The Peninsula's largest social services agency has received $25,000 from Fraser Health Authority to finance another drug awareness video for teens. Peace Arch Community Services will tap into an Addictions Prevention Grant to bankroll High School Confidential, a drug awareness and education video aimed at curbing substance abuse among young people, aged 13 to 24. "It's going to look at all kinds of different drugs, not just one drug," explained Peace Arch Community Services' Kevin Letourneau. The film will also look at ways people can manage stress and find excitement without using drugs. [continues 353 words]
Russ Hiebert's dire warning that a "crisis of crime" is sweeping Surrey doesn't add up, according to police and the city's new mayor. Hiebert played the crime card earlier this week at a Newton press conference, saying Conservative candidates are the only ones fit to combat rampant criminal activity here. "Crime is out of control in Surrey with street racing, grow houses and shootings," Hiebert claimed. But that alarmist view isn't backed by police statistics, and it's a view Mayor Dianne Watts maintains just isn't the case. [continues 399 words]
Altaf Merali, the South Surrey customs officer who allegedly tried to smuggle 227 pounds of pot into the United States, has been "relieved of his duties" with Canada Border Services Agency. However, Canada customs won't confirm if the accused dope smuggler is still on the payroll, and there's a chance he could get his job back. "He's been relieved of duties pending the results of our investigation," CSBA's Paula Shore said. "The point we have to remember is he's innocent until proven guilty." [continues 160 words]
Forster White Rock's Staff Sgt. Wants Citizens To Lobby For Tougher Penalties Heads bowed and eyes down, they brushed tears from their cheeks while standing semi-circle around a makeshift shrine at White Rock's RCMP detachment. On a table underneath the Maple Leaf hanging limp at half staff, faces of four fallen officers stared stoically into the solemn crowd, made up of fellow Mounties in Red Serge and auxiliary police officers, firefighters and customs officers, city officials and a few citizens. [continues 346 words]
MP Russ Hiebert won't support the federal government's latest attempt to decriminalize marijuana, saying he prefers the status quo. The Conservative MP believes Bill C-17, introduced in the House of Commons this week, will encourage young people to do drugs, and is too lenient on traffickers. "This bill is fundamentally flawed because it indirectly endorses behaviour we don't want to be endorsing in society," the South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale MP said. "(Bill C-17) basically makes it equivalent to a parking ticket or a speeding ticket." [continues 121 words]
Watcom County police expect a new wave of drug smuggling when Canada's federal government decriminalizes pot this year. Authorities stateside suspect the move - making personal pot possession a misdemeanour - will lure Americans north to do their deals. Blaine's deputy police chief said his members will likely have their work cut out for them. "It would be reasonable to anticipate (more smuggling) is going to occur," Mike Haslip said. He urged Canadian lawmakers to think twice about liberalizing pot laws. [continues 457 words]
Decriminalizing Pot Will Bring New Trade, Blaine Cop Warns Watcom County police expect a new wave of drug smuggling when Canada's federal government decriminalizes pot next year. Authorities stateside suspect the move--making personal pot possession a misdemeanour--will lure Americans north to do their deals. Blaine's deputy police chief said his members will likely have their work cut out for them. "It would be reasonable to anticipate (more smuggling) is going to occur," Mike Haslip said Wednesday. He urged Canadian law makers to think twice about liberalizing pot laws. [continues 440 words]
Two men who kidnapped and beat a drug dealer with a metal pipe and other objects avoided jail time this week, thanks in large part to their early guilty pleas and their clean criminal past. Aaron Forrest, 26, and Matthew Finnegan, 23, were each given six month conditional sentences with strict conditions attached, after they pleaded guilty to unlawful confinement and assault with a weapon. Provincial Court Judge Michael Hubbard ordered the men to complete 160 hours of community work service before March 1, to abstain from drugs and alcohol and to obey a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. [continues 319 words]
A Malahat man who tried to kick his drinking habit by smoking pot was punished this week with a four-month conditional sentence and curfew. Dean Urton, 50, was charged with production of marijuana after police executed a search warrant in March and discovered 68 pot plants, growing equipment and other pot paraphernalia in his mobile home. Defence lawyer John Stowell told Judge Keith Bracken his client was a borderline alcoholic who thought he could sober up with help from the illegal drug. [continues 92 words]
Charges were dropped against the Duncan man who claims to use marijuana for religious reasons because the officer who found the dope failed to follow due process. Judge Anthony Palmer decided Friday a small amount of marijuana seized from James Dure at a CounterAttack road block Aug. 16, 2000 could not be used as evidence in court because it was obtained unlawfully. "Mr. Dure was afforded absolutely none of his basic rights," ruled Palmer. Const Shawn Dinsdale of North Cowichan/ Duncan RCMP stopped Dure in the early evening when he detected the odour of marijuana. A search of a gym bag in the car turned up pot. [continues 119 words]
Cowichan school board wants RCMP to search school lockers for drugs, but must first develop a protocol that is fair to police, parents, staff and students. The board voted six-two Wednesday night to hammer out the details of an agreement with local RCMP that would allow Const. Al Hamilton and his German shepherd drug dog Gator to sniff lockers for contraband. "It is a good idea," said Trustee Gary Gunderson. "Illegal drugs have no place in our schools. The use of drugs has been going on for quite some time and the perpetrators have been doing it with impunity." [continues 503 words]
Cowichan school trustees may consider letting the RCMP police dog randomly patrol schools in search of illicit drugs. Superintendent Brian Hoole is scheduled to make a report to the school board tonight, launching trustees into a debate about using Gator - North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP's tracking dog - to keep lockers contraband free. But if trustees share the view of some principals and their students, the debate will be a short one. Almost everyone, it seems, thinks using the sniffer dog is a good idea. [continues 609 words]
Eight months in jail was enough punishment for the man responsible for one of the Valley's biggest ever cocaine seizures. On Tuesday Provincial Court Judge Judith Kay sentenced Zachary Scott Matheson to one day in prison, taking into consideration time he served for an unrelated murder charge that was eventually dropped. Crown counsel Mike Coleman agreed with the decision. "While he was awaiting trial he spent eight months in custody - most of that in solitary confinement for his own protection," Coleman said outside Duncan's courthouse, adding the solitary time was similar to two years in normal custody. [continues 296 words]
James Dure, the man who claims using drugs is his religious right, was back in court Thursday. The appearance is the latest in a number of drug-related charges the man has faced since he started smoking pot 30 years ago. "It is my religion to use these things. It's a form of ritual intoxication," he said after court. "I'm saying people should be allowed to do them because the Charter of Rights allows us our religious freedoms." Dure was charged with possession of marijuana after he was stopped in a routine Counter Attack road check on Government Street last August. [continues 224 words]
Thirty-four people face criminal charges after a police task force shut down 20 indoor marijuana grow operations during a month-long investigation. An eight-member RCMP Green Team seized 3,067 pot plants, $15,000 cash, a vehicle and a "large quantity of growing equipment," including 187 high-intensity light bulbs between Feb. 19 and March 16. "It's my belief they were all commercial operations and I believe some of the product was going to other areas...and some of the product was for local sale," said Cpl. Mike Wilton, who led the investigation. Some of the operations are believedto be linked. [continues 389 words]
