In the article "Judge cracks down on dope dealers" in the Jan. 27 issue of Yellowknifer, in sentencing two people convicted of trafficking in marijuana Judge Bernadette Schmaltz stated that she had to render a serious sentence that would discourage others from taking part in the drug trade. As common as this fallacious reasoning is, it becomes no more sensible today than it was during the time of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s or in Ottoman Turkey when coffee was prohibited. There has always been a ready supply of any consumer product that is made illegal by a government willing to give a moral judgement the force of law. [continues 122 words]
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Two young men will spend several months in jail after unrelated convictions for possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking, which one lawyer says reflects a move toward longer drug sentences. "We're seeing the beginning of a trend on the part of the court to impose harsher sentences for trafficking-type offences, including marijuana," said defence lawyer Stephen Shabala, who represented one of the convicted men. "Harsh sentences will deter some people, but at the end of the day, we'll still have some individuals still willing to take the risk and engage in the trade." [continues 429 words]
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Emrah Bulatci may be going to prison for at least 25 years but the widow of the RCMP officer he shot two years ago said that won't make up the void he's left in her life, the life of their two-year-old daughter and his family. Jodie Worden cried as she addressed a packed courtroom Thursday and read two victim impact statements, one she prepared on behalf of their two-year-old daughter. [continues 779 words]
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Focusing on lowering the spread of HIV and hepatitis C was the main topic of a seminar held in Ndilo this week. The NWT HIV and Hepatitis C Support Network held the workshop on Tuesday in an effort to better inform the community. Instead of trying to force people to quit habits that lead to the spread, the focus was on keeping drug abusers safe from harm. Trevor Stratton, a Toronto-based aboriginal AIDS activist, spoke at the seminar and gave a personal account of being affected by HIV after his diagnosis in 1990. [continues 584 words]
Yellowknife RCMP have prided themselves on being tough on drugs. With that in mind, the slow response from the police earlier this month after a Frame Lake resident reported 97 suspicious baggies littering neighbourhood yards is nothing short of discouraging. The suggestion from a dispatcher and a staff sergeant that police officers were too busy to show up, especially given it was Super Soccer weekend, isn't adequate. Building confidence in its police force is essential to a strong community, which in this case has been dealt a blow, at least for the Frame Lake woman who said she feels she was "blown off" by the RCMP. Most police officers are hard working, dedicated professionals. They should be given credit for creating early awareness around the dangerous drug ecstasy, blamed for the deaths of a few teens in Alberta in recent months. Recognizing that drugs which are a problem in Alberta often find their way to the NWT, police were quick to get the word out to the public here last week. So they have a handle on the "proactive" part, which the RCMP likes to emphasize. Now they have to improve on the responsive end. The next time a call is made about suspected drug paraphernalia, it shouldn't take two days to get a response. [end]
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Intravenous crack cocaine, a huge factor in the HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks in Vancouver over the last few decades, is becoming a growing problem in Yellowknife, according to one emergency room doctor. Dr. David Pontin, a physician at Stanton Territorial Hospital, said he is beginning to see IV crack-related cases of hepatitis C in the ER. In a letter addressed to the territorial government, Pontin wrote: "We have a situation here that is akin to kindling waiting for a flame. Our homeless population is highly addicted already and the introduction of IV crack use is the flame that will cause an explosion of HIV and hepatitis C." Crack cocaine in smoking form has given rise to hepatitis C and HIV problems in the past due to unsafe sex practised while on the drug. But melted down and injected, crack cocaine really kicks the spread of these diseases into high gear, he said. [continues 444 words]
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Two Vancouver police officers were in Yellowknife last week to share their stories of life on the streets of Vancouver's notorious downtown east side. In addition to their police work, Sgt. Toby Hinton and Sgt. Mark Steinkampf are members of the Odd Squad, a non-profit production company consisting of police officers who film the drug-riddled streets of the "skid." The films were made to educate the public about the perils of drug addiction, Hinton told an audience at the Tree of Peace on Wednesday evening. "To show (youth) the end of the line because we work at the end of the line," he said. [continues 334 words]
Re: "Ykers get the dope on dope," Yellowknifer, Nov. 14. In regards to memory loss and pot use, Steve Walton says, "That's brain damage ... that's not funny." THC is a therapeutic agent, not a toxin, and does no damage at all. There is no science to support the notion that it causes brain damage. In fact, recent science show that cannabis reduces the damage caused by Parkinson's, stimulates tissue growth in the hypothalamus section of the brain, blocks a protein than causes Alzheimer's, and recent science out of Germany even shows how cannabinoids stimulate the body's production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells resist cancer invasion. [continues 188 words]
YELLOWKNIFE - According to the RCMP, their newly-formed Crime Reduction Unit has made an impact on drug crime downtown. The Crime Reduction Unit was put in place early this summer originally as a pilot project to see what effectiveness the unit would have, said Const. Roxanne Dreilich. "Over the summer they've had some significant successes, so it has become a permanent fixture here at the detachment," said Dreilich. "The biggest impact that we're seeing from the Crime Reduction Units activity is a general decrease in the sort of open drug trafficking or drug activity in the downtown core." [continues 184 words]
