POLICE TARGET DRUG TRAFFICKING IN SCHOOLS

Friday's Arrests Part of Ongoing Operation

Codiac Regional RCMP's Drug Section is targeting drug trafficking at
local high schools in an attempt to keep students safe.

"If we can get young people on the right track early, society benefits
from that," says Const. Chantal Farrah. "We want to put them on the
right path to be responsible adults in the future."

Two officers from the drug squad arrested three Moncton High School
students Friday at lunchtime as part of this ongoing operation.

The teens were seen smoking marijuana just off school property,
prompting the investigators to intervene.

Farrah says the Drug Section has long focused attention on high
schools in Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe to try to curb any illegal
drug activity at those schools. She says they do investigations at
random times, much like the way the Traffic Enforcement Section holds
random checkstops on Metro Moncton roads.

Last week, officers investigated the area around Moncton High School
at Church Street and Mountain Road and Mathieu-Martin High School in
Dieppe as part of this ongoing operation.

It was near Moncton High where they encountered the three youths
smoking marijuana on their lunch break.

"They were consuming marijuana in plain view in a parking lot across
from the school," says Farrah, adding there were many other students
there with them.

The two police officers moved in to arrest the three teens, who are
all 16, but the situation became unruly.

"One became very aggressive and started swearing at the officers and
started fighting with the officers," she says.

While others were being belligerent with police, no one else jumped in
and police were able to arrest the rowdy teen, along with the other
two.

They confiscated marijuana, and also seized two sets of brass knuckles
and a retractable metal baton.

"Those are all prohibited weapons; no one can have those," says the
constable.

Two of the youths were already on undertakings to the court for
unrelated matters.

Police released all three accused and they will appear in court at a
later date to face charges of possession of drugs, possession of
prohibited weapons and resisting arrest.

Farrah says marijuana is the most frequent illegal drug used by high
school students, while police occasionally encounter ecstasy and LSD
use. A New Brunswick Department of Health 2007 survey of students in
Grades 7, 9, 10 and 12 backs this up, reporting that 25 per cent of
teens surveyed reported using marijuana at least once, while 11 per
cent reported using it more than once a month.

According to the survey, 4.8 per cent of students have tried magic
mushrooms, 4.4 per cent have tried ecstasy and 3.4 per cent have tried
LSD.

Farrah says many people who use marijuana have the attitude that it's
harmless, which likely explains why teens are smoking up in the middle
of the day. But she says the reality is that marijuana use is bad for
your health - it's much more potent these days than in decades past -
it promotes organized crime and is illegal.

Also, using pills such as ecstasy is dangerous because they're made of
chemicals and manufactured in clandestine drug labs.