Start the conversation: Experts say it's a good thing if you are talking about substance abuse with your teens RCMP Corporal Scott Hilderley's drug prevention tip for parents may surprise you in its simplicity. "The best method of drug prevention is a family, sitting around a table, having dinner and talking together," he says. Hilderley should know. A police officer of 26 years, he's spent 14 years working in drug prevention. And Hilderley highlighted the paramount importance of family connection in preventing substance abuse during a a panel event hosted by the Cowichan District Parent Advisory Council on Tuesday evening. [continues 671 words]
Local Mounties continue to help local residents with their backyard weed problems. Thanks to RCMP helicopter surveillance, North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP uprooted 28 marijuana plants on Friday. The plants were discovered on four separate plots at a Castley Road residence. "Some of the plants were sizable and reaching maturity when police attended," Const. Markus Lueder said in an email. "Outdoor grow-ops are readily located by trained RCMP pilots and crew, even from significant altitudes," he added. Those areas are photographed from the air, and the information and location are passed to the local detachment for follow-up. Friday's bust marks the fourth grow-op shut down by local cops that has been reported in the past month. [end]
Is the fun worth the risk? That's what local police hope Cowichan youths are asking themselves before attending raves. Those risks are real - news of a 16-year-old girl gang-raped at a Pitt Meadows rave proves that. And don't forget to add remote locations, tons of strangers and drugs to the risk-list, too. "Date-rape drugs are in our community - I've personally seized them so I know they're here," Const. Markus Lueder of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP said. "Should kids here be concerned? They should be concerned, and parents should be concerned." [continues 715 words]
You can call Rick Stewart a drug expert, but he's never used a single illegal substance. The retired Edmonton police officer, however, knows his substance stuff as the instructor of the spring DARE program happening at 12 valley schools. DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, focuses on marijuana, alcohol and tobacco - the three substances kids are most likely to be pressured into trying. "The core we look at is talking about the three main drugs," Stewart said of the program geared toward Grade 5 students. "But we use that as a stepping stone to making good decisions." [continues 430 words]
David Bratzer enforces the law, but he doesn't necessary agree with it when it comes to illegal drugs. "One of the sad things about the prohibition of drugs in our society is that despite more than four decades of heavy drug enforcement, we see today that drugs are cheaper, more available and more pure than ever before," said Bratzer, an active officer with the Victoria Police Department who sees the war on drugs as a failure. "Drug enforcement now dominates what police officers do, so every day in my job I find myself trying to manage the consequences of drug prohibition. [continues 297 words]
Eric Nash sits quietly in a small room at the Duncan court offices. He's impeccably dressed in a black suit and burgundy tie, and with his glasses and closely cropped hair, he looks every bit the qualified court expert. What's not immediately apparent is that this man's area of expertise is marijuana. "We're beginning to become known by criminal defence lawyers across Canada as experts in our field," explains Nash, who along with partner Wendy Little grows certified organic medical marijuana through the Health Canada-licenced operation, Island Harvest, here in the valley. [continues 566 words]
