Visiting British Columbia is like going to a foreign land without using your passport. Having spent most of my early life there, it's always fun to see how much has changed. When I was a kid, for example, there was a major moral panic over marijuana use and another about Vancouver being the heroin gateway to North America. The drug scene today is the opposite of a moral panic. It's more an everyday complacency. With pot soon to be legal across the country, B.C. provides a glimpse of our future. If you wander through B.C. today, as we did over the Christmas break, more or less normal Albertans might be forgiven for thinking that the whole province is stoned. [continues 484 words]
We're in this for the long haul. Well, at least for four years. While only 39.5% of the electorate voted for Liberal candidates, Justin Trudeau will be governing with a majority mandate. It's full steam ahead with his agenda. There will be plenty of time to critique his forthcoming missteps and gaffes. And make no mistake, they're coming. But let's take a look at several upcoming issues that Trudeau will hopefully get right in a way that most Canadians should applaud him for: [continues 525 words]
Maybe they go to school without a lunch. A doctor's appointment is missed. Little fingers are without mittens in the frosty winter air. All parents can relate to that sinking feeling that comes with forgetting something a child needs. But sometimes those experiences turn from an innocent mistake to a pattern of red flags. Those red flags could be pointing to an addiction. Challenges with substance use are certainly not uncommon in Oxford -- a region that once earned the nickname "Oxy County," and not just because of similarities in name. [continues 1610 words]
Illegal Crop Lurks in Numerous Locales Police are seeking the public's help in controlling the production of illegal marijuana in Norfolk County. The 2015 growing season is underway and it promises to be a good one for illegal producers of marijuana. Norfolk OPP advise the public to be cautious and to report suspicious activity associated with marijuana production to the authorities. "Typically, these illicit crops are located in swamps, cornfields, wooded areas, along rivers and on rural rental properties obscured from view," Const. Ed Sanchuk of the Norfolk OPP said in a news release. "Marijuana plants are bright green in colour and can grow between three and five feet tall and give off a distinctive strong, pungent musty odour." [continues 268 words]
The new world of medical marijuana growing has arrived in Norfolk County in the form of a 20-acre operation in Walsingham. And it comes tailored to new tougher federal regulations governing legal grow-ops that come into effect April 1. It is a highly-secure site with tall fences topped with a foot of barbed wire surrounding multiple greenhouses. High-definition cameras are everywhere, recording on tape everything that happens while infrared sensors can detect prowlers at night. The drying and packaging facility is "built like a bunker" and includes a vault where the finished product will be stored. [continues 417 words]
Town hall must decide where it will allow medical marijuana growing operations t o set up shop by April 1, when new federal laws governing them come into effect. All current growing licences will be recalled by t hen and new ones issued as a more tightly-controlled era for legal pot operations dawns. Legal grow-ops have been running quietly in former tobacco greenhouses across the county. But t here are many other potentially ideal sites available in the form of industrial-size greenhouse operations, farms with multiple large buildings, and abandoned factories. [continues 434 words]
Norfolk could be a location for industrial pot production. Norfolk County is laying the groundwork for the potential cultivation of marijuana on an industrial scale in the local area. Staff is preparing now t hat Ottawa is about to change the rules on who can grow marijuana legally for medicinal purposes. Under the current rules, more than 4,000 third-party growers in Canada produce marijuana in small batches for a handful of clients. These licences expire April 1. After April 1, production will be consolidated within a select group of companies. [continues 457 words]
Uh-oh, does someone have some 'splainin' to do? Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay is hinting the Conservative government might consider modernizing Canada's marijuana laws when it comes to possession of small amounts of pot. He told QMI Agency so in an exclusive interview this week. "That doesn't mean decriminalizing or legalizing," he said, "but it does mean giving police options, for example, to issue fines in addition to any other sanctions, or as a substitute for other sanctions," the nation's top justice official said. So far, so good- except ... Except, the same Conservative government, in a widely aired radio attack ad, made political hay this fall out of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for promoting legalizing and taxing pot. Listen, and you can still hear the worried-sounding parent in the ad- a school bell ringing in the background- as she wonders about the Grit leader's judgment. [continues 228 words]
TILLSONBURG - LANGTON - Ask today's teenagers if there are drugs swirling in their schools. Most will likely nod their heads in acknowledgement, but they will have only little information - or perceptions gleaned from the media - about the touchy subject. Just ask Kendra Skinner, a Grade 11 student, who completed an online quiz on drugs at Valley Heights Secondary School yesterday. She was surprised to learn that there are more than 400 chemicals in marijuana. A new educational website, however, is hoping to shed some light on drug fact and fiction. The portal - thechillzone.ca - is an initiative of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit. It features detailed information on major drugs, how to handle peer pressure and knowledge games in the hope of providing a "constant message to the teens," said Michelle Pasichnyk, health promoter with the local unit. There is also information for parents, such as a list of warning signs of drug abuse and how to broach the difficult subject. [continues 335 words]
Dear editor, Here is a letter a pot grower might send: " Dear police, " Thanks large for cutting down all those pot plants. Tearing out 5 - 10% of the area's pot crop each year secures our continued funding like no other policy. "As you know, legalizing pot would cripple us, because everyone who wanted to could simply grow some in their yards or homes, and that would put us right out of business. But, thankfully, your ongoing eradication efforts secure future customers coming to us for this oh-so-easytogrow medicinal herb. [continues 216 words]
