Counselling, Support, Treatment Will Be Available For About 30 People Addiction Services has announced a new methadone maintenance program for people with drug addictions in northern Nova Scotia. Based at Covington Place on Willow Street in Truro, the opiate treatment program is available to people in the areas served by the Colchester-East Hants, Cumberland and Pictou County health authorities. The program has room for 30 people with harmful addictions to such drugs as morphine, codeine, OxyContin and Dilaudid. Methadone maintenance has proven to be a good approach to treating people with opiate addictions, program manager Irene Gunn said in a news release on Friday. [continues 180 words]
PICTOU LANDING FIRST NATION - The people who marched Friday at Pictou Landing First Nation's first Parents Against Drugs event didn't do it to change the habits of longtime drug users. They didn't do it to blame drug users or make them feel unwelcome. It's all about awareness, said RCMP Const. Duma Bernard. "We're not pointing any fingers," he said. "We don't judge. This is about teaching a healthy way of life." As a school resource officer in Cape Breton, he has a lot of kids come to him and tell him they're using drugs. [continues 298 words]
STELLARTON - A half-tonne of marijuana looks like this: a chest-high pile of woody-stemmed, aromatic green stuff spread on the cement floor of a garage at the Pictou County RCMP office in Stellarton. Investigators seized more than 750 plants, some up to two metres tall and most of them bushy, during a series of raids in Pictou County on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The plants were full of buds and appeared ready to harvest, noted RCMP Const. Bill Rudolph, lead investigator in the case. [continues 155 words]
BIBLE HILL - Rampant drug use among young people is behind most of the crime in Colchester County, police said Friday. "We've noticed a rise in property-related crimes in this area, and it's directly related to young people involved in the drug scene, said RCMP Sgt. Dave Darrah. "Assaults, robberies -- we're finding they're linked back to illegal drug use. This week, a 15-year-old boy arrested in a burglary case had to be hospitalized with symptoms of cocaine withdrawal shortly after his arrest, Sgt. Darrah said. [continues 155 words]
ALMA - Police keep arresting more students in a cleanup of alleged lunchtime dope dealing and smoking near a rural Pictou County school. Video surveillance has revealed up to 50 young people smoking marijuana outside an Alma convenience store popular with Northumberland Regional High School students. That allegedly includes the 13 students arrested in a dramatic police sweep of the store parking lot on Friday. After watching the store for weeks, RCMP used a helicopter, several cruisers, 10 officers and a police dog to nab the suspects as they hung around the variety store during the school's lunch break. [continues 153 words]
MACCAN - Pot producer Rick Simpson is disappointed with the turnout at a Saturday meeting he called to publicize plans for his marijuana crop. Less than 50 people turned up at the Maccan legion hall to hear Mr. Simpson make his case for the legal medical use of oil he extracted from 1,600 marijuana plants he grew in his backyard. No media, police, or politicians showed up, although they were invited, Mr. Simpson said. Supporters, some of his clients and others interested in the use of the oil attended, he said. [continues 180 words]
Seven Charged With Dealing Prescription Pills In Pictou Area STELLARTON - Pink streaks were just starting across the sky and the neighbours were still asleep Thursday morning when police banged on the door of a Stellarton home. Less than half an hour later, they left with an occupant of the house, [NAME DELETED], just as his friends arrived to take him to work. "He's not going to work today," an officer told them as [NAME DELETED], a pale, slight, dishevelled man, was led handcuffed to a police cruiser. [continues 401 words]
Mounties Find Marijuana Growing In 20 Sites In Pictou, Antigonish Counties Truro - At least eight people face drug charges following a police sweep of marijuana plots in northeastern Nova Scotia. Air and ground searches in Pictou and Antigonish counties over the past two weeks yielded about 1,500 marijuana plants, mostly about shoulder height. The buds were not developed, so harvesting had not begun, Cpl. Jim Duggan of the RCMP's northeastern drug section said Tuesday. Police departments in Stellarton, Truro and Trenton joined forces with the drug squad and the Antigonish and Stellarton RCMP detachments to locate marijuana growing at 20 sites in the River John and Sutherlands River areas of Pictou County, and around Black Avon, Arisaig and Meadow Green in Antigonish County. [continues 94 words]
