Drawing a straight line between recreational drug use and the recent spate of gang shootings in Ottawa is a little like revealing the truth behind the real source of all those gifts under the Christmas tree: Which is to say, the truth tends spoil the party even though we all know where they really come from.

Truth is local drugs are managed from source to the marketplace by sophisticated criminal networks responsible for much of the violence that is now plaguing some Ottawa neighbourhoods.

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Gangs Have Gone From Fist Fights to Shootings, Police Say

The young men of Ottawa's street gangs have become more organized, less caught up in superficial things like colours and tattoos -- and decidedly more violent.

Guns and Gangs Staff Sgt. Ken Bryden goes so far as to call them "very volatile people."

In a decade investigating their crimes, Bryden has seen gang violence go from fist fights to shootings.

"There's been an obvious escalation," he says. "Anyone could see it. I remember when it was a big deal the first time we had someone threaten someone with a knife."

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From sugar to pot? If may take a while, but the process has begun for medical marijuana grow operations to start sprouting up in Niagara Falls.

The city's committee of adjustment approved two zoning variances for the former Redpath Sugar plant on Garner Rd. and the former Kimberly Clark factory on Victoria Ave.

The owners of both buildings applied to the committee so that a "nurser y for trees, plants and shrubs" could be added to the list of permitted uses on those properties.

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Councillor unhappy with way pot proposal dealt with, mayor says proper guidelines followed

Residents and councillors should have been given more information about two medical marijuana applications that went before the city's committee of adjustment, says Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni.

While public notices were posted about the committee meeting, it was described as being for the consideration of a "nursery for the growing of trees, shrubs and plants." There was no specific mention of medical marijuana, which Ioannoni said was deceiving.

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WHILE MDS QUESTION IF MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS THE RIGHT PRESCRIPTION, WINDSOR TO HOST CANNABIS CLINIC

Dr. Tony Hammer treats drug addicts and people seeking pain relief - the latter sometimes feeding the former - but don't expect him to jump aboard the medical marijuana bandwagon.

"I am utterly incapable of distinguishing between those who need it and those who enjoy it," said Hammer. He's convinced most of the tens of thousands of Canadians prescribed medical marijuana are instead using it "recreationally."

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New drug awareness program geared for 8 to 11-year-olds in Sarnia- Lambton

For Max*, the downward spiral of addiction started off slowly and at supposedly the most innocent of times, when he was in elementary school.

He started off experimenting with tobacco and marijuana around the tender age of 12.

"By the time he was involved in high school, he was in full gear," recalled his father Sean, who asked that his last name not be used to protect the identity of his son.

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'There's No Stoners Here'

Long-time greenhouse grower Cole Cacciavillani, his family a pillar of the Leamington community, jokes about acquaintances made during nearly three years of personal research into growing marijuana.

The challenge in expanding from geraniums and poinsettias for retail chains like Costco into marijuana for medical patients was most of the existing expertise was built up around a crop still largely illegal.

"The problem with this whole industry is it's been mostly underground.... We have to make it legitimate," said Cacciavillani. He insists he's never ingested the new product he's now licensed to grow and sell.

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Current Social-Housing Policy Is Doomed to Fail

It's such a familiar story. People are shot or killed in Ottawa's social-housing neighbourhoods. Police step up enforcement. People are arrested, and guns and drugs seized. Community meetings are held. Multiple social agencies introduce new programs. Pause. Repeat.

The recent shootings in the west end have produced another of those periodic spasms of media, public, police and social-agency attention. They follow hard on the heels of similar shootings in similar neighbourhoods in the city's south end.

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It's "just a point" of crystal meth, Angela says. No big deal. But the fix will send her into orbit.

In a graffiti-filled Windsor alley mid-afternoon, she pierces the crook of her arm, slowly pulls wine-red blood into the syringe, and "smashes" a .1-gram blast of methamphetamine hydrochloride into her vein.

The rocket rush immediately takes her.

"I hate that I love it so much," said Angela, 26, who has used crystal meth for a decade, injecting it the last four. "Other than the extreme burst of energy it gives you, I just feel super confident."

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Residents heightened their call for police to do more to curb violence in their west-side neighbourhoods after a police announcement Monday publicizing results of a six month gang and drug operation, one day ahead of an emergency meeting about gang shootings.

Addressing the police services board meeting Monday night, Geoffrey Sharpe, who represents an ad hoc committee of residents in Ward 7, said a year of record-high shootings concentrated in the district needs more effort from police.

"The time has come for a far more aggressive policy than suppression of gangs," Sharpe said. "This just simply cannot go on."

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Owen Sound has kick-started a process that could establish areas of the city where Health Canada approved medical marijuana production facilities are permitted.

