Pubdate: Thu, 10 Aug 2017
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: John Mackie
Page: A1

HIPPIE NEMESIS SNIDANKO, FEARED IN '60S, DEAD AT 79

In the 1960s, the name Abe Snidanko sent chills up the spine of every
hippie in Vancouver. Snidanko worked undercover with the RCMP drug
squad and busted longhairs for pot and other drugs.

Snidanko's fame went international when former Vancouverite Tommy
Chong used him as the inspiration for Sgt. Stadanko, the opening track
on Cheech and Chong's 1973 comedy album Los Cochinos.

The fictional Sgt. Stadanko also appeared in the Cheech and Chong
films Up in Smoke and Nice Dreams. But what the real Sgt. Snidanko
thought about his fictional counterpart is unknown - he declined interviews.

Snidanko died Aug. 2 at his home in Richmond, two months shy of his
80th birthday.

"He had renal failure, heart (failure), everything just shut down,"
his son Ryan said. "But he did pass away very peacefully. He was home,
he didn't want to go to the hospital.

"He was very stubborn that way."

Adrian Snidanko was born in Smokey Lake, Alta., and grew up in
Edmonton, where he was a Golden Gloves boxer. He joined the Mounties
when he was 18 and was posted to B.C., initially in Penticton and then
in Vancouver.

"He was one of the first members in the Vancouver street crew,
(policing) street-level trafficking in the Downtown Eastside and
around the city," Ryan said. "Drugs were a federal jurisdiction back
then, so the RCMP had jurisdiction over it."

As Vancouver became a hippie haven and marijuana use spread, Snidanko
toiled to stem the tide.

Music promoter Jerry Kruz recalls that Snidanko went all out at a 1966
Steve Miller show at Kruz's venue, the Afterthought. "He had all the
traffic stopped on (Fourth Avenue). It was like a movie scene," Kruz
said. "I came out in front and the whole street was blocked off. He
had barriers at each end of the street, at Arbutus and Yew. Abe came
in with a procession of cops behind him, Abe and (his cohort,
constable) Brown.

"They told everybody to get up against the wall and my mother came out
of the ticket booth and gave him hell in Ukrainian, which he
understood."

Ironically, the police were unable to find anyone with pot on them.
But Kruz wasn't as lucky a few months later, when Snidanko followed
him to folksinger John York's place.

"They searched us, and I had (some pot) in my vest pocket," Kruz said.
"I always carried a little baggie of dope. Don't ask me why I was so
stupid as to do that - it was what you did back then. It was a status
thing more than anything. He pulled it out and said, 'You're busted!'"

Kruz wound up spending three weeks in jail, where he was introduced to
heroin.

"When I came out of jail I was all strung out and I ended up on a
methadone program," he said. "Which is just bizarre, crazy. I came out
in a worse state than when I went in. Isn't that a strange twist? I'm
sorry, but ( jail) is a gateway."

Chong first ran into Snidanko at the Elegant Parlour, an after-hours
club his family ran on Davie Street.

It didn't have a liquor licence, so patrons initially smuggled in
bottles of booze that they hid under the table.

"The cops used to raid our place and take the bottles," Chong said.
"They wouldn't arrest anybody, they would just take all the liquor
bottles. Then the weed thing hit and the cops were comin' in and would
leave empty-handed - the customers would be all high and laughing.

"Before, when they were drunk, they'd be pissed off and miserable, but
now they were high on pot, they'd be laughing and joking. When the
cops would bend over to look for bottles, they'd goose them in the
butt."

Chong was never personally busted by Snidanko, but used him as the
inspiration for a straitlaced narc portrayed by Stacy Keach.

"We needed a name for the cop, and I immediately thought of Abe
Snidanko," Chong said. "I used his name purposely. It was my way of
saying, 'How you down', Abe?' It did make him famous. Years later, I
got a call from the narcotics office in Vancouver and they said Abe
was retiring and wanted me to send him a signed Up in Smoke poster. So
I did, and apparently Abe wasn't too pleased."

By the time Cheech and Chong made him famous, Snidanko had left
Vancouver to battle drugs internationally.

"Most of his investigations were taking him to Asia, because that's
where all the heroin was coming from," Ryan said. "So they created a
position for him in Hong Kong and he became the liaison officer for
Canadian drug (enforcement) in Hong Kong."

After several years in Hong Kong, Snidanko spent six years in Vienna
and four in Kingston, Jamaica, mainly working the drug beat for the
RCMP. He retired in 1995, after 38 years with the Mounties.

Ryan said that his father didn't seem to care too much about the
notoriety Cheech and Chong brought him, but he did have a soft spot
for Keach, the actor that played him. Snidanko also kept his thoughts
to himself about society's changing attitudes toward pot.

"We'd be watching the news and they'd be talking about all the pot
shops in Vancouver, and he'd be, 'Yeah, whatever,'" Ryan said. "I
think he was more like a rules guy - there was a federal statute and
he was told to enforce it, so he did. And he did it very well too, so
that kind of made him infamous, I guess, or famous."
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MAP posted-by: Matt