cannabisnews.com: Undercover Action Ends in Drug Bust on B.C. Ferry





Undercover Action Ends in Drug Bust on B.C. Ferry
Posted by CN Staff on August 02, 2002 at 08:04:12 PT
By Brent Jang
Source: Globe and Mail 
Police are praising a program that led to eight drug arrests on a West Coast ferry, where plainclothes officers with sniffer dogs tracked down marijuana while strolling the car deck.Twice, a drug-sniffing Labrador retriever sat down next to a car after scenting marijuana from the trunk, Staff Sergeant Douglas Bruce of West Vancouver police said yesterday.
"When the dogs smell the odour of a controlled substance, they simply sit down," Staff Sgt. Bruce said. "We went on the ferry with the intent of not alarming anybody to our being there."It was a very covert operation," he said.Staff Sgt. Bruce hailed this week's Operation High Seas as a success, but John Dixon, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, criticized police, saying they abused their powers and wasted valuable resources to seize seven kilograms of marijuana."The trunk of your vehicle enjoys at least as great a claim to privacy as your underwear drawer," Mr. Dixon said. "Unless the police have reasonable and probable grounds, they do not have a right to subject your private materials to search."During the ferries' busy summer season, the prospect of further "fishing expeditions" by plainclothes police will deprive passengers of enjoying their privacy in what should be a laid-back journey, Mr. Dixon argued.Police arrested eight people during Tuesday's search conducted over the course of four trips between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Three people have been charged.A 43-year-old man and 30-year-old woman from Lasqueti Island, travelling together to Nanaimo, face charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking.A 37-year-old man from Lantzville, B.C., also faces a drug-trafficking charge after being arrested during a trip to West Vancouver.Police arrested five others who were caught smoking marijuana cigarettes on the car deck, but those five were released because the goal was to catch traffickers, not nab puffing passengers, Staff Sgt. Bruce said.He defended the operation, saying that police targeted suspected traffickers but did not open trunks immediately.Police seized two cars, then obtained search warrants before unlocking the trunks on police property. A dozen undercover officers and five trained dogs boarded the ferry. They patrolled the car deck but not the upper decks where passengers were, he added.Deborah Dykes, a spokeswoman for the provincial-government-owned B.C. Ferry Corp., which operates the West Coast fleet, said the police provided notice that they would carry out the drug search.Police said there is a pattern of drug traffickers using the ferry system to transport marijuana, so it makes sense to clamp down at terminals and the ferries.Although using dogs on ferries seems a novel way to look for illicit drugs, "it's no different than us walking down the street and smelling marijuana emanating from a house," Staff Sgt. Bruce said.Note: Labrador retriever trained to sniff drugs finds seven kilograms of pot in car trunks.Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Brent JangPublished: Friday, August 2, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A5Copyright: 2002 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.ca/CannabisNews Articles - Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=canada
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Comment #12 posted by E_Johnson on August 02, 2002 at 23:43:29 PT
It was not luck
A lot of people worked really hard to find that car before the girls were killed. It's not really okay to call that luck.
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Comment #11 posted by freedom fighter on August 02, 2002 at 19:30:27 PT
And 
the terrorists breeze thru without much ado! When will the public wake up to this fact?E.J., it's in my viewpoint that these two girls are damn lucky. My lady friend got killed not too long ago. She was 18. Some cops will shoot and shoot, and then, talk about it..ff
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Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on August 02, 2002 at 12:43:47 PT
Pride -- what a feeling
Wouldn't marijuana eradication people rather be doing something that really saved lives? How can they justify spending their time hunting down plants when so many child and teen abductions end in murder?Now we see that law enforcment is not powerless in an abduction. They can succeed at saving the victim when they have the focus and the resources.Wouldn't they have more focus and more resources if they gave up marijuana farm hunting?Wouldn't they like to be as proud of their service to the public as the team that saved these two girls are right now?It's really nice to have a moment of pride for LA law enforcement after so many horrible scandals, most of which were caused by the corruption that comes along with drug prohibition.
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on August 02, 2002 at 12:29:34 PT
This is what they should be doing
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kidnap2aug02.story
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Comment #8 posted by 2Spooky on August 02, 2002 at 12:19:26 PT
Way to screw Drug Dogs
The idea I had to stop dog searchesthat would work if it was implemented on a large scale is for everyone to make up a spray bottle of pot oil (simply soak some shake in 70% rubbing alcohol for a few days, then dilute about 5-1)and then administer a few squirst here and there around lots of public places like ferrys (get every other car, especially fancy ones), bus stop lockers, seats ON the busses, schools, mini-storage doors (sheltered from the weather), etc.After racking up a bunch of false positives, and getting sued repeatedly, the credibility of drug dog searches would go down the tubes.
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Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on August 02, 2002 at 12:05:59 PT
Cowardice vs. heroism in law enforcement 
Yesterday the law enforcement forces of Los Angeles and Kern counties showed what real law enforcement heroism is about when those two kidnapped girls were rescued just in the nick of time as the perp was taking them to the place where he was going to kill them and bury them.This is what I pay taxes for!!!The operation they mounted to catch this guy was truly impressive.
