Editor; As a former drug and alcohol abuse counsellor, I applaud any effort to shut down drug houses. As a landlord of two rental properties, I feel there has to be some changes to the Landlord Tenants Act and more cooperation between landlords, bylaws and RCMP. Bylaws need to have the power to go in unannounced to houses landlords' feel are used as drug houses. We have, in the past seven years, had to address drug involvement in both our rental houses. Our calls to RCMP brought no response. The tenants' calls to the rentalman's office brought immediate response. [continues 84 words]
VICTORIA - The solution to rampant property crime, armed robberies and street-level drug dealing lies in a community-based system of justice, not in stiffer jail sentences for repeat offenders, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal says. Speaking at a recent Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce lunch, Oppal said drug-related crime is a social problem that has to be addressed by the community, not just the legal system. "We can't let the judges be out there all alone solving these problems," he said. [continues 285 words]
Surrey is dropping the hammer on drug houses, declaring them uninhabitable until inspections are conducted and any needed repairs are complete. The initiative comes as part of the city's new Controlled Substance Property Bylaw presented to council Jan. 30. The bylaw was endorsed unanimously. Homeowners whose property is used for illegal drug operations will now be hit in the pocketbook as strict new measures will be required before the home can be resold. Once the city determines a home has been altered, electrically or structurally, to make it suitable for marijuana grow operations or meth labs, it will be off limits to occupancy. [continues 214 words]
Surrey Task Force Urges Retailers To Beware Of Illicit Purchases A local methamphetamine task force hit the streets Monday to alert retailers about potentially dangerous products they sell. Crystal methamphetamine, or meth, is an increasingly popular, highly addictive and deadly drug. It's cooked up in home labs, made from substances available at pharmacies and hardware stores. Two of the active ingredients, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, are contained in cough and allergy medicine. Other ingredients and tools are available at hardware stores, including camping fuel, acetone and red phosphorous. [continues 341 words]
Campaigns Aim To Limit Sales Of Chemicals It may get harder for dealers to manufacture a deadly street drug, as Surrey's methamphetamine task force approaches retailers about potentially dangerous products on their shelves. In the next month, task force chair Bruce Hayne will be working with others to educate retailers about "reactants" and "precursor drugs" used to make crystal methamphetamine. The precursors, including ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, are commonly found in cold and allergy medicines and can be used to make methamphetamine, an increasingly popular, highly addictive street drug. [continues 397 words]
When It Comes To Meth, Logic, Reason Are Out The Window Meth labs in basements. Bony boys scratching scabs. Headlines claiming "One hit and hooked for life." Megalomania. Hallucinations. Psychosis. With the fury of methamphetamine fear flying in the media, you have to wonder who's having the 'psychotic episode,'drug users or the rest of us. Clearly, logic and reason have flown out the window when it comes to meth. The same holds true for other psychoactive substances, from alcohol to heroin to crack cocaine. [continues 569 words]
Russ Hiebert's dire warning that a "crisis of crime" is sweeping Surrey doesn't add up, according to police and the city's new mayor. Hiebert played the crime card earlier this week at a Newton press conference, saying Conservative candidates are the only ones fit to combat rampant criminal activity here. "Crime is out of control in Surrey with street racing, grow houses and shootings," Hiebert claimed. But that alarmist view isn't backed by police statistics, and it's a view Mayor Dianne Watts maintains just isn't the case. [continues 399 words]
A new tool has been deployed in the battle against crystal methamphetamine use. Fraser Health Authority has released a 156-page manual titled A Community Guide: Strategies and Interventions for Dealing with Crystal Methamphetamine and Other Emerging Drug Trends. It can be downloaded from FHA's website ( www.fraserhealth.ca/HealthInfo/MentalHealth/AddictionServices ). The guide provides information about programs and strategies to counter meth use. Sections range from effects and dangers of meth to withdrawal symptoms and treatment. Among adults, crystal meth was the fourth drug of choice behind alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, the guide says. Among youth, meth is third behind marijuana and alcohol. [end]
A website intended to help make Surrey schools safer has resulted in dozens of tips from teens and kids - most of whom have become fast fans of the anonymous online resource. "This site rocks," wrote one student. "What I mean is it shows reality ... what's going on with Surrey and with other schools. I really like the way you made me feel that I have some place to go if something's not going right at school and I'm not comfortable talking to the principal. [continues 348 words]
The number of Surrey murder and manslaughter cases is the highest it's been since 2001, the year the city set an all-time record with 18 homicides. As of Friday, 20 homicide cases had been recorded, but one relates to a 2004 incident and two deaths have not yet been confirmed as murders. That leaves 17 cases in 11 months, a worrisome number as far as Staff Sgt. Brian Cantera, an investigator with the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, is concerned. [continues 158 words]
Lower Mainland Detachments Pitch in to Fund, Staff Full-Time SWAT An integrated emergency response team set to launch in April is getting high marks from White Rock's top cop. Staff Sgt. Tom Forster said the dedicated unit - available 24 hours a day, seven days a week - will improve safety for general duty Mounties by ensuring elite officers are available for high-risk arrests - something White Rock is seeing more and more of. "It's going to be a lot better for us. It's going to be safer for a lot of reasons," Forster said. [continues 502 words]
