LINDSAY BUSINESS PEOPLE TOLD CRACK IS A PROBLEM

LINDSAY - Corporal John Green, of the RCMP's criminal
intelligence unit, delivered some bad news at the annual general
meeting of the Lindsay Business Improvement Association last Thursday.

He said crack cocaine is here in Lindsay and it will not go away
easily, not without the help of the community and a committee he wants
to create to attack the problem head-on, before it escalates to the
degree of seriousness he has seen in Durham Region.

The longtime Lindsay resident, who works out of Bowmanville, has
worked for the RCMP for the last 23 years -- the last three in the
criminal intelligence unit.

Covering the Lindsay area, he was alerted to the seriousness of the
problem after a series of articles by reporter Ben Medd in the the
Feb. 9 -13 editions of The Daily Post. Green said he doesn't
necessarily agree with everything in the articles, such as the
statement newspaper delivery kids are delivering papers to buy
cocaine, but for the most part the series was right on.

"The series of articles that ran in February indicated that our
federal prosecutor wanted something done," he said, noting prosecutor
David Gemmill said a community effort is needed to address the situation.

He said things have changed drastically in a town that used to only
contain petty theft and a few grow operations. Now, it is the target
of very large and threatening organized crime operations.

"We have a different type of criminal here now. We have identified
organized crime groups that are targeting the area and playing for
keeps," he said.

"Now you can walk downtown Lindsay and score crack cocaine in 10 or 15
minutes," he said of the product that can cost $1,200 to $1,400 an
ounce.

"I've dealt with it before and with it comes weapons and
prostitution," he said.

He noted tell-tale signs for businesses to be on the lookout such as
burnt fingers, from lighting crack with a torch or lighter, or burnt
pop cans, tinfoil or inhalers in the garbage.

"You may not stop it but you can make it difficult to deal here and
maybe it will move them elsewhere," he said, noting that the bylaws
exist to get rid of the problem, so it is not about reinventing the
wheel.

Business Improvement Association chair Harry Luchies stressed that the
problem is serious and that the downtown of Lindsay depends on the
community to become involved, but he reinforced that the problem is
not yet huge - the community needs to be proactive and keep their
heads out of the sand on the issue.

"We have to keep the downtown viable," he said.