SEIZURES UP SHARPLY FOR POLICE DRUG UNIT

An area drug enforcement unit is on pace to double the value of its
drug and property seizures this year.

Brockville Deputy Police Chief John Manoll told Brockville's police
services board Thursday that in the five-month period from April 1 to
Aug. 31 the Project Islander team seized $2,565,000 in property, drugs
and cash.

In all of 2004, the value of seizures was $2.09 million.

This year's April to August totals alone include $1.7 million worth of
a wide variety of street drugs, mostly marijuana, but also cocaine,
methamphetamines, oxycocets and other prescription painkillers, GHB
(the date rape drug), and a small amount of ecstasy.

Project Islander activities this year led to 59 people being arrested
and charged with a total of 142 offences during the period.

Manoll said approximately 50 per cent of the drug unit's raids
happened within Brockville city limits.

Of the half not seized in the city, Manoll noted, "A lot of these
drugs would filter into Brockville eventually, we're the biggest market."

One of those drugs is crystal meth, a highly addictive type of
methamphetamine that can be cooked up in home labs.

The spread of the drug and the devastation it has wrought on families
and communities coast to coast has put meth in the spotlight recently.
MPs in Ottawa recently passed tough new sentencing guidelines for dealers.

Detective Constable Mark Noonan, the Brockville drug investigations
officer serving with Project Islander, said in an interview Friday
that like many smaller cities and towns, Brockville isn't immune.

"We've definitely seen more of it in the last couple of years," said
Noonan.

He said crystal meth use, at this point, appears to be concentrated
among what he described as hard-core drug users who have graduated to
it from marijuana and cocaine.

"I've heard stories of (people) as young as high school students using
this, (but) I've personally not taken any from youth," said Noonan.

He said the force hasn't taken down any labs.

"Generally, I would think a lot of our crystal meth ... comes down the
highway from Toronto through Kingston," explained Noonan.

Despite not seeing use among teens, Noonan was at Brockville
Collegiate Institute on Thursday where he gave a presentation to
students on the dangers of meth use.

Noonan stressed he wasn't trying to scare the audience.

"None of that really ever works," he said, "it's just a matter of
putting the facts out to them."

He showed them pictures of the disgusting labs where dealers make the
product and talked about how addicts become almost unrecognizable from
their former selves.

"When you see what some of these harder chemicals do to people, it's
absolutely awful. I think some of the kids maybe got a bit of that
yesterday," he said.

As for the labs, he noted drugs like ecstasy and crystal meth are
"coming out of someone's bathroom, where they've used Drano and
various chemicals, quite frankly, to produce what they're putting into
their bodies."

If the scourge of meth has yet to hit Brockville in a big way, what
has is an abundance of prescription drugs.

"That is definitely an ongoing problem in this area," Noonan said. "A
lot of it is people who are selling their own prescriptions, people
who have convinced a doctor that they need to be prescribed."

To combat the problem, Noonan said the Kingston-based drug team has
officers specifically assigned to investigate so-called double
doctoring, patients who accumulate prescriptions by jumping from
doctor to doctor.

Meanwhile, marijuana use continues to be the major drug of
choice.

That's a concern to Noonan who insists it can be a gateway drug to
other, more addictive, narcotics.

Despite the significant increase in seizures by Project Islander this
year and the inroads they've made since forming, Noonan recognizes
there's still a high level of drug activity continuing.

"What I've noticed is (dealers) recognize you're coming after it and
it makes a dent in the fact that some of them are a little more
careful," he said.

"But a lot of it is going to be education. ... We're going to keep
going after it and try to keep it away, but people have to recognize
that if you want a drug bad enough, you'll certainly find it."

As much as anything, Noonan said the value of the unit is "it's woken
a lot of people up in the area as to what's out there."

The drug unit is comprised of officers from area municipal forces and
OPP detachments as well as the provincial force's Kingston-based drug
squad.