If law enforcement would give up their drug addiction, even more lives could be saved like the lives of these two girls.
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on August 02, 2002 at 12:01:05 PT
Money short circuits logic
Police arrested five others who were caught smoking marijuana cigarettes on the car deck, but those five were released because the goal was to catch traffickers, not nab puffing passengers, Staff Sgt. Bruce said.
Um if it is wrong to harass puffing passengers, then why is it right to harass people carrying the stuff to be puffed?What Staff Sgt. Bruce really meant to say was, "The goal was to support our future careers in the interdiction industry and we can't do that if our actions impact too broad a circle of the taxpayers who finance our careers and our industry."
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Comment #5 posted by Naaps on August 02, 2002 at 10:19:54 PT
Outraged by Police Actions
Being from BC and having sailed the ferry between the Nanaimo and Horseshoe Bay on many occasions this action really steams me.A dozen undercover officers and five trained dogs boarded the ferry.
They were present on 4 trips between the two destinations, with the usual sailing time of just under two hours, it must have made for a comfortable way to pass the day.Notice also, these dozen cops were tackling a ‘supposed’ problem which wasn’t necessarily being complained about by anyone. No victims were stepping forward, “The pot in this person’s vehicle is harming me.” The fact is that no harm was being inflicted by the people with pot. "It's no different than us walking down the street and smelling marijuana emanating from a house," Staff Sgt. Bruce said. No, I disagree. The ferry is an extension of the road. An analogy might be possible with the counter attack program which focuses on intoxicated drivers on the road, but that program is aimed at the safety aspect, not the transportation of pot by drivers. The reality is that this checking is much more akin to drug checkpoints used in America. SS Bruce, compares the interdiction to walking down the street and smelling the cannabis; however, homes set back from the sidewalk wouldn’t be readily accessed by the human olfactory sense, and drug dogs aren’t used in that manner.It would be amusing to combat the drug dogs by using caryophyllene oxide, as was suggested here when San Francisco started using the dogs on BART. If a number of cars could be surreptitiously sprayed while waiting in the ferry line-up, perhaps using a mister, the dogs would be sitting down here and there, creating all kinds of problems.On the local all-news radio, their story mentioned that the drug dogs’ noses are so sensitive that the dog reacted to a car, which had parked over a small piece of a roach that had been discarded, before the car had even rolled onto the ferry.The fierce defense displayed by the BC Civil Liberties Association against this fishing expedition by the police impresses me enough to seriously consider sending them a year’s membership dues. The BCCLA has been outspoken on the issue of drugs for years, and recently have done a good presenting that view to both the House and Senate traveling committees. 
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Comment #4 posted by freddybigbee on August 02, 2002 at 10:12:47 PT:
My mistake
USA/Canada it's all the same *&^%$# 
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Comment #3 posted by freddybigbee on August 02, 2002 at 10:10:20 PT:
Dogs Sitting Down Constitutes Probable Cause
So if a dog sits down near you or your otherwise private property, you thereby forfeit all constitutional protections? Once again we prove that dogs have more rights than people in the USA.This sounds about as sensible as other recent developments in this once-great nation.Heads-up all you haters of freedom. Jump on board the War on Some Drugs; it's the best cover that has ever been devised for destroying the constitutional protections that made this country great.
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Comment #2 posted by herbdoc215 on August 02, 2002 at 09:07:04 PT
This is an attack upon these communities existance
These island communities like Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island have been decimated already by the US bs on Salmon and logging NOW they want to do away with the only other industry ( retirement checks do not count as an industry ) these places have going. NOT to mention that BC Ferry's is one of the most inefficiently ran companies I have ever seen even for state-ran companies this one is a model for how not to run a company and I am coming to believe socialism ensures nothing ever gets done, inertia of the unmotivated. THE one ritual that makes living your life around a boats schedule bearable is everybody going to back of boat and smoking a joint- EVERYBODY knows it occurs there every trip so those who don't smoke leave us alone. I wish more people would see this as the US gov't using RCMP as puppet's to do their bidding, what good do the RCMP think can come of this as in most dependancy economic situations the US gov't lets you sink as soon as they are done with you, thereby maintaining countries in a perpetual third world situations--- Does BC want to be next Nicaruagua? Peace, Steven Tuck 
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on August 02, 2002 at 08:33:41 PT
Interesting
The gall of LEO's around the world knows no limits. It's funny how in both San Fransisco and BC, strongholds of support for legal cannabis, police pull some of the most outrageous, Nazi-like tactics against pot smokers anywhere."Police arrested five others who were caught smoking marijuana cigarettes on the car deck, but those five were released because the goal was to catch traffickers, not nab puffing passengers, Staff Sgt. Bruce said."There were probably more people using cannabis on the ship than eating potato chips! Why not just start arresting people eating potato chips? Voluntary obesity kills 300,000 per year in the US. Vegetable Oil KILLS!That's the saddest part of the WOD, not the trampling of civil liberties itself, but what that says about modern society. Despite all the patriotic hyberbole we learn in school, the general public is totally indifferent to living in a police state. No one really cares. Something about modern life breeds apathy.
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