Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2012
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Katie May

GROWING HEROIN USE LOCALLY CONCERNS POLICE

Heroin's popularity is surging in Lethbridge as city police try to get
ahead of the trend.

Lethbridge police are seeing monthly increases in street sales of the
illegal narcotic and have a number of investigations ongoing in the
wake of the city's first heroin trafficking conviction earlier this
week, according to Staff Sgt. Wes Houston.

Houston is the officer in charge of a police team that targets drug
crime called the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT)
combined special enforcement unit in Lethbridge. He said police are
concerned that the potent drug, which carries a high risk of overdose,
is emerging as one of Lethbridge's main drugs of choice.

"Crack cocaine is still the number one drug, and heroin is starting to
creep up on it."

Most local dealers and users bounce back and forth between heroin and
crack cocaine depending on which drug is more plentiful in the city,
so police have to shift their investigations accordingly, Houston
said, explaining that tracking down heroin dealers is no easier for
police than catching crack pushers. A spike in availability of either
drug often leads to increases in thefts and property crimes as users
steal to support their habits, he said.

But the dangerous difference between the two drugs is that it takes
less heroin to get high, which Houston warns could cause more overdose
deaths.

Heroin only recently started to pop up on Lethbridge streets, usually
via Vancouver or Calgary, and local police laid their first heroin
trafficking charges in April 2011 after seizing a shipment of nine
ounces of heroin - worth about $100,000 - that they believed was
destined for Lethbridge, Houston said.

"That kind of shocked us and since then we've seen it increase the
demand on the street level," he said.

An undercover investigation busted a street deal in August and led to
a conviction for a Lethbridge man, who was sentenced Sept. 27 to two
years less a day in jail. Other cases are still before Lethbridge
Provincial Court.

Houston compares heroin's rising popularity to a surge in demand for
methamphetamine (meth) in Lethbridge about a decade ago.

"We thought 'uh-oh,' but it never really evolved. We find it here and
there, but there isn't huge demand or huge supply," Houston said of
meth in Lethbridge. "And then all of a sudden, 10 years later, we
start seeing heroin increase and unlike the methamphetamine that
didn't really take hold, this is taking hold."
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MAP posted-by: Matt