Crystal meth use in Prince Albert is "out of control" and the situation could worsen in the next year, says a police officer who heads the city's crystal meth intervention program.

"We're so far behind it, we just need to get some kind of a grip on it," said Prince Albert Police Sgt. Troy Dumont.

"I go through the calls every day and I see more of it, more just basic calls when meth is kind of involved .... People are acting different, you can just tell. It is on the rise and we need to do something about it."

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Saskatoon's police chief says police forces across the country are charging fewer and fewer people with marijuana possession as legalization of recreational use looms.

"Police right across Canada, I think, started to back off on the charges for minor possession," Chief Clive Weighill said earlier this week.

After a spike in possession charges in 2013, Saskatoon has seen a steady decline in the number of people charged with possession: the number dropped by 27 per cent between 2013 and 2014, then by 10 per cent from 2014 to 2015, according to Statistics Canada data. This year, however, pot possession charges have remained nearly the same as last year. As of this week, slightly more than 190 people have been charged so far in 2016, according to data from city police.

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Addictive Drug Partially to Blame for Increase, Says Police Chief

An influx of crystal meth in Saskatoon is helping fuel the city's crime problem, according to police chief Clive Weighill.

"It's driving a lot of our property crime, our break and enters our thefts," he said.

Saskatoon again has the worst crime rate in the country and Weighill said the deadly and highly addictive drug is partially to blame.

Last year, Saskatoon police laid 108 charges for crystal meth possession - double the 54 laid in 2014 and the 22 laid in 2013.

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My nieces and nephews are getting to the age where kids experiment with drugs and it's scary. How do you discourage them when movies and TV make it all look so interesting and fun? Damn you to hell, Seth Rogen!

I am especially at a loss because I've never understood drugs in the first place. I was not a drug user for a few reasons, the first being absolute fear. My mom did a great job of cobbling together every terrible drug story she'd ever heard and regaling us with them as we ate our beans and wieners at the dinner table: "This boy, he did 'The Pot' one time and he got real high and then he put the cat in the oven cuz he thought it was a turkey." Such stories made me fearful both of drugs and of wieners.

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My nieces and nephews are getting to the age where kids experiment with drugs and it's scary. How do you discourage them when movies and TV make it all look so interesting and fun? Damn you to hell, Seth Rogen!

I am especially at a loss because I've never understood drugs in the first place. I was not a drug user for a few reasons - the first of which was absolute fear. My mom did a great job of cobbling together every terrible drug story she'd ever heard and regaling us with them as we ate our beans and wieners at the dinner table: "This boy, he did 'The Pot' one time and he got real high and then he put the cat in the oven cuz he thought it was a turkey." Such stories made me fearful both of drugs and of wieners.

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Group to consult with provincial, municipal leaders about regulations

A Saskatchewan law professor will be one of the people deciding how pot will become legalized in Canada.

The federal government is launching a task force to study the legalization and regulation of marijuana, after committing to introduce legislation on the legalization of pot in the spring of 2017.

University of Saskatchewan law professor Barbara von Tigerstrom is among the people the government has tapped to help guide that process.

"It's a daunting challenge but a really important one," von Tigerstrom said after the task force was unveiled.

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No jail time for former Huskie Neary after 21 pounds of marijuana seized

Former University of Saskatchewan football linebacker Seamus John Neary gave an audible sigh of relief when Queen's Bench Justice Shawn Smith sentenced him to two years of probation, but no jail time.

Neary, 25, was convicted in November of trafficking marijuana and possessing the proceeds of crime, after 21 pounds of marijuana and $1,000 in cash were seized during an investigation in February 2014.

Smith noted the Court of Appeal has ruled sentences of 15 to 18 months in jail are appropriate for marijuana trafficking involving amounts similar to Neary's case, but said the fact Canada is in a transition period with the federal government promising to legalize marijuana was a factor in his ruling.

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Trauma is at the nature of addiction, according to Dr. Gabor Mate.

"Addiction is only a symptom, it's not the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem is trauma," said Mate.

Mate was in Regina on Wednesday to speak at the sixth International Training Symposium on Innovative Approaches to Justice: Where Justice and Treatment Meet.

The conference started Tuesday and runs until Friday at the Hotel Saskatchewan. Judges, lawyers, counsellors and professionals who work in treatment courts from across the country are in attendance, along with a handful of people from the United States. The conference is held every two years, with the last one being held in Vancouver.

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How could this medical and social disaster ever be allowed to happen? If authorities had told me that Ontario, just one Canadian province, was treating 400 addicts in methadone clinics, I'd believe them. But, the actual number is 42,000. But how many of these addicts need methadone? And what is the solution for this madness?

Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, is not an arm-chair commentator on addiction. Rather, he's an internationally renowned expert, a British psychiatrist, and prison doctor who has treated thousands of addicts over years.

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Marijuana, by most measures, is not the scourge that alcohol is, writes

National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them."

The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned."

With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed.

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Marijuana, by most measures, is not the scourge that alcohol is, writes David Booth.

The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them."

The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned."

With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed.

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With changes to marijuana laws on the horizon, a former star athlete's lawyers argue that sending him to jail for marijuana trafficking would shock the community and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Seamus John Neary, 25, was in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench Tuesday for sentencing arguments after he was found guilty of trafficking 9.5 kilograms of marijuana. The crime does not carry a mandatory minimum, but federal law changes in 2012 removed the option of a conditional sentence order, or jail sentence served in the community, for trafficking more than three kilograms of pot.

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With changes to marijuana laws on the horizon, a former star athlete's lawyers argue that sending him to jail for marijuana trafficking would shock the community and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Seamus John Neary, 25, was in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench Tuesday for sentencing arguments after he was found guilty of trafficking 9.5 kilograms of marijuana. The crime does not carry a mandatory minimum, but federal law changes in 2012 removed the option of a conditional sentence order, or jail sentence served in the community, for trafficking more than three kilograms of pot.

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Province to Provide Input on Roadside Testing Ahead of Legalization

Premier Brad Wall wants to know more about driver safety and marijuana.

With the federal government planning to have legalization legislation next spring, the province is putting together a team to study what impact that could have on Saskatchewan roads.

The Justice, Corrections and Policing and SGI ministers will all examine the issue before reporting their findings to a federal task force focusing on regulatory issues surrounding marijuana.

"We want to make sure we're part of the process recommending some things back to the federal government, in terms of keeping our roads safe, in terms of public safety issues that may arise from marijuana legalization and normalization, to the extent that will happen," said Wall.

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Province Plans to Offer Input on Federal Roadside Testing Legalization

Premier Brad Wall wants to know more about driver safety and marijuana.

With the federal government planning to have legalization legislation next spring, the province is putting together a team to study what impact that could have on Saskatchewan roads.

The Justice, Corrections and Policing and SGI ministers will all examine the issue before reporting their findings to a federal task force focusing on regulatory issues surrounding marijuana.

"We want to make sure we're part of the process recommending some things back to the federal government, in terms of keeping our roads safe, in terms of public safety issues that may arise from marijuana legalization and normalization, to the extent that will happen," said Wall.

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There was a day where the fight against marijuana was considered crucial to the health of our nation and most people were on the same page. Pass on grass was a common sentiment.

Now, as we are well into the 21st century, attitudes have changed dramatically, and recreational marijuana use is more socially acceptable than it has ever been. In more and more jurisdictions in North America, the use of pot has been or soon will be legalized, or decriminalized, and that includes right here in Canada.

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Contamination in houses used to produce illegal drugs can easily be overlooked during routine inspections, which is why the province needs a comprehensive registry of former marijuana grow-ops and methamphetamine labs, according to the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors (ASR).

"The information's available (to police), and we think it should be made available to our members and to potential buyers, so they're able to make an informed decision when they look to buy a house," ASR CEO Bill Madder said.

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There are discrepancies about safe dosages, its use in treating PTSD

Auditor general Michael Ferguson has raised important questions about the increasing use of medical marijuana by Canadian military veterans.

As authorities contemplate enforcement actions and zoning bylaws relevant to marijuana dispensaries, and the federal Liberal government prepares for legalization in 2017, Ferguson is urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to address the amount of medical cannabis being prescribed to veterans. He found the quantity prescribed was "poorly documented" and not always evidence-based.

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Saskatoon Police Service Cst. Matt Ingrouille Headed A Blunt Conversation About Drugs On Saturday

Last year saw then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper declare; "Marijuana is infinitely worse" than tobacco.

At the time, he cited nonexistent "overwhelming and growing scientific and medical evidence" that he said would support his claim.

Those educated on the subject toned him out, just as they've toned out certain anti-drug messages whose purported "facts" don't align with reality.

It's this kind of condescension that Saskatoon Police Service Cst. Matt Ingrouille avoided during a direct conversation about drugs and addiction with a Prince Albert audience on Saturday.

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Pending final approval from Health Canada, Mark McCaul plans to sell medical marijuana in downtown Prince Albert as soon as possible.

His intent is to expand his "unorthodox medicinal supply shop," The Hum (62 13th St. W.), into the property next-door once all of his legal ducks are in a row.

But first, he has some misconceptions to dispel; an effort he's been striving to accomplish through his own actions as a medical marijuana advocate.

Surrounded by bongs and other paraphernalia associated with marijuana in his shop, McCaul admits that a common assumption is that he's some "major stoner."

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