What’s in your drugs? Inuvik RCMP will start publishing a list.

Inuvik RCMP will begin publishing regular lists of the ingredients found in the drugs that dealers bring to the town.

The Northwest Territories has reported multiple recent instances of drugs being contaminated – or, simply put, poisoned. In some cases, people have died.

Drugs like cocaine and crack cocaine, and even cannabis, have been found in the territory with added fentanyl and carfentanil, among other contaminants.

Fentanyl is extremely toxic and carfentanil many times more so. Dealers add them to other drugs to increase the package’s overall potency. It’s another tool to keep people coming back, but it also significantly increases the likelihood of something going seriously wrong.

S/Sgt Jesse Aubin, Inuvik RCMP’s detachment commander, told Cabin Radio police already send the drugs they seize for Health Canada tests to determine their exact composition.

Now, Aubin will begin releasing those results in monthly reports to town council.

“The community here in Inuvik has asked me to release the results,” Aubin said.

“I think that will be beneficial to the community of Inuvik, just to know exactly what these individuals are bringing into town and selling.”

The NWT has spent 2023 urging drug users to make sure someone is with them, such is the increased risk from drugs laced with highly toxic extra ingredients.

Fentanyl test kits are rolling out in some jurisdictions, allowing people to quickly test their drug supply. (Some people knowingly take fentanyl, but the test kits help people avoid fentanyl if they weren’t expecting to take it.)

Teenage trafficking concern

Having results to report relies on Inuvik RCMP seizing drugs. Lately, there hasn’t been a shortage.

Aubin said police in the town have seized more than $50,000 associated with trafficking in recent months, alongside a range of drugs. By the end of November, Inuvik RCMP had logged 63 incidents related to drug trafficking for the year, up from 27 for the entirety of 2022.

In a new development, police have twice recently reported arresting 17-year-olds from other parts of Canada in connection with Inuvik’s drug trade.

In late November, a Toronto 17-year-old was detained at Inuvik Airport with $9,000 in cash that RCMP said was connected to a trafficking investigation. Earlier this month, a 17-year-old from BC was among five people arrested after police raided an apartment.

“The use of minors in drug trafficking is of particular concern and it is something that’s quite new here in Inuvik,” said Aubin.

“It’s another exploitative tactic used by drug traffickers and it highlights their predatory nature, how these criminal groups function. Teenagers are sometimes used as there are limits for sentencing on youth and young people – and generally, these young people don’t have a criminal record. That’s another big factor, so they’re not held for bail.”

Aubin said local officers are working with southern colleagues “to try to understand this new trend better.”

He called for the community to keep its compassion while police and other authorities work to counteract the wave of drugs reaching the town and its effects on residents.

“Reach out to your friends, family, neighbours, see if you can help them in any way possible with what they’re going through, reduce that stigma,” Aubin said, appealing for people to call RCMP or use Crime Stoppers if they have information to provide about drug trafficking.

Another scan of Scan

Denny Rodgers, the new MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake, said the impact of drugs on the town had been one of the issues most raised by residents during November’s election campaign.

“It’s a health issue. We know we have a serious problem in Inuvik,” Rodgers told Cabin Radio.

“We know there are a lot of people struggling with addictions. We know there are drugs coming into the community. We’re certainly happy to see the RCMP have made a couple of considerable arrests in the past month, but it affects safety, certainly health, and the well-being of our residents.”

As MLAs gather to set their priorities – the new government’s full list is expected to be finalized in February – Rodgers said action on drugs is a big part of that discussion.

He said there’s some enthusiasm among MLAs for a fresh look at Scan legislation.

Scan stands for Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods. Under Scan legislation, the territorial government could use civil courts to pursue the owners or occupants of homes where drugs are believed to be manufactured, used or sold.

Courts could then issue orders that have the effect of shutting down drug houses, for example by evicting those responsible.

Scan legislation is attractive because it’s a civil process, not a criminal one. Civil claims rely on a lower standard of proof than criminal courts, making a successful case more likely.

Scan has pitfalls. Earlier attempts to introduce the legislation in the NWT failed, in part because of concern in smaller communities that it could be used to settle scores and make false accusations.

More recently, RCMP have reported a trend of vulnerable NWT residents being coerced into handing over their homes to dealers for use as drug houses. It’s not clear how Scan legislation would protect those vulnerable people from eviction while targeting criminals.

The NWT’s new premier, RJ Simpson, has repeatedly raised Scan as a possible new weapon the territory can explore.

“It’s worth revisiting that legislation and taking a look to find out why it wasn’t passed” by previous governments, Rodgers told Cabin Radio. “Maybe there are ways we can tweak it to get it through this time.”

“It’s a whole-community approach and we know it’s a serious issue,” he added. “Not only getting the drugs out of our community, but certainly providing opportunities for those individuals that are suffering with addictions to go out and get treatment, to be able to come back and have something available to them in our regions for aftercare.”