driving force behind an expanding drug trade in Canada." This is backward logic, and we should not accept it unexamined.

The drug trade is growing for the same reason any trade grows -- because of growing demand. For the growing involvement of organized crime, we Canadians have only ourselves to blame. Through our laws, we are the ones handing this perfect monopoly to organized crime.

Mark Senior, Edmonton

[end]

The answer to the drug problem is regulation and proper and truthful education. Many decades of drug studies and 80 years of prohibition experiences have told us this. If we repealed prohibition and regulated illegal drugs, as we do with alcohol and cigarettes, millions of the tax dollars spent on enforcement of prohibition could be used to properly educate the public about the dangers. Increase the treatment centre beds for those who do end up addicted to any drug. Not only will this take away the huge profits from violent criminal organizations, it will seriously increase the safety of our communities.

Keith Fagin

(Your theory's gaining support in some quarters.)

[end]

70 Kids Graduate Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program At Wye School During Ceremony Attended By Jason Maas

"Drugs are gross and destructive," said one Grade 6 student as she read aloud to an audience, comprised of proud parents. "Thanks to Officer Mortensen, I know when someone offers me drugs, I will say no."

In total, 70 Grade 6 students completed their drug abuse resistance education (DARE) program under the watchful eyes of teachers and of course, former 25 year RCMP veteran cop turned peace officer, Greta Mortensen.

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As the drum group kept beat 44 Grade 6 graduates from Nipisihkopahk Middle School (NMS) walked down the centre aisle to the front of the gym where Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) instructor, Const. Richard Huculiak of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), was waiting to begin the graduation ceremony on Dec. 14.

"This is the greatest job in the RCMP," he said. "This program teaches students consequences, gives them confidence and positive things to do and teaches them about their future."

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New provincial legislation will help the public better assist police in targeting criminal activities such as methamphetamine labs and marijuana grow operations based on rural properties, say officials.

The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act was passed in the latest sitting of the Legislature. The law creates two new so-called Safer Community and Neighbourhood Team (SCAN) units that will collect and investigate complaints from the public.

The growth of meth labs and grow operations in rural Alberta makes the new law timely and necessary, said Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Conservative MLA Richard Marz.

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Last week the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights debated Peace River Member of Parliament Chris Warkentin's private member's bill to establish a new offence in the Criminal Code of Canada to deal with the growing problem of producing and trafficking of the illegal drug methamphetamine or crystal meth.

On Dec.11 Warkentin testified before the committee.

"It is incumbent, I believe, upon us as legislators to enact legislation that holds to account those who willingly produce, or support those who produce, this harmful substance," he said.

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To the Editor:

In the Dec. 3 edition of your paper there was a letter from an "Apologist" against drug prohibition stating that: "Drug use is bad, but the drug war is worse."

The Legalization Lobby claims that the fight against drugs cannot be won. However, in the U.S., overall drug use is down by more than one-third in the last 20 years, while cocaine use has dropped by an astounding 70 per cent. [An alleged] Ninety-five per cent of Americans do not use drugs. This is success by any standards.

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Mayerthorpe RCMP took a bite out of the drug crime in town when they executed a search warrant on a rumored drug house in town.

Four people have been charged with trafficking related offenses after police searched a Town residence in the early hours of December 8th.

"When we entered the house we found several people using crack cocaine at that time," commented Sergeant Mark Mathias with the Mayerthorpe RCMP. Four suspects have been charged and were later released.

Although Mathias was not able to comment too specifically about what was found in the residence, he did say that the evidence gathered was related to the use and distribution of crack cocaine.

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City Protesters Join Nationwide Rally Against Proposed Law

"Legalize, Regulate and Educate," was the message protesters were trying to send to politicians yesterday during a pro-marijuana rally in front of Stephen Harper's constituency office.

Protesters of Bill C26, the Conservative Party's proposal to instil mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, took their defiance against the proposal to 308 constituency offices across the country yesterday during the National Day of Protest.

Keith Fagin of the protest group Calgary 420 was outside of Harper's office in protest of the bill that would set the minimum jail sentence for cannabis offences at nine months.

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A pro-marijuana group took its protest to Lethbridge streets Monday.

Warmly-dressed protesters rallied in front of MP Rick Casson's office, after parading their signs through the city centre. They were opposing the Conservative government's plans for compulsory jail terms for people selling street drugs.

Tamara Cartwright, spokesperson for more than a dozen who turned out for the city's first pro-pot demonstration, said the planned law changes could make criminals of people like her who rely on marijuana for pain control.

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More than two years after it was approved by Health Canada, a little orange pill that helps heroin junkies kick the habit has finally hit the market.

Buprenorphine, or "bupe," has an advantage over methadone because the risk of overdosing is dramatically reduced and addicts can't get high on it.

It has a so-called "ceiling effect" - larger doses don't mean a bigger hit.

The hexagonal pill is being marketed by Schering-Plough Canada Inc. under the brand name Suboxone. It helps manage the cravings of withdrawal from heroin and opioid-based prescription pain medications.

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Many years ago I spent several days hanging out with a heroin addict/prostitute in a notorious neighbourhood of Toronto.

The newspaper I was working for at the time was doing a multi-day series on various drugs plaguing the city and I was assigned to cover heroin -- how its increasing potency and decreasing price was leading to a spike in not just new users, but also overdose deaths.

That's how I came to know Sam, whom I renamed Jackie for the articles. Like most of the other prostitutes I have interviewed over the years, Sam was extremely open and she and her "man" Danny gave me total access to their lives. Every morning I would climb up the fire escape of the brick walkup they lived in, crawl through their living room window and wait for them to wake up to observe their heroin-ruled existence.

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Crack cocaine addicts typically lie, cheat, steal and commit other crimes of violence in pursuit of the money required to sustain their addiction.

They also typically turn into psychotics, suffering from severe depression and the phenomenon, well known to police, dubbed "excited delirium."

To say that crack addicts are a financial burden and a menace to the community is to state the obvious.

A great thrust of public policy, we think, should be a vigorous prevention campaign exposing crack cocaine for the evil it is.

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An exciting new grass-roots political campaign is beginning to grow across Canada. In response to the Americanization of Canadian drug policy by the Conservative Party of Canada, ordinary Canadians are standing up to ask a simple question: Why?

On November 20th, 2007 the Conservative government of Canada introduced Bill C-26, imposing mandatory minimum jail sentences for cannabis (marijuana) offences in an attempt to appear "tough" on crime.

In reality, the government's own experts have said time and again - most recently in the Department of Justice analysis accompanying the CPC's other "get tough" crime bill - that these extreme measures simply don't work.

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The Fairview and Area Drug Coalition is working on a number of projects for next year it hopes will help the families of those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

The Coalition is responsible for bringing drug expert Steve Walton to Fairview last spring as well as 'Dare to Care' motivational speaker Duane Peace to FHS last fall, but are currently looking to act in an even more direct way by offering its own programs and educational resources to those who seek it out in Fairview.

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Re: "Tough-on-crime rhetoric misses the mark," by Drew Anderson, Viewpoint, Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2007.

When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven failures. If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern neighbour would be a "drug-free" America. That's not the case. The U.S. drug war has done little other than 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. It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

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Police Plan To Destroy Equipment

Calgary police are taking steps to get rid of eight years' worth of seized marijuana grow operation equipment they have been paying to store in an Edmonton warehouse -- a move that could have a ripple effect for police services across the country.

"There's no reason to keep it," Sgt. Ron Ternes said of the hundreds of crates of equipment. "Why are we holding all this stuff?"

The Edmonton warehouse is being used to store at least 630 crates -- each about three metres by two metres.

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