A seven-year-old program that sees Winnipeg health officials hand out free crack-smoking kits to addicts could be reviewed if the Tories win October's provincial election. Ian Rabb, the Tory candidate in Fort Garry-Riverview and a former Addictions Foundation of Manitoba board member, said the Conservatives need more hard data about the program's success from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority before agreeing to "subsidize addiction." "My concern is the WRHA is paying to subsidize addiction without any real benefit," said Rabb, an admitted former crystal meth addict himself. [continues 330 words]
Winnipeg city council appears to be digging in for a battle against the city's head shops, which some councillors say are dragging down neighbourhoods and contributing to crime. The city's property and development committee voted Tuesday to look at establishing a licensing process for head shops - stores that sell smoking paraphernalia like rolling papers and bongs, and often things like books and T-shirts - that will apply to both existing stores and new ones wanting to start up. "This has nothing to do with city council passing judgment on people," said Coun. Gord Steeves, the committee's chair. "The stores seem to be proliferating in areas where businesses are having a tough time of making a go of it ... They can colour a certain area in a certain way that's not necessarily beneficial." [continues 210 words]
The St. James-Assiniboia school board thinks locating a head shop close to a St. James Collegiate will encourage more high school students to smoke pot. Truth be told, the board might be right, but putting any effort into restricting where such shops can set up is a waste of time. High school students are going to smoke pot whether they have to go to the nearby head shop to buy pipes and bongs, or whether they have to go to the head shop across town. [continues 359 words]
As pot smokers celebrated their unofficial annual 4:20 holiday outside the Manitoba Legislature and elsewhere yesterday, a new St. James head shop was holding its grand opening -- much to the chagrin of the area's school board chair. A store called La Mota, which is Spanish slang for marijuana, officially opened its doors yesterday at 1859 Portage Ave., a stoner's throw from St. James Collegiate. Head shops like La Mota typically sell smoking implements like pipes, bongs and rolling papers, as well as counterculture books, posters, clothing and other goods. [continues 330 words]
No 'Get Out Of Jail Free' Card In Monopoly Box Playing a Community Chest card won't get these women out of jail free. Manitoba's largest-ever heroin seizure was discovered last week inside two wooden boxes of the Monopoly nostalgia edition board game, each wrapped in pretty paper, presented as a Christmas gift, and shipped to Manitoba from England. But instead of the familiar thimble, hat and race car game pieces, customs officials found a vacuum-sealed, one-kilogram package of powdered heroin inside each box. [continues 242 words]
Progress Made, Police Say It wasn't the mother lode of drugs, and nobody's saying Central Park is free of pushers now, but Winnipeg police are calling their recent effort to clean up the downtown park a good first step in reclaiming it for the people. Since the summer, police have been working on what they call the Central Park Revitalization (CPR) project. That came to a head Wednesday night with the arrest of 15 people and the seizure of about $3,000 worth of powdered and crack cocaine, as well as two guns. [continues 202 words]
For anyone who failed to understand why Queen's Bench Justice Donald Bryk ripped into the personal character of convicted drug dealer Jose Neves -- someone he didn't even know -- this week, the answer lies in one simple explanation. Cocaine trafficking is not a victimless crime. Neves was handed a 10-year sentence in Winnipeg Tuesday for selling cocaine to a police agent while on parole for a previous cocaine trafficking conviction. Bryk let him have it at his sentencing hearing, calling him "cold-hearted, greedy, manipulative, dishonest and deceitful," accusing him of creating misery and caring nothing for human life, and suggesting neither his children nor the city's Portuguese community should be proud of him. [continues 313 words]
Two-Year Plan Calls for Better Treatment WINNIPEG -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a new federal anti-drug strategy in Winnipeg yesterday that was applauded by police and addictions groups alike, but not by opposition parties. The two-year, $63.8-million plan will provide roughly $43 million for modernization of addiction treatment services, community anti-drug programming and a public awareness campaign aimed at discouraging youth from using drugs. A further $21 million will go towards the enforcement end of the war on drugs, with more money for police, Crown prosecutors, border guards, correctional services and even intelligence agents in New York and Seattle. [continues 264 words]
Harper's Tough Strategy Applauded, Panned Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a new federal anti-drug strategy in Winnipeg yesterday that was applauded by police and addictions groups alike, but not by opposition parties. The two-year, $63.8-million plan will provide roughly $43 million for modernization of addiction treatment services, community anti-drug programming and a public awareness campaign aimed at discouraging youths from using drugs. Enforcement A further $21 million will go towards the enforcement end of the war on drugs, with more money for police, Crown prosecutors, border guards, correctional services and even intelligence agents in New York and Seattle. [continues 320 words]
Sees Success In U.S. Treatment Of Drug Addicts Manitoba's justice critic thinks a groundbreaking new approach to incarceration might help reduce crime in the province. Kelvin Goertzen, the Tory justice critic, visited the Sheridan Correctional Center in Illinois in late July, and thinks the philosophy being used at the drug treatment prison might help crime rates here. "One of the main root causes of crime here in Manitoba is drug addiction," said Goertzen. "Everyone in Sheridan was a drug addict. Either they did a crime on drugs or to get money for drugs. [continues 335 words]