Dear Editor, Millions of North Americans choose to use and demand cannabis (marijuana) and that demand will be met. Citizens who are offended by Oxford OPP officers who ask people to turn in their neighbors (Police Ask Public To Keep An Eye Out For Grow Ops, June 9, 2010) who grow the relatively safe, God given plant may wish to call cannabis activist groups and help end cannabis prohibition. Caging humans for growing what God says is good on the first page of the Bible amounts to terrorism and that vulgar sin must stop. Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
Oxford OPP officers are asking area landowners, hikers and nature enthusiasts to be on the lookout for drug activity in the great outdoors this summer. Because of the large rural areas in the county, police rely on tips from the public about possible outdoor marijuana grow operations. The OPP are asking people to keep an eye open for signs of marijuana activity on their property. These signs can include: . Suspicious vehicles, persons and activity noticed in isolated rural areas; . Litter or food where it shouldn't be; [continues 203 words]
Oxford County has a problem and its name is substance abuse. That's the bad news. The good news is the problem isn't any worse here than elsewhere in the province, but that, according to Oxford County Drug Task Force, is no reason to sit back or accept the status quo. After months of planning and consulting, the task force has unveiled its plan to address the problem with the release of its new strategic plan, A Way Forward. The landmark strategy to stop substance abuse brings together more than 50 service providers and agencies in the effort to prevent, treat and raise awareness of substance abuse. [continues 759 words]
Oxford Community Police put a dent in the illegal marijuana crop this week. Officers removed about 180 plants from a Milldale Road corn field on Wednesday afternoon. The marijuana was planted among corn stalks topping eight feet in height. A mature marijuana plant can have a street value of up to $1,000. Before the afternoon was out, they had removed 400 plants in various locations. Officers zeroed in on GPS co-ordinates of suspected marijuana plantations supplied from aerial support as part of a joint eradication operation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The operation has been going on a month, and has been active in Oxford the last two weeks. About 1,700 plants have been found in the county during that time. [continues 239 words]
Summer is here and with that come outdoor marijuana grow operations. This week, Oxford OPP, thanks to a tip from a local farmer, eradicated the first local pot crop and there will be more to come. Tillsonburg OPP community service officer Const. Dennis Harwood, is advising the public to be alert to outdoor marijuana grow operations. During the summer months every year, persons involved in growing marijuana head into rural areas to tend to crops of marijuana plants, in some cases very large ones, they say. [continues 241 words]
EFFORTS: Police can still do searches A Supreme Court decision ending random drug searches will not affect the work police are doing at area schools, said Tillsonburg OPP detachment commander Insp. Jack Goodlett. Last week, The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that random police dog drug searches won't hold up in court because they violate privacy rights. The ruling was spurred after a Sarnia student appealed charges against him in 2004 when a random drug dog search found him in possession of marijuana and mushrooms at school. [continues 314 words]
Tips Have Assisted With Seizures Tillsonburg News -- Weather has hampered the Ontario Provincial Police's annual marijuana eradication campaign. Constable Mark Foster of Norfolk OPP said the OPP helicopter was scheduled to be in Norfolk to assist with aerial spotting of illegal crops. Mechanical problems with the helicopter and rainy weather resulted in no air time over Norfolk. "You can't fly when it's raining to do the type of work we're trying to do," Foster said. Public tips have assisted with other seizures throughout the summer. With the exception of seizing 527 plants in former Townsend Township, most of the seizures have been small. OPP Const. Dennis Harwood said there have been no large plantings of illegal crops found yet this year by Oxford OPP either. [continues 85 words]
OPP: Officer Would Also Sit On Youth Committee The OPP wants officers in Glendale High School, but insists the move would be proactive rather than reactive. Oxford OPP Detachment Commander Insp. Jack Goodlett, accompanied by Const. Dennis Harwood, was a guest speaker at the Mayor's Roundtable on Youth meeting Feb. 16. Youth crime is decreasing "substantially," Goodlett said, but added a police presence in the schools would help students and officers understand and get to know each other better. "This is not because we have problems in the schools. This is because we want to be proactive. [continues 604 words]
Store Pills In Safe And Secure Manner, Cotnam Advises The Tillsonburg News -- Abusing prescription drugs is a problem all across the country, and Tillsonburg is no exception. It's not uncommon for police to investigate misuse or theft of prescription drugs that contain oxycodone -- a narcotic opioid used for treating moderate to severe pain -- which is found in OxyContin and percocet tablets. Oxford OPP Const. Dennis Harwood said the drugs are sometimes stolen along with electronics during break-ins. Sometimes, kids even steal the pills from their parents or others in their residence who have been prescribed oxycodone. [continues 648 words]
Meth: Opp Praise Program Pharmacies in Tillsonburg are doing their part to curb the production of methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is a potentially-deadly drug that can cause respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat and can lead to anorexia. The National Drug Scheduling Advisory Committee recently recommended certain cold medications be rescheduled in pharmacies. Products containing single-entity pseudoephedrine, which are used to manufacture meth, should be moved behind the counter, the committee suggested. These products include just about any decongestant and cold and sinus medication. [continues 647 words]
