Estevan residents received a reminder late last week of one of the problems caused by the drug trade.
The Estevan Police Service (EPS) announced that substances located in a field near Chinook Bay had proven to be methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Those drugs were found by a citizen, who called police, who then sent the substances to the provincial lab.
This is one of those instances in which we’ll probably never know how the drugs got there, how long they were there, or most importantly, who was responsible. Due to the challenges of investigating a case like this, charges likely won’t ever be laid, although the owner of the drugs certainly won’t be happy about the loss of $15,000 in product.
The field where the package was found is not a high-traffic area such as a sidewalk along Fourth Street or a business parking lot.
The good news is that the person who found the drugs called police. That person didn’t taste them to find out what they were. It wasn’t a curious child who ingested the drugs, creating a potentially tragic situation.
Whoever found the drugs did the right thing in calling police; we should all take the same approach if we find ourselves in that type of situation.
It also reinforces the need for parents or guardians to have one of those important talks with their children about being careful if they find something and they don’t know what it is. And it’s never too early to have that conversation with them, or to repeat that message, so that kids know what to do when they find something outdoors they aren’t sure about.
The drug trade isn’t as strong as it was seven or eight years ago in Estevan. The monthly numbers report for the Estevan Police Service in October shows that there weren’t any charges for trafficking or possession in Estevan. It’s actually a number that our community should be proud of.
But it would be naïve to think that we didn’t have drugs in the city that month.
The same day that the EPS issued its warning about the found drugs, four people were arrested and charged on drug-related charges.
A few weeks ago, the EPS arrested five people in connection with a drug bust, although as of Mercury press time, none of those people had been charged, leading to speculation in the community as to whether any charges will actually be laid.
And while drugs charges are down, we have seen numerous cases involving methamphetamine possession this year. It seems that meth has been the illegal narcotic of choice for many this year.
Have the Estevan Police Service, the Estevan RCMP and other law enforcement agencies made strides in the fight against drugs in the past few years? Absolutely. We’re seeing fewer charges for trafficking and possession than in the past.
Some of that is due to other factors. We’ve seen a reduction in the number of possession-related charges due to the legalization of recreational marijuana, although there wasn’t as much attention paid to simple marijuana possession leading up to legalization as there had been in the past.
There are also fewer people in the community than there were seven years ago, and people don’t have as much disposable income.
But the police deserve credit for the work they have done to make arrests and to curb trafficking in the city. You don’t get a reduction in the amount of drug activity in a city without good police work.
We still see those times in which we’re reminded about the presence of drugs in the city, and how it’s up to everybody to be vigilant regarding the drug trade.
It’s also reminder to keep having those conversations about the dangers of drugs.
