Police Say This Summer's Program, the Eighth, Pulled in 'The Largest Haul' VICTORIA -- RCMP say getting high is an effective way to find pot plants. Over nine days, police on Vancouver Island found 19,000 marijuana plants by using Canadian military pilots to fly officers to about 350 "remote and challenging locations" where pot was being grown on Crown land, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Greg Cox. The summer marijuana eradication program wrapped up this week. It's the eighth year for the annual project. [continues 205 words]
Island Initiative: Takes Aim At Outdoor Pot Grow-ops Police are taking to the skies once again to crack down on marijuana grow-operations on Vancouver Island. Last year the program, which teams RCMP with the military, eradicated 16,500 plants. "That was from just over 200 sites where marijuana was being illegally cultivated on Crown land," RCMP Cpl. Greg Cox said. "This project will reduce the amount of marijuana hitting the streets in Island communities." Fields of marijuana are distinctive and easy to spot from helicopters, said Cox. While the operation focuses on Crown land, that doesn't mean private-property grow-ops are safe. [continues 158 words]
Needles. They're a nightmare for kids and irritant for adults. But a needle from a doctor is entirely different from a used drug needle hiding like a snake in the grass where children may play. It's a hard problem to solve entirely and Whitehorse does better than most, said Becky Huston, a health promotion worker with Blood Ties Four Directions Centre. The centre operates a needle exchange program aimed at reducing the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C. "We basically provide all the equipment that could transmit HIV or Hep C," she said. Besides needles, the centre gives users sterile water, cotton balls, tourniquets and needle disposal boxes. [continues 831 words]
A Copper Ridge resident found a poster Thursday showing two photos of reputed drug dealers under the title "Drug Dealers At Work Outside the 202". Organizers of tomorrow afternoon's Rotary Peace Park rally say the posters have nothing to do with their group and no one has come forward to claim responsibility for the posters. The posters appeared on Granger subdivision mailboxes. Some had been taken down by today. They showed one picture of four men outside the 202 bar and one picture of a single man outside a convenience store. They also had a short list of licence plate numbers and addresses. [continues 721 words]
Sgt. Guy Rook has answered some tough questions about the RCMP's efforts to control drugs and violence in downtown Whitehorse. "It's very important to us that people feel safe," he said in an interview today when told many Whitehorse residents are afraid of drug dealers and the organized crime groups behind them. When it was suggested many drug dealers operate fairly openly and with little concern about police, Rook responded by saying, "Tell us about them. "The activity that surrounds drugs that's visible is something that we are glad the public comes to us and tells us about," he said. [continues 492 words]