The battle against crystal meth could leave B.C. cold sufferers with fewer places to buy medicine for runny noses and coughs. Large sales of cold medications that could be used to make meth will be more tightly monitored by the province in the first plank of a new program. Solicitor General John Les admitted most meth labs use bulk commercial imports to get the chemical precursors they need - they don't usually buy them at pharmacies or grocery stores. "While it's rare for them to use over-the-counter drugs, we want to be as thorough as possible," he said. [continues 134 words]
A 10,000-name petition calling for tougher penalties for people using date-rape drugs was tabled in Parliament by Conservative MP James Moore. On International Women's Day, Moore, MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam launched a university and college campus campaign to gain support to enact tougher laws against date-rape drugs. "Date-rape drugs have become a menace to women," Moore said. Typically date-rape drugs are secretly slipped into drinks or food; once ingested they act rapidly, rendering the victim unconscious and unresponsive with little or no memory while the drug was active. Traces of the drug can leave the body within 72 hours and often do not show up in routine toxicology or blood tests. Although these drugs are controlled substances like heroin and cocaine, possession is almost never met with jail time, and penalties are light, Moore said. Moore has a Private Member's Motion (M-189) before Parliament, which recommends GHB and Rohypnol, the most common date-rape drugs, be identified in the Criminal Code under a separate schedule as "date-rape drugs" with new, tougher penalties. The motion would establish a national initiative to educate women on the dangers of date-rape drugs and related substances; and create a national task force to establish guidelines for collection and documentation of evidence in sexual assault cases. [end]
Premier Pledges $7 Million To Combat 'Dirty, Filthy Drug' VANCOUVER - Premier Gordon Campbell brought his chequebook to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention Thursday, announcing $7 million in new funds to combat crystal meth addiction, and a boost to provincial grants for small rural communities. Calling meth a "dirty, filthy drug" that permanently wrecks people's lives and health, Campbell told a capacity crowd of civic politicians that $2 million of the money will go directly to municipalities to support their own programs, patterned after successful initiatives like the "meth-kickers" program in Kamloops. [continues 353 words]
It could get tougher to make crystal meth, as police, fire department and community groups work to choke off availability of the drug's ingredients. An increasingly popular drug among youth, crystal methamphetamine is easy to make, with most ingredients available at stores. Ingredients, known as precursors, are the target of the Crystal Meth Task Force, which has been granted $10,000 from Surrey council to educate retailers on how to restrict supplies to make the drug. The province and federal governments are willing to help fund the project. [continues 115 words]
Editor; Re: Decision disappoints (Peace Arch News, Aug. 9) Doug M. Towie was quoted; "I am both dismayed and angered by the Canadian Government's decision to proceed with extradition to the U. S. of Marc Emery and company, for selling cannabis seeds." I do not know if a time will ever come when society has no need for rules to keep the peace, when borders will no longer exist between nations; but until that time I suggest it would be counter-productive and irresponsible to tie the hands of law enforcement agencies. [continues 92 words]
Surrey School District has a number of new initiatives this year, including five positions to tackle substance use among youth. District spokesman Doug Strachan said the substance use liaison program, a first for Surrey, will offer youth and families support through education, referrals and monthly "connection" meetings for parents. "They have extensive experience working with youth," he said. "They'll be able to provide resources for families, and not just students." Spearheaded by safe schools manager Theresa Campbell, the program will have close association with Surrey RCMP. [continues 242 words]
It must be the heat. Or in these shallow days of summer, when city councils and councillors have so little on the agenda they barely meet monthly, have we resorted to conjuring dragons to slay? White Rock is sniffing about with the anti-smoking crusaders again, following the scent laid by the City of Vancouver. There, councillors are huffing and puffing in response to the haughty harumphs of do-gooders who can't abide the whiff of second-hand smoke on patios, and - egad - doorways. [continues 321 words]
I am both dismayed and angered by the Canadian Government's decision to proceed with the extradition to the U.S. of Marc Emery and company, for selling cannabis seeds. The terms of the extradition treaty require that the act be illegal in both countries. If, in fact, it is illegal in Canada then, as the defendants are Canadian citizens and the offence took place in Canada, they should be tried in Canada. If it is not illegal, extraditing them to the U.S. to face a punishment of 10 years to life is akin to extraditing a Canadian citizen to Saudi Arabia for shipping beer to that country. Doug M. Towle White Rock [end]
The forces of anti-Americanism are in full throat after the arrest of B.C. Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery to stand trial in Seattle for selling seeds by mail-order. The hard left in Kamloops (yes, there is one) sees the sinister hand of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at work. In a letter to Kamloops This Week, Gary Williams muses that Canadian Gen. Rick Hillier's recent Donald Rumsfeld-style talk about whacking terrorists may be part of a pattern with this sudden crackdown on pot. [continues 548 words]
