Sault Ste. Marie Police Service seized $728,413 worth of drugs over the course of 2020 - more than four times the dollar value of drugs taken off the streets during the previous year.
The police service’s annual report for last year, released Thursday, shows $171,600 worth of drugs were seized by police in 2019 and another $342,784 in drugs seized in 2018.
The largest drug bust in Sault police history - a massive haul primarily consisting of fentanyl and crystal meth with an estimated street value of $289,638 - played a significant role in driving last year’s total dollar value of drug seizures by police.
That drug bust took approximately 4,600 points of fentanyl off the streets.
“And one can kill you,” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Hugh Stevenson, speaking with SooToday Thursday. “You know, as much as it’s important to me as chief of police to bring these people before the courts - and we do - it’s just as important to get those seizures off the street, because it’s about saving lives.”
Included in the total dollar value of drugs seized in 2020 is the $33,883 in drugs seized by police as a result of Project Atom, which enforced COVID-19 restrictions and release conditions of individuals with pending criminal charges between April 20 and June 4, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We target enforcement based on a variety of intelligence sources that identify places and times where we’ll investigate, and we’ve been fortunate, based on our intelligence, to continue to take down these drug dealers whether they’re local or from out of town,” said Stevenson. “And we consistently send the message - if you sell this poison in our city, we will arrest you and put you before the courts, and we will seize your assets associated to that drug distribution, as per asset forfeiture in the Criminal Code.
“Our message has remained the same for the past three years: drug dealers beware. We will catch you, and we will put you before the courts and seize your assets.”
Drugs seized through Crime Stoppers also saw a large increase in 2020, from $165,500 in 2019 to $485,315 in drugs seized last year - despite receiving 194 less calls from ‘tipsters’ in 2020.
SSMPS also reports a 1,900 per cent increase in impaired driving offences due to drugs in 2020 over the previous year. Alcohol-related impaired driving charges, meanwhile, dropped 27.8 per cent from the previous year.
RIDE checks performed by police also saw a nearly 43 per cent increase in 2020 when compared to 2019.
Stevenson says the increase in drug-related impaired charges is largely attributed to