The 100th teenager legally forced by a parent or guardian to seek drug treatment recently passed through the doors of the province's only short-term youth drug stabilization unit. In June 2006, the Manitoba Legislative Assembly passed the Youth Drug Stabilization Act, giving parents the power to seek a court order commanding their drug-addicted kids into programming to dry them out long enough to convince them to seek longer term help for their problem. Since the Act came into effect in November, a little more than 100 teenagers have been ordered into the program, with the 100th entering the program last month. [continues 295 words]
A trio of drug dealers recently busted for peddling crack and powdered cocaine have likely been selling to students at high schools in Tuxedo and Charleswood, including St. Paul's, Shaftesbury and Oak Park, Winnipeg police said yesterday. Three men -- two are 18 and the third is 21 -- were arrested after cops raided a home on Sparrow Road in Charleswood and seized 20 rocks of crack and roughly an ounce of powdered cocaine. Sgt. Kelly Dennison, a spokesman for Winnipeg police, said the men were "dial-a-dealers" whose phone numbers police believe may have been making the rounds through the schools. [continues 416 words]
A man growing pot in La Salle just over a year ago was kicked out of Canada for good Monday. Thang Tu Nguyen was arrested Jan. 27, 2006, after Mounties raided his home at 6 Vouriot Rd. in La Salle, just south of Winnipeg, and seized about 750 pot plants and a small amount of crack. Nguyen was convicted of drug possession and trafficking and last June was handed a two-year jail sentence. The National Parole Board decided in December to grant him full parole when eligible, and he was released from prison last Wednesday. [continues 295 words]
The pills have the word "love" printed on them or they're stamped with a variety of icons, such as happy faces and hearts. But cops say there is nothing cheerful or endearing about the latest designer drug that has hit city streets. Winnipeg police are warning drug users to be aware that more and more drugs in the city are being cut with methamphetamine, meaning users might be ingesting more than they think. Analysis of a recent drug seizure in the city has shown pills sold illegally as either ecstasy or caffeine pills contained methamphetamine, a dangerous and powerful drug made by mixing ephedrine with common chemicals like paint thinner, swimming pool cleaner, camping fuel or farm fertilizer. [continues 309 words]
Three infants -- all under 20 months old -- were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation Saturday night after a man started a fire in their apartment while cooking drugs. Winnipeg police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Dennison said a 23-year-old man is facing arson charges after officers discovered a fire that broke out in an apartment in the 700 block of Wellington Avenue was sparked when the man was boiling marijuana to make cannabis resin, commonly known as "oil." The fire caused $2,000 damage and was out before firefighters arrived, but the smoke was enough to send the three young children to hospital in stable condition. [continues 170 words]
Street gangsters in Winnipeg come in all shapes and sizes - from aboriginal teens in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to white bikers born and bred in the suburbs. But despite their differences, two things bind them: Drugs and violence. Manitoba's gangsters and organized crime members - last estimated at more than 1,500 - are lured to the criminal underworld for reasons including a sense of belonging, personal protection and status. But it's the money made from selling gang-controlled drugs that keeps them coming. [continues 428 words]
Street gangsters in Winnipeg come in all shapes and sizes - from aboriginal teens in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to white bikers born and bred in the suburbs. But despite their differences, two things bind them: Drugs and violence. Manitoba's gangsters and organized crime members - last estimated at more than 1,500 - are lured to the criminal underworld for reasons including a sense of belonging, personal protection and status. But it's the money made from selling gang-controlled drugs that keeps them coming. [continues 643 words]
Seize More Than $40K In Drugs Drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers at the Stony Mountain and Rockwood Institutions have seized marijuana and cocaine worth more than $40,000 behind prison walls in recent weeks, proving they were likely paying attention at a recent conference on drug detection. The two federal prisons, located side-by-side about 13 kilometres north of Winnipeg, hosted a conference for institutional drug search teams last month, and in the weeks following the confab the local teams have made five separate seizures and turned two suspects over to the RCMP. [continues 187 words]
Police Report Drop In West End Crime Levels More than three months into Operation Clean Sweep, and police are still as busy busting thugs and making seizures as they were the day the program started. The Winnipeg Police Service released its February statistics yesterday for the program that has resulted in 45 officers enforcing warrants and tackling street-level crime in the West End without attending regular calls for service since November. Arrests And Seizures Police arrested another 120 people in February, bringing the 14-week total to 529. [continues 346 words]
Parents Cooked Drugs, Not Breakfast For Kids At a time when many people would be cooking bacon and eggs, a North End couple spent their Saturday morning making something a little less traditional. A kitchen fire broke out about 9 a.m. Saturday in a house at 122 Burrows Ave. as the residents, parents of four young children, were cooking drugs on the stove. "These parents, rather than feeding these kids breakfast, are cooking hash oil on the stove, and that's simply unacceptable," said Const. Shelly Glover, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Police Service. [continues 282 words]
