CALL IT POT PARK

Playground Teen Haven For Dopers, Say Locals

Police who busted nine Kelvin High School students for selling drugs last
week might want to check out "Peanut Park," area residents say.

Just blocks from the high school -- and from St. Mary's Academy -- the park
is a favourite hangout for groups of teenagers in search of a place to
smoke pot.

'FOREIGN STUFF'

"We were just saying they should get the police down here any day at noon,"
said an Avonherst Street resident whose front window overlooks the park in
the heart of the tony Crescentwood neighbourhood. "There's always kids out
here ... and occasionally you might see some foreign stuff."

A play structure in the centre of the park has been christened "The Pot
Shack" by graffiti artists, and walls of the shack are covered with
pro-weed messages and poetry.

Even though residents say teens usually behave themselves while smoking pot
in the park, they're not too fond of them sparking up in front of
neighbourhood kids.

One Ruskin Row resident said he's had to ask teens to leave the park
because they were toking too close to young children.

He said the hangout concerns him for a number of reasons.

"First of all, it displaces little kids from playing on the play structure
because they're intimidated by the teenagers," he said. "Second, it
probably won't take long for the little kids to recognize they're smoking
pot, which may desensitize them into thinking that's OK. And third, if
local kids are blatantly smoking pot in a play structure, you can imagine
the people who are selling pot are probably hanging around, too."

Harvard Avenue resident Charles Feaver said he's more bothered by the mess
the kids leave when they come to the park to drink.

"We get a lot of people drinking and driving up here and throwing their
beer bottles out of the car window, then leaving," Feaver said.

On Friday, nine Kelvin students were charged with drug trafficking after an
undercover cop posing as a student was sold ecstasy and marijuana.

Winnipeg School Division trustee Mike Babinsky said he was happy to hear of
the arrests.

'GOING TO JAIL'

"I've got six kids, and if there were nine kids in my teenager's high
school selling drugs and telling everyone it's cool to do ecstasy, I'd have
a concern with that," Babinsky said. "I'd want my kids to see that this is
totally wrong and these apparently cool people are breaking the law and
they're going to jail if that happens."

Babinsky said trustees weren't aware of the problem with Peanut Park but
will likely be asking Kelvin's principal to keep an eye on the situation.