HINTON COPS HAVE DRUG PROBLEM

Hinton Mounties Have Too Much Dope.

A successful year of seizing marijuana from motorists travelling
through the community, about 285 km west of Edmonton, has left RCMP
there with a dilemma -- where to pack it all.

More than 45 kg of pot is stacked up in the detachment's exhibit room,
said Const. Mark Kay, the man responsible for many of the seizures.

Mounties usually have to keep the drugs they seize as evidence until
the case has cleared the courts. But if Hinton RCMP continue to seize
drugs at their current pace, they may have to apply to have some of it
destroyed, Kay said.

"The room here is getting pretty full and I guess we may just keep
piling it up to the ceiling.

"Or we may apply to the courts so we can burn most of it and keep a
little as evidence like we do with big seizures."

Hinton RCMP currently use an incinerator at a local pulp mill to
destroy seized drugs, said Staff Sgt. Ron Fehr.