Victoria police have arrested the missing member of an alleged drug ring that linked Canada's east and west coasts. Eight of 13 people charged in a major four-month drug sting in Newfoundland this week were Victoria residents. Seven are in custody, but until Wednesday night, [name redacted], was at large. Hauge was found at a downtown motel just before 10:30 p.m. Officers from Victoria police's patrol division and the Greater Victoria weapons and tactical response team, known as the Emergency Response Team, arrested [name redacted] without incident. [continues 192 words]
Pot Activist Admits His Kitchen Isn't Authorized By Health Canada A Victoria marijuana advocate is ready for a court fight, but he may not get one. An apartment-based marijuana "bakery" that was raided by police on Thursday is linked to the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada (CBCC), founded by marijuana advocate Ted Smith. Whether charges will be laid, and who would face those charges, might depend on whether the apartment is licensed by Health Canada. Smith said the apartment's kitchen was used to bake cookies, edible products, and produce skin products with marijuana as an ingredient, which are then sold at Smith's 828 Johnston St. office. He confirmed that he does not have Health Canada authorization, saying that Health Canada licenses only marijuana cultivation. [continues 388 words]
Sooke RCMP shut down a marijuana grow-operation in a forested area about 30 minutes north of Port Renfrew Thursday, destroying almost 900 plants. Cpl. Scott Hilderley said eight officers from the Sooke detachment, the federal drug enforcement branch and integrated border enforcement descended on the operation at about 11 a.m. The plants were growing on a bluff and buffered by forest on Crown land. A 27-year-old man found tending to the crop was arrested. The grow-op was accessed by a logging road and pathway that Hilderley said could have been traversed by an all-terrain vehicle. It was near the border between Juan de Fuca Regional District and the Cowichan Valley Regional District, about 90 minutes west of Sooke. [continues 152 words]
Death Came After Being Outside In An Unconscious State For Hours Drug addict and petty criminal Jonathan Guitard was one of those who could have "got out," could have beat his addiction, could have built a new life, Rev. Al Tysick said. But he never did. Guitard, 28, who was found after being unconscious outside for hours because of a mismanaged call to Victoria police died of undisclosed causes later in hospital on Dec. 13 last year. Tysick said Guitard, also known as "French Joe," had several times asked for help to fight his cocaine addiction. It would take several days to line up admission to a detox centre and each time, Guitard had sunk back into his drug habit. [continues 436 words]
Suspect Called 'Supplier Of Suppliers' With Vancouver Gang Connections Cocaine and paint cans rigged to transport drugs were just part of the haul in what Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham calls one of the largest drug seizures in the force's history. Yesterday, police displayed $650,000 worth of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy pills, as well as tools of the drug trade, seized in a daytime takedown on Feb. 19, which began on a busy street in the heart of Victoria when police smashed a Nissan Altima's window to arrest a 36-year-old man. [continues 438 words]
Newly Renovated Unit Doubles Capacity; Homeless Could Benefit Wait times to get into medical detox could be reduced by as much as two-thirds with the more than doubling of beds in Victoria's drug-treatment centres, a Victoria doctor says. Dr. Laurence Bosley, who directs addiction services for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, was one of a host of dignitaries who officially opened the newly renovated community medical detox unit at the Eric Martin Pavilion yesterday. The unit will receive 14 new beds, while another seven post-detox "stabilization" beds will be opened at the Pembroke Street Withdrawal Management Services Unit, where patients can stay for longer periods. [continues 431 words]
A grieving father whose 33-year-old son died as result of an apparent drug overdose at an Island correctional facility wants to know how drugs got into the jail. When Ryan Smith was convicted of a break-and-enter and sent to Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Facility, commonly known as the Wilkinson Road jail, in June 2008, his father was relieved. Larry Smith believed his son, a heroin addict who had struggled with drugs since adolescence, would have another chance to get clean. [continues 226 words]
LifeRing Offers Secular Support For Those Suffering From Addiction Michael Walsh lost 16 years to alcohol and cocaine addiction. Now sober, he's trying to help others find their way out through a new secular peer-support group called LifeRing. Alcoholics Anonymous was instrumental in his recovery, but as an atheist, Walsh, now 41, struggled with the concept of the higher power found in AA's program. At seven years of age, Walsh's mother and alcoholic father divorced. At the age of 10, he had his first brush with marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol. From the age of 12 to 17, Walsh was sexually abused by an adult male from the Lower Mainland. [continues 699 words]
Scarcity Of Straw Bales Leads Couple To Use Tough Cannabis Fibres To Fill Their Walls Drew and Jaime Rokeby-Thomas had the property, builder, designer and finances lined up for construction of their straw-bale home on B.C.'s Saltspring Island. They had everything they needed -- except straw. Construction on the 1,760-square-foot house was to start in 2003, the same year Alberta's drought made headlines across the country. The couple found that Alberta farmers, unable to grow their own bedding for their livestock, had gone shopping in B.C. That meant regular straw-bale sources were sold out. [continues 628 words]
Scarcity Of Straw Bales Leads Saltspring Couple To Use Tough Cannabis Fibres To Fill Their Walls Drew and Jaime Rokeby-Thomas had the property, builder, designer and finances lined up for construction of their straw-bale home on Saltspring Island. They had everything they needed -- except straw. Construction on the 1,760-square-foot house was to start in 2003, the same year Alberta's drought made headlines across the country. The couple found that Alberta farmers, unable to grow their own bedding for their livestock, had gone shopping in B.C. That meant regular straw-bale sources were sold out. [continues 642 words]
