The Moose Jaw Police Service has seized nearly 20-per-cent more drugs this year than last year, with fentanyl appearing to be one illicit substance that officers are finding more often.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, police recovered drugs during 29 investigations as compared to 25 incidents involving illegal substances, a year-over-year increase of 16 per cent, new data shows.
Year-to-date (YTD) numbers for drugs recovered this year versus last year show:
- Cocaine: 5 / 4
- Marijuana: 4 / 6
- Methamphetamine: 3 / 7
- Other CDSA drugs (such as fentanyl): 17 / 8; 112.5-per-cent increase year-over-year
“Very often, those (numbers) are related to projects that we’ve been engaged in, (such as) surveillance (or) possibly warrants or things like that,” police Chief Rick Bourassa said during the Board of Police Commissioners’ recent meeting.
“They tend to come in groups and clusters. One project may result in many, many, many charges. And then we’ll work on another project, but there will be months and months and months before we lay charges,” he continued.
“This is a category that we kind of have to track over time because it’s very dependent on when we actually wrap a project up.”
During a media scrum afterward, the police chief said officers work closely with other intelligence agencies and police bodies on issues about the drug trade. Not only are they seeing —and seizing — more drugs, but the provincial chief coroner has said Saskatchewan is in the midst of a “fairly significant run of deaths related to fentanyl.”
“So we are not immune to this. We are in the same place as other jurisdictions,” Bourassa said.
Provincial agencies have strategies to help interdict drugs and to attempt to keep them out of communities — a difficult task since people can bring in illegal substances through various means, he continued.
Furthermore, Moose Jaw police work with their social agency partners to attempt to prevent drug use in residents by addressing addictions and mental health.
“If there’s not a demand, then the supply will go away. But unfortunately, there is a demand,” the chief said. “So we have to look at both sides of that … . (It’s) incredibly challenging. It’s what you call a sticky wicked problem faced by everybody.”
Some addictions can be powerful and difficult to break since they are resistant to treatment, which means the police regularly encounter the same people — not because they’re taking drugs but because of their related behaviours, he continued.
It’s sometimes personally difficult for police to see the same people and deal with them repeatedly — especially individuals with whom they grew up — although officers do what they can to help and offer support.
“I hope we have better answers coming soon,” Bourassa added.
Moose Jaw police unexpectedly recovered one kilogram of fentanyl worth $400,000 during a recent investigation following a home invasion on South Hill. Police charged two men for allegedly breaking into the home and assaulting the homeowner, whom EMS took to hospital with injuries.
When asked whether police would lay charges against the homeowner for allegedly possessing the fentanyl, the chief said charges would come when officers have completed their investigation.
“We have the evidence to successfully see that through court. I can’t tell you where they are at this point because I haven’t checked with them lately, but it is active,” Bourassa stated, adding that amount of fentanyl was “a lot.”
The next police board meeting is Thursday, Oct. 19.
