CATCHING THE COKE

Fort St. John RCMP clamped down on the city's illicit drug trade in
2010, increasing the number of cocaine related arrests by 53 per
cent, Inspector Pat Egan reported to council Monday, Jan. 10.

Police also slightly increased the number of marijuana related
arrests in Fort St. John.

Egan made the numbers public as part of the local detachment's annual
year-end report to council.

He cautioned that annual statistics are prone to fluctuation and they
go through ebbs and flows over the years.

However he pointed out that dramatic increases or decreases compared
to the previous year can be attributed to specific incidents or trends.

The significant increase in cocaine related arrests doesn't
necessarily signify an increase in Fort St. John's cocaine trade.
Rather, Egan said, the jump in arrests is the result of a concerted
local effort by police to target the trade of the illicit substance.

At the beginning of 2010 mayor and council mandated the local police
force to focus its attention on the city's drug trade. Council had
made the request in response to community concerns surrounding the
proliferation of the local drug trade.

To tackle the issue, police reinforced the work of the Fort St. John
Drug Section with several undercover operations, which received
funding from both the city and the province.

The city's most recent undercover drug bust occurred last week, when
police arrested 15 individuals in connection with street level trafficking.

Undercover officers targeted local drug dealers over the course of
the four-month long investigation.

As a result of the project, police charged 13 men and two women with
a total of 40 offences. The vast majority of the charges were
directly involved with trafficking cocaine.

Cst. Gary Gray sought the help of the community to increase police
ability to target local drug traffickers.

"Everyone in Fort St. John knows someone who's life has been affected
by drugs," said Gray, "We would like to thank the public for
providing us with information that we can use as a starting point in
our investigations."

The day after Fort St. John police announced their 15 arrests,
Canadian Border Services officers snatched $3.5 million worth of
cocaine, some of which police speculated was bound for Fort St. John.

Police arrested a man and a woman from Washington State after finding
the equivalent of 83,000 doses of cocaine in their minivan.

RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass, Prince George media relations officer, said
although there's no way to know for sure, it's quite possible the
intent was to split up and distribute the cocaine among communities
like Prince George, Fort St. John and Fort McMurray.

Given the recent police actions, Fort St. John's Insp. Egan said
there will be an immediate impact on the availability of cocaine in
the community.

However, he said, he doubts that will last long.

"History tells us that the problems are likely to reemerge
continually," explained Egan, "It doesn't take long for another group
to move in and fill the hole, it's like shoveling water."

Director of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, Robert Gordon agreed.

"Just because you eliminate the supply, doesn't mean that you get rid
of the demand," explained Gordon.

He said that northeastern B.C. and northern Alberta are significant
drug markets because of the high levels of disposable incomes in those areas.

"You have a lot of young people living there earning large amounts of
money - but in doing so find themselves short of sex, drugs and rock
and roll and they're willing to pay for them all," said Gordon.

According to Gordon, drug seizures drive up local prices and
encourage new drug dealers and suppliers to fill the void. It is also
well documented that eliminating established drug dealers with a
monopoly on a local drug market increases violence as replacements
vie for superiority.

"The problem is, do you turn a blind eye to spare a community that
kind of violence and condone an activity just because the alternative
is intolerable? Frankly I don't think the situation is resolvable
under the present circumstance," said Gordon.

However, he said, the chances of North America changing its approach
to drug reform has never been closer for three reasons.

First of all, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed a vocal drug
reformer and former Seattle police chief to the post of national drug
czar. Secondly, the drug war along the U.S.-Mexican border has
reached a fever pitch that requires radical action. And lastly the
near success of California's proposition 19 which sought to legalize
marijuana reflects changing social attitudes towards drug policy.