There’s no denying it, Jasper loves its pot.
According to a recent RCMP report, for every 100,000 people that visited Jasper last year there were 3,024 incidents involving the possession of cannabis.
That puts Jasper in the second top spot in Canada for the most marijuana busts per capita, following Lake Louise with 3,675 incidents last year.
“I thought it was surprising that we reached second in Canada, but right now we’re pretty committed to getting drugs off the street—whichever drugs they might be,” said Cst. Patrick Vallee, the media liaison officer for the Jasper RCMP detachment.
According to Vallee, during the past few years the number of search warrants obtained by the local RCMP has increased, which in turn has led to an increase in drug seizures.
“In the past few years our members have decided to focus more on this type of investigation so we’re seeing more drug enforcement and that type of work—that’s just the team we have right now,” Vallee said.
The last big marijuana bust happened in August when Jasper RCMP seized 1,600 grams of marijuana and 1,100 grams of cannabis resin, among other drugs and drug paraphernalia from a Jasper residence.
According to Statistics Canada, police laid 1,364 charges for the possession of marijuana from the 3,024 incidents per 100,000 people that visited Jasper last year.
As to who is being charged in these incidents, Vallee said it’s a toss-up between visitors, locals and people just passing through Jasper.
“It really just depends. Sometimes we catch people just through a routine traffic stop because we get up to a driver’s window and smell the strong scent of marijuana or sometimes we’ll catch people smoking a joint in one of the back alleys,” Vallee said. “We come across marijuana in town a lot because it’s really easy to detect because of its strong smell.”
Along with confiscating marijuana, Vallee said the local detachment often deals with cases involving cocaine and MDMA, a form of methamphetamine.
Back in March, two Jasperites were charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after the Jasper RCMP seized 34 ounces of cocaine and 4.6 grams of crystal meth. RCMP estimated the street value of the drugs to be about $100,000.
“Crystal meth is really rare to see around here, but unfortunately I don’t think the problem with cocaine is decreasing. We see it a lot whether we’re talking about a seizure or dealing with people that are clearly intoxicated on cocaine,” Vallee said. “That’s something we’re really focusing on because that’s something that causes much more harm than marijuana.
“Every time we get a tip about cocaine or MDMA then we try to get a search warrant so we can get rid of the problem as soon as possible.”
Despite the frequent charges for weed, cocaine and MDMA, Vallee said he considers the Jasper detachment to be lucky because so far they haven’t come across “heavier drugs” like fentanyl, which has killed more than 270 people in Alberta in the past year.
“Fentanyl is a major problem in Alberta right now, but it seems like the mountains are creating a barrier, stopping fentanyl from coming into town,” he said.
To help curb the current drug problem in town, Vallee said the RCMP are educating Jasper’s youngest residents.
Earlier this year, Vallee did a drug presentation at École Desrochers.
“We’re trying to be really open with the younger people in town. Instead of just sitting in front of them and telling them that drugs are bad, we’re trying to have an open conversation,” said Vallee, adding that he doesn’t believe Jasper’s youth currently have a problem with drugs.
“We don’t want the students to think we’re bad guys. We want them to be able to ask us questions about drugs—that way we can correct any misinformation.”
Although marijuana could be legalized by the federal government as early as next spring, Vallee said that does not add any leniency to how cannabis cases are currently being handled in Jasper.
“I understand where people are coming from when they say that eventually it might be legal. If it does become legal then of course we’re going to adjust to that, but for right now we’re enforcing laws that are currently in place,” Vallee said. “We’re a law enforcement agency. We can’t pick which laws we want to follow.”
Kayla Byrne
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