The signs of drugs may be there, but Wellington OPP detachment PC Kirk MacDonald wants to make certain parents are looking for the right signs.
Recently, MacDonald was a guest speaker at a Community Oriented Policing (COP)Committee sponsored meeting at the Arthur Public School.
He said the first thing parents should know is they are not alone, the second is that there are signs and support, if they know where to look.
MacDonald lives in the area and has served with the local detachment for a number of years, developing a good rapport with the community and local youths.
MacDonald is also the officially designated liaison for the Arthur COP committee.
“I’ve been a police officer for 22 years now,” MacDonald said.
He started as an officer when he was 21 and spent 19 years with the Peel Region Police, and the past three with the Wellington OPP.
The decision was based on driving an hour back and forth to work, or spending more quality time with his family.
“Wellington County was my first choice. I was very fortunate to get Wellington County, unlike some new officers, who end up in more remote locations.”
MacDonald said he’s worked in a variety of areas when he was with Peel Region.
“Most of the time, I was a front line officer, but I did spend time working with schools.”
During his time in Peel Region, MacDonald also worked undercover, “being a young looking officer when I was 25, looking 17-ish, I was used to doing a lot of street level drug purchases and we were able to put a lot of bad guys in jail.
“It did have a certain danger about it, because naturally I wasn’t looking like a police officer while I was undercover, and that included not wearing a bulletproof vest, firearm or radio.
He said things did go sideways a few times, including having a knife pulled on him at the Square One shopping centre.
“But honestly, if you ask any police officer, whether they are a detective or somebody higher up, almost every police officer, the ones I’ve spoken to, say the best time that they had was as a line uniform constable. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new comes forward.
“We know that there have been a lot of issues over the past few years in town.”
MacDonald said he’s noticed a change in drug trends.
“To be honest, I’ve come across crystal meth on a number of occasions just in the past year in this community, whereas in my 19 years in Peel, I only saw it once.
“That being said,” MacDonald added “there are also drugs that I saw in the city, that I’m not seeing here.”
He said if a child or teen is involved in using drugs, there are signs, both behavioural and visible. However, MacDonald stressed some signs can be confused with the young person going through adolescence.
“If you put the pieces of the puzzle, you as parents or grandparents or friends that may know someone that is doing drugs – you’re instincts are usually right. Trust your instincts on that.”
He’d asked for a quick show of hands of people who’d had their vehicles rifled through, houses broken into or other property crimes where items were stolen.
“Generally speaking, most of that is attributed to drugs,” he said.
He explained it is 15 to 17-year-old males that are typically the culprits involved in going through cars overnight looking for pocket change.
“Usually, it is somebody who is involved in drugs, they don’t have a job, and this is their way of getting the money to pay for the drugs.”
MacDonald said with most drugs, there is a price to pay for it and with addictive drugs, they are going to keep going back.
“What we find is good people sometimes make mistakes and start experimenting with drugs. Then they become addicted and then they start behaving in ways that normally, if they were not involved in drugs, they wouldn’t be doing these crimes.”
“In the worst case scenarios it involves drug dealing, violent crime. And when you see the stories about home invasions in Toronto and shootings – that’s all drug related.
“Most of the time, and I stress most of the time, the targets, the families or the individuals or homes, are involved in drugs.
“Criminals are not always the smartest individuals and sometimes they get the wrong house. If it is dark out and they are in a subdivision, they may go to the house next door by mistake.
“A lot of times we think of drugs as the cocaine, the meth and the marijuana.”
But he said “the top three most abused widely spread drugs being used by young people are marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes.
“It’s something that we always have to keep in mind. It’s not the drug dealer standing on the corner you have to worry about – it can be our liquor cabinet at home, or coming out of the variety store and some kid hitting you up for a pack of smokes.
“Realistically, the most dangerous drug overall – taking into account deaths, addiction, how widely spread, the cost to society and health care – is alcohol.”
MacDonald said, “there’s not a night that I ever see go by, where we don’t get a call in from someone following an impaired driver.”
