DRUG COURIERS TARGETED

Enforcement Police Putting Officers Aboard Grand Manan Ferry

GRAND MANAN - Drug couriers should be careful talking to strangers on
their way to Grand Manan this fall.

The RCMP intends to put both plain-clothed and uniformed officers on
the ferries to interrupt drug traffic to the island, Cpl. Andy Cook
said in an interview Wednesday.

"We're going to change our times so they won't get used to our
schedule," Cook said. "They won't know."

RCMP officers do know "certain characteristics" to watch for looking
for drug couriers, especially with help from Grand Manan residents who
provide information, Cook said.

Information from the public helped the RCMP effort this summer to
eradicate marijuana growing outdoors on the island, Cook said.

In August and September the Grand Manan RCMP seized more than 110
marijuana plants from seven locations, the RCMP stated in a news
release this week. These plants could have made 55,000 marijuana joints.

The police checked approximately 15 sites around the island based on
information from the public, and checked other areas where people have
historically planted marijuana.

The 2,460 people, according to the most recent census, who live on
Grand Manan get along better than they did with the RCMP, Mayor Dennis
Greene said in an interview Thursday.

On July 22, 2006, about 40 people attended a riot at a home on Cedar
Street that many people called a "crack house." The home, belonging to
Ronnie Ross, burned.

On Nov. 18, 2006, a jury convicted four of five people charged with
offences including arson.

People took the law into their own hands three years ago because they
perceived as a lack of action by the authorities over the drug problem
on Grand Manan, Greene said then. He still says this.

"The relationship with the RCMP and the public has been improving
since the arrival of Cpl. Andy Cook two years ago," Greene said
Wednesday. "We couldn't ask for any better."

The RCMP acts on information from the public, which many people did
not believe happened before the Cedar Street riot, Greene said.
"People were saying they were contacting the RCMP and they weren't
acting on it," Greene said.

Besides relying on information from the public on illicit gardens in
the woods, the RCMP provides a helicopter to fly over the island once
a year.

Marijuana plants need sunlight, so the growers must plant in open
areas. The pilot and crew know what to look for.

Nobody can say for sure what effect these efforts have on the drugs
available in any community, but prices do reflect supply and demand.

"We know that the price went way up for cocaine and marijuana," Cook
said. "There's been a notable increase in the price."

In 2007 the RCMP harvested about 80 marijuana plants growing outdoors
on Grand Manan, and fewer than that in 2008. This year it jumped to
more than 110 and still counting.

As for other drugs, the party drug ecstasy, or other pills sold as
ecstasy, is a concern on Grand Manan, Cook said.

"A good portion of our supply of drugs comes from off the island,"
Cook said - the reason for patrolling the ferry.

With the Grand Manan detachment up to its full complement of four
members, the RCMP has enough officers to patrol the ferry, Greene said.