Prince George is now around 200 days a city of legalized cannabis; but has the decriminalization lessened the organized crime related to it?
Officers at the front lines of cannabis control say that it has not.
At their council meeting last night, the Prince George RCMP made their report to council on progress so far in 2019. In it was a look at how legalization has (or in this case, has not) changed the landscape of organized crime in the city.
Superintendent Warren Brown said Prince George has a thriving underground of drug trafficking, including that of black market cannabis.
“That’s what fuels money and greed in our community; organized crime, and that is alive and well in Prince George.”
“Legalization really hasn’t made the black market of cannabis go away. So we still have an over-represented process of trafficking cannabis illegally in our community,” said Brown.
To that point, the PG RCMP made their largest bust under the Cannabis Act last month, seizing more than 55 kilograms (121 pounds) of dried cannabis, a significant amount of other forms of cannabis products, several firearms, ammunition, and more than $550,000.
“There is still a really violent organized crime market that is just not going to go away,” added Brown.
As the crossroads for all of northern British Columbia, anything going north has to come through the city first, and often, some of it stays here. From the front lines, Brown sees that the drug trade brings with it more than just addiction.
“When people can’t pay their drug debt, very heinous acts happen all the way from assaults up to homicide and in between. We have investigated, very frequently, people getting injured, assaulted and tortured.”
If the frequency of that happening comes as a surprise to you, it’s likely because those crimes aren’t often reported to the media, and therefore don’t make it to the public.
“We don’t often report that to the media because we want to make sure people feel free to come to the police and not afraid to come to the police. We rely on people in the community reporting this to us, and we often have to safeguard people once they’ve done that.”
Warren said that they saw an increase in crime, violence, and homelessness in the downtown core last year and shelters that they work with have reported a more violent trend in the people they are helping.
For the RCMP moving forward this year, they’ll be making a strong focus on reducing crime and calls for service in the downtown core.