POT DEALER SAYS POLICE DRUG BUSTS ARE REASON TO GET OUT OF
BUSINESS

A Bow Valley pot dealer says "it's just not worth it" and he's getting
out of the business completely.

He says a string of RCMP drug raids in Banff and Canmore in the past
few months has targeted pot and cocaine dealers alike.

So much so that the pot dealer says he's giving up.

The crackdown is leaving Bow Valley pot smokers dry -- but not so
high. "John Denver wrote a song about the Rocky Mountain high and he
wasn't talking about cocaine and meth," the dealer says.

He added that police have been cracking down heavily on all drug
dealers since heroin and methamphetamine started being sold in the Bow
Valley. Now he says it's easier to buy a bag of coke than a bag of
weed in Banff and Canmore. Arresting people who sell hard drugs is OK
with him, but he says pot smokers are being caught in the crossfire.

"I talked to 30 people who smoked pot and all of them would like to
get crack and cocaine off the streets," he says. "That st is causing
problems. Marijuana isn't causing problems and it doesn't make people
violent." According to the dealer, there are more people doing crack
and cocaine in the Bow Valley than ever before. So many, in fact, that
he says it's "like an epidemic."

"(Police) are painting marijuana with the same brush as all the hard
drugs," the dealer says. "Marijuana is an herb. It's not grown by a
lab technician."

There will always be hard drugs and cocaine in the Bow Valley because
there will always be cocaine addicts, he says. Addicts need to support
their drug habit by selling drugs or getting other people to sell
drugs for them "while they shoot up all alone in a dark room."

"Meth is in town and there's been heroin in town for a while. It's
still underground like cocaine would have been two years ago," he
says. "People are pretty tight-lipped about their addictions."

But who brings in the hard drugs?

"That's a tough cookie to chew," he says, before offering the opinion
that the Hells Angels bring it in from B.C. and the Triads bring it in
from Calgary.

Investigators from the RCMP's Integrated Response to Organized Crime
team worked with Banff RCMP and police from other detachments recently
in a major investigation.

Banff RCMP Sgt. Wayne Wiebe would not comment on how Banff RCMP
assisted the IROC in the arrest of two members of the Edmonton chapter
of the Hells Angels and 16 other individuals from across the province.

"It doesn't connect Banff to the H.A. in any way. It is common in
these cases for the responsible unit to solicit help from other
detachments when needed and if we are able to supply someone to help,
we are glad to do so," Wiebe says in an e-mail.

Last week RCMP arrested eight men in four simultaneous drug raids in
Banff and Canmore. Police seized $10,000 in illegal drugs including
cocaine, marijuana, hashish, ecstasy, magic mushrooms, morphine and
steroids.

They also seized an arsenal of weapons ranging from nunchucks,
butterfly knives, throwing stars, switchblades and a crossbow. They
also seized $10,000 cash.

The RCMP executed search warrants on three Canmore homes and one in
Banff after being tipped off about illegal activities by members of
the community or through police monitoring.

In total, 41 charges were laid and the eight men have been released.
Pending charges included possession of drugs for the purpose of
trafficking, proceeds of crime and possession of weapons. One person
was released without charges.

Banff RCMP Const. Ian Ihme says police raids in the Bow Valley do not
focus on marijuana dealers. This year police raided a total of 25
residences, 23 of which had cocaine or some other "hard" drug. Two
drug busts specifically targeted marijuana dealers, one in Canmore and
one in Banff.

"The reason was that one of the individuals was selling to high school
students and the other was selling extreme amounts of it," Ihme says.
"Pounds and pounds of marijuana and very blatantly. (That individual)
was making thousands and thousands of dollars."

He adds that when police find cocaine they almost always find
marijuana.

"We are not specifically targeting the ma and pa pot dealers," Ihme
says. "That's something we hear a lot and it's just not true."

He adds RCMP in Banff and Canmore do about two or three drug busts per
month and haven't seen a lot of meth or heroine.

"Cocaine and crack are definitely the drugs of choice," Ihme
says.

He says that RCMP found more crack this year than in previous years
and that cocaine and ecstasy is sometimes mixed with crack, meth, or
other drugs. This results in poor quality cocaine and ecstasy.

"A little amphetamine can really boost the high," Ihme
says.

RCMP in Banff and Canmore pay cash rewards for information leading to
the arrest of drug dealers. Ihme says that drug addicts and other drug
users in the Bow Valley are paid through a program similar to Crime
Stoppers for such information.

The people who know what's going on in the drug world are usually
active in the drug world," Ihme says.

He adds that drug addicts sometimes see their dealer as being
responsible for their own addiction and decide to turn them in.

The anonymous drug dealer says he went out to a bar recently and
everyone was looking for pot. He guessed that there was no shortage of
cocaine in that same Bow Valley establishment.

The word on the street, he says, is that police are paying off the
crack and cocaine addicts in the Bow Valley to find out where the
dealers are, and the source says even he's feeling "a little on edge."

With drug busts "going down" every two or three months, the drug
dealer says it's time to quit.

"When I was (selling pot) not only did I feel safe but I also didn't
feel guilty. The term drug dealer doesn't really fit. I'm providing a
service. I feel separate from the hard drug dealers," he says.