OVERDOSE OF REALITY

B.C. bud appears to be giving way to more deadly narcotics in Okanagan

When the subject of drugs in the Okanagan crops up, marijuana is the
narcotic that usually comes to mind. But headlines in the region this week
were all about the emerging prevalence of hard drugs. Two people died in
Vernon of suspected cocaine overdoses this week, the Penticton drug unit
recently seized 84 grams of cocaine after a raid on a South Okanagan home,
and a Kelowna mother recounted her daughter's addiction to crystal
methamphetamine. The Vernon deaths occurred in separate locations and at
different times, leading police to warn other cocaine users to be alert for
an unusually potent batch of the drug, or a batch cut with something else
that renders it deadly

Cpl. Henry Proce of the Vernon RCMP said toxicology results on the two drug
overdoses won't be back for a couple of weeks

Cpl. Red Leibel said police have come across some crystal meth in Vernon,
but cocaine and heroin still dominate the hard-drug scene

However, in an ominous prediction, Leibel said it's only a matter of time
before crystal meth takes hold in the community

"We're bracing for it," said Leibel. He said part of the reason why it's
expected to become more common is that crystal meth can be produced locally
- -- it does not have to be imported like cocaine and heroin

Kerry Solinsky, coordinator for Kelowna Drug and Alcohol Resistance
Education (DARE), said hard drugs are used by area students, but he would
not say their use is rampant. "It's similar to other communities," he said

There is a trend among drug users to combine crystal meth with ecstacy, a
drug popular with the rave scene of the late 1990s

"It's bad enough on their own, but when you start mixing them the
combination could become deadly," said Solinsky. "You start mixing drugs and
anything could happen." A Kelowna woman described her experiences in The
Daily Courier

earlier this week as she tried to get her 17-year-old daughter back home and
away from her crystal meth addiction.

She said her daughter was offered the drug at school by other students as a
weight-control tool.

Crystal meth has taken hold in Kelowna, and there are reports of smaller
Okanagan communities also afflicted by the drug that is made up of chemicals
such as muriatic acid (used for cleaning concrete), rubbing alcohol and
other toxic ingredients.

Hard drugs grabbed the headlines this week, but marijuana grow operations
still ac-count for the majority of police activity. While pot is considered
a soft drug with less-significant social ramifications, police
drug-enforcement officers say B.C. bud is ex-changed for hard drugs.
Organized crime is be-hind almost all of the large marijuana grow operations
in the province, says Doug Powell of the drug unit of the RCMP in Kelowna,
and the people running the grow-ops are often armed.

There are "mom and pop" grow operations, in which a few plants are grown for
personal use. For large-scale operations, organized crime is almost always
at the root of the activity, but their main goal is not selling the pot on
the streets of Kelowna.

Organized crime groups grow marijuana in bulk to ship to the United States,
where they trade it for cocaine, said Powell. The cocaine is then brought
back to Canada and sold on the streets to anyone who has the money to buy
it. Powell said there are proven, direct connections between large-scale
grow-ops run by organized crime and the importing of cocaine.

Nobody has access to pounds or kilos of cocaine without having access to
organized crime," said Powell. We know people who are producing marijuana
and have connections to organized crime are trading it for cocaine. We know
it's organized crime groups that are running it." "Police have made dozens
of arrests of cocaine dealers in the Okanagan during the past year, but an
arrest on Dec. 22 netted police something they did not expect - a
.45-calibre machine-gun.

In that case, police arrested two men

for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. A subsequent
search of one of the male's vehicles netted 1.5 pounds of cocaine and more
than $4,000 in cash. As the investigation progressed, police

executed a search warrant at a local self-storage facility where they found
another 1.5 pounds of cocaine, a sawed-off shotgun and the machine gun with
hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Powell said weapons are common among drug dealers and can range from bear
spray to Tasers, sawed-off shotguns and handguns. The self-storage search
was the first time Powell had encountered a machine-gun. The amount of
cocaine and the presence of the machine-gun are telltale signs of organized
crime at work, he said.

''There are a million possibilities for a gun like that, and none of them
are good," said Powell. "It was heavier fire power than we're used to coming
across."

The presence of weapons makes an already dangerous job even more hazardous,
and police use extreme caution when raiding a suspected grow-op.

Adding to the hazard is a growing trend among criminals to raid other
grow-ops to steal the drugs.

"You have criminals planning raids to get the marijuana. They are going
there with weapons, and we're finding weapons at the grow-ops. Almost every
search warrant we do, we find weapons," said Powell, adding the potential
for violence is obvious.

It also makes raiding grow-ops more hazardous for police.

"You never know what's on the oth-er side of the door, and you never know
what the person on the other side of the door is thinking," he said.

Powell is not saying the Okanagan is a hotbed of drugs and weapons. He said
Kelowna is no better or worse than any other community its size in B.C.

In Vernon, police have raided sever-al North Okanagan drug operations during
the past year and have en-countered their share of weapons, from a sawed-off
rifle to handguns.

While executing a warrant last September, police discovered cocaine, scales,
cash and paraphernalia asso-ciated with the drug trade. Police also found a
loaded, Derringer-style hand-gun and a battery-powered stun gun. Both these
weapons are prohibited un-der the Criminal Code.

While checking a vehicle that same month, Vernon RCMP located a loaded,
sawed-off .22 rifle. Proce said the pro-hibited weapon was stuck between the
driver and passenger seat and was eas-ily accessible by the driver.

Const. Dan Moskaluk of the Penticton RCMP said there is a noticeable
increase in weapons being found on criminals in the past two years.

Moskaluk said people seem to be car-rying the weapons more, and he easily
relays stories of handguns found on suspects.

"What we are also seeing is modified weapons. They are modified for
concealment," said Moskaluk regarding sawed-off shotguns, sawed-off rifles
and other weapons.

Knives are also often found at drug busts.

Moskaluk said he cannot give an ex-act cause for the increase in weapons,
but suspects some of the blame must fall on the glamorization of violence in
popular media, such as television shows and movies.