City council approved a staff recommendation Monday night to hold a public meeting on a proposed zoning bylaw amendment that, if approved, would allow the buildings on industrial lands that meet certain criteria.

Pam Coulter, the city's director of community services, said city hall has received some "very real enquiries" related to the production facilities but no formal applications to build one.

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My worry is that the police will go on fishing expeditions, gather blackmail information or 'accidentally' post photos online

The Supreme Court of Canada's ruling that police can, without a warrant, search the cellphones of people they have just arrested is one of the most sinister in its history. Justice Minister Peter MacKay is thrilled with the ruling. You should not be..

It's hard to imagine how the majority in the 4-3 ruling didn't understand that a citizen's core history may be in his cellphone, which is now in police hands.

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Drug turf battles being blamed for high number of shootings this year

Police believe Ottawa street gangs who are dealing crack cocaine are fighting over drugs and their areas of distribution and retaliating against those who steal from them, causing an unprecedented number of shootings.

But even with record-high gun violence - 45 shootings to date in 2014 - - police Chief Charles Bordeleau flatly rejected the suggestion that the force's gang strategy, just more than a year old, needs to be rethought.

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Murdered drug dealer's father speaks after Kadeem Garbriel admits to killing

KITCHENER - Kadeem Gabriel was recruited to do the dirty work in exchange for some free marijuana.

Now he faces a life sentence after admitting Thursday to second-degree murder in a drug rip-off gone wrong in the parking lot of a Kitchener apartment building more than two years ago.

Supplied with a loaded gun by his two accomplices - Jerome Phillips, 22, and Tyrone Wint, 24 - the baby-faced Gabriel, 23, pulled the trigger when robbery target Adam Jones apparently resisted.

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There is a discussion that is gaining traction in many circles across the country and at many levels, and it's about drugs. Not medications like antibiotics or blood pressure pills, but psychoactive substances that, when ingested, inhaled, injected or absorbed through skin or mucous membranes, affect brain chemistry and alter mental functions.

These include legal substances like the highly addictive nicotine in tobacco, or the alcohol that is found in beer, wine or spirits. It includes prescribed narcotics and stimulants. And it includes a wide range of illegal substances like cannabis, methamphetamine, LSD and heroin.

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The good news is Cornwall is a safer place this year than than it was last year. Chief Dan Parkinson told the Cornwall Community Police Board that crime rates are down across the board.

"It's a good news story," said Parkinson.

"We will continue to do what we are doing."

Parkinson said CCPS is seeing the results of the application of their strategic business plan. In particular, Parkinson said, youth crime is declining.

"One of the foundations we have been driving forward on is our attention on youth," he said.

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Police Increasing Patrols As Area Sees Third Shooting in Two Weeks

With three shootings on Penny Drive in the past two weeks, Ottawa police have increased their presence in the neighbourhood and residents will continue to see more police patrolling their streets, says the force's chief.

But an increased police presence wasn't enough to stop the latest shooting Wednesday evening, when bullets ripped through a van and a residence in the 2000 block of Penny Drive. The van was vacant, but there were people inside the residence at the time of the shooting.

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The number of provincial drunk driving charges are down compared to 2013, but drug-impaired driving rates have substantially increased.

According to OPP statistics, in 2014 up to the end of September, 5,685 impaired charges were laid by the OPP, down 17% from the same period in 2013 which saw 6,842 impaired charges laid; however, compared to the same period in 2013, there was a 32% increase in 2014 in the number of drug-impaired driving occurrences.

"The number one drug is cannabis, and that's the one that we see the most of," said Sergeant Dave Wallbank, coordinator for the OPP's Drug Evaluation and Classification Program, reminding people that possession and smoking of cannabis is illegal and significantly impairs driving.

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She Provided 70 Clean Urine Samples, Yet Her Girls Were Taken From Her at Birth Because of Controversial Hair Test

The last time Christine Rupert saw her daughters was in a dingy church basement in Kitchener, surrounded by awkward and emotional reunions between other parents and their kids.

It was September 2008. Molly, an 18month-old with fine brown hair and wide eyes, sat as if glued to her mom's lap. Emily, 6 months, mainly snoozed in her car seat.

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There is a discussion that is gaining traction in many circles across the country and at many levels, and it's about drugs. Not medications like antibiotics or blood pressure pills, but psychoactive substances that, when ingested, inhaled, injected or absorbed through skin or mucous membranes, affect brain chemistry and alter mental functions.

These include legal substances like the highly addictive nicotine in tobacco, or the alcohol that is found in beer, wine or spirits. It includes prescribed narcotics and stimulants. And it includes a wide range of illegal substances like cannabis, methamphetamine, LSD and heroin.

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