He added it is something more realistic to expect than your child getting involved with PCP.
“Only a fraction of the population is involved in hard-hard drugs,” he said.
He also spoke of the other common street drugs.
“They include obviously marijuana, hashish, hash oil, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, magic mushrooms, LSD, crystal meth, ecstasy, prescriptions and drugs from vet clinics.”
He said prescription drugs are a big problem right now.
“With the painkillers right now – it’s just rampant.”
He said it used to be the 20-plus crowd using them, now a lot of younger people are using them as well.
“It may not be the drug dealer with his hood up on the corner, it could be our own medicine cabinets.”
As for marijuana, “most of you know what it looks like.”
He said in rural areas, “It’s just like farming, especially the outdoor stuff around here. We get the calls from the farmers saying they’ve found plants.
“That’s what usually happens, the guys come up from the city, and at harvest time they find a little spot.
He also pointed out some of the associated contraband, including how-to books and various plastic bags.
If you happen to find a little ziplock bag in the wash, you might want to have a conversation with the young person, he suggested.
Hashish, for anyone who has not seen what it looks like, it’s usually brown or black. He said the hash oil is like a resin (tar-like or could be cut into chunks).
It’s a little bit of a stronger high than marijuana, and its a little bit more expensive.
However, MacDonald is not seeing a lot of hash anymore – though it was more popular in the 1990s. But it is out there, and users often like to mix it with other drugs – such as regular marijuana to increase the high.
He commented briefly on the different ways some drugs are used.
“Drugs have changed a lot since I was in high school,” he said, adding police are also finding a lot more people impaired by drugs, not just alcohol.
There is loss of coordination and users can’t make decisions quickly and suffer memory loss, slurred speech, distorted time and space, bloodshot eyes, and can get the munchies.
He noted police now have officers who are trained to observe and recognize impairments due to drug use.
He said it’s amazing what people tell police, like, “I haven’t had anything to drink, but I’ve smoked six joints.” He added people who are licensed to grow marijuana have very strict conditions they must follow.
But there’s not a lot of that out there right now, MacDonald said.
He pointed to the numerous items involved including differing types of scales.
“Often when I pull someone over who is involved in smoking marijuana, you’ll find them driving Mom or Dad’s car. I guarantee they are smoking marijuana when I find this stuff: a bottle of Visine (because they have serious eye problems), five to 10 pine tree air fresheners (because they love the smell) and rolling papers.
Occasionally you’ll see a roach clip or the butt end of a joint.
“It’s funny, because I’ll ask them what the rolling papers are for. It’s always the standard … I roll my own [cigarettes].
“This is from the generation who has never seen anything but remotes. They can’t get up to change the channel, but they have time to roll cigarettes.”
He stressed sometimes its a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
“A lot of the time, you may not be able to recognize the type of drug, but you’ll recognize the fact that they are masking it.
“The main drugs that we’re seeing are a lot of are marijuana, crystal meth, oxys (which they call hillbilly heroin), prescription drugs and alcohol.
He said there is some cocaine use, but it is not very prevalent in young people.
He added people on cocaine are pretty hyped up while those on marijuana usually mellow out. He said the big difference is with some drugs it takes a while to get addicted, but with crack cocaine it is right away.
The high is immediate and then there is the crash.
But, he also pointed out, the other danger with any drug bought off the street is that you don’t really know what you are getting.
He commented on one person who thought they’d sell soap instead of the drug – it’s still trafficking. If you sell something that is held up to be a drug, you are trafficking.
“That’s the scary about it, we were all young once and remember some of the crazy stuff we did and taking chances. But the thing is, you just don’t know what’s out there and what could be mixed in with some of these drugs.”
MacDonald said if parents are talking to their kids about drugs, putting aside the obvious things, this fact should get their attention.
“These guys are just out to make money, and you don’t know what you are buying.”
He said death from drug overdoses is more common than people think.
As for how to react, MacDonald said the idea of peer pressure is psychological.
“A lot of the time if you just say ‘no’, people won’t think any less of you,” he said.