Group Wants To Target YK Businesses Education on crystal meth and crack cocaine should be available to more than just social workers, speakers told a drug symposium last week in Yellowknife. The symposium was for frontline workers, but Diane Hrstic with the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre said that the broader community needs to be educated as well. Some people who have shown interest in further education include taxi companies and security guards. That includes more seminars and awareness pamphlets targeting local businesses to better help them understand the drug addictions they might encounter on the street. [continues 161 words]
It seems to me that the RCMP have sold Yellowknife city council a bottle of snake oil in the form of drug free zones (Drug-free Zone Launched, April 11). How will a drug free zone help? Does not drug prohibition already make Canada a drug free zone? By placing a drug free zone around a school, police are indicating that they are going to arrest and punish teenagers harder than the rest of the drug users in Yellowknife. In other words, Yellowknife has decided that teenagers can be the scapegoat for the sins of the parents. With more than 50 per cent of Canadians reporting that they have used marijuana in the previous year, teenagers can't be the principle problem. [continues 132 words]
Police Hint More Locations Will Join The List The signs are up, and Yellowknife's first drug-free zone is now official. The city worked with the RCMP, school boards, and other community groups to launch Yellowknife's first drug free zone, an area marked off to warn drug dealers to stay away. The drug-free zone is more than just a game of semantics, said RCMP Insp. Roch Fortin, last Wednesday. "It's more than a sign, it's a community getting together," said Fortin. [continues 116 words]
First Meeting Since Motion Passed By Council School representatives and public officials gathered last Tuesday to discuss how the NWT's first drug-free zone will be implemented. Mayor Gordon Van Tighem, Insp. Roch Fortin and Yk1 superintendent Metro Huculak gathered with student representatives from both school boards and RCMP officers to discuss details on how the initiative will take form. "It's more than just a sign," said Fortin. "The greatness of this project is that people get together to make this work. There's some incredible people behind this sign." [continues 201 words]
Four People Charged After Raid on Two Apartments Four people have been charged with endangering children after police say they were found smoking pot in the same room as five kids. The charge were laid after police raided two apartments Friday and seized $4,700 worth of marijuana, said RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich. Armed with a search warrant, RCMP officers entered the apartments, in two separate buildings, seizing 235 grams of marijuana, said Dreilich. Six adults were taken into custody, said Dreilich. Four of them were later charged with possession for purpose of trafficking. [continues 148 words]
The only way to regulate a drug-free zone is to create additional zones where drugs are allowed. It's called regulation and it works with alcohol. Upon doing so the vast majority of users will have no interest in the drug-free zones. The rest can then be coerced into the drug-use zones with a minimum of effort. Without the drug-use zones, drug-free zones are just another word for prohibition. And if prohibition worked, I would not be replying to this (newspaper) column. It's been tried and has been a failure for almost a century in Canada. Just changing the name is not going to make prohibition work. Chuck Beyer, Port Alberni, BC. [end]
I don't know about you but I don't understand city council making a drug-free zone around the two high schools. Somehow I just don't see how putting up signs and making a declaration is going to make any difference. If it does, why wouldn't this campaign work on every social ill we have, from bootlegging to pollution? We've all seen the signs that say no dumping and underneath there's household stuff, dumped. I wonder if I put signs up in my kitchen and made a declaration that I could lose weight, the pounds would miraculously fall off? [continues 363 words]
Couple Discover It's Not Easy to Get Addiction Help Getting clean and sober is a challenge, as one Yellowknife couple discovered during their quest to access treatment for a debilitating crack addiction. When Dawn first discovered her husband Frank (not their real names) was addicted to crack, it came as a surprise. "I didn't know until a year-and-a-half into the relationship," said the 24-year-old. "I had people tell me and I didn't believe them but he took off one time, came back a few days later and that's when I found the (crack) pipe." [continues 564 words]
Illegal drugs and bootlegged booze can destroy lives, rip families apart and devastate neighbourhoods. A suspected drug house at Trail's End operated for nearly three years before police swooped in during the early morning hours of May 2. Neighbours called RCMP dozens of times. Police visited the home several times. But only after the two people who rented the mobile home were arrested did the problem end. It makes one wonder: if police can't shut down a suspected crack house, what will a bunch of quasi-judicial inspectors be able to do? [continues 352 words]
Tough New Legislation Could Eliminate Drug Dealers - Hawkins Crack houses might be a thing of the past if the territorial government proceeds with legislation that could allow residents to help remove drug dens from their neighbourhoods. "I want this to be the bug spray for those cockroaches," said Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins, who has pushed the government to look at similar legislation enacted in other provinces and territories. Known as the Safe Communities and Neighbourhoods Act and already in effect in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Yukon, the law is designed to target and shut down residential and commercial buildings that are used to commit crimes. [continues 338 words]
But Officials See Learning Opportunity For Grade 7 Student The principal at Mildred Hall school hopes a Grade 7 student caught with marijuana last week can chalk it up as a learning experience. The boy had taken the drug out in class and was showing it to other students when he was discovered by a teacher, said Yasemin Heyck, principal at Mildred Hall. "It was a minuscule amount wrapped in a little piece of foil," said Heyck. "It was taken away, obviously," she added. [continues 312 words]
