POLICE KIT FULL OF ILLEGAL DRUGS MISSING

VICTORIA -- A drug-awareness kit filled with samples of cocaine,
heroin and other drugs has been missing since early May from a storage
cabinet at the Victoria Police Department.

The kit is one of a pair the department put together two years ago to
use at prevention seminars. They contain samples of an array of drugs
seized from street-level users and traffickers, Insp. Grant Smith said
yesterday. The street value of the drugs in each kit is $1,500 to $2,000.

"There is no indication whatsoever of any misconduct by any employee
of the Victoria Police Department," Smith said.

He said he'd like to believe the kit has been mislaid and will be
found, but conceded it may have been stolen.

"We've done everything that we can to locate [it]. I'm hoping that the
kit has just been misplaced or that the [police department] member
that possibly borrowed it has just, for whatever reason, not returned
it."

The drug kits were kept in a secure cabinet and were directly
accessible to only one officer. The cabinet was usually locked, he
said.

The fact that one of the kits is missing indicates "a breakdown in our
policy and our procedures," Smith said.

The kits did not have to be formally signed out.

"We were using the honour system. Anybody requiring the kits would go
to the constable in charge of the program. That constable would assign
the kit to them."

The remaining kit will not be used until a new policy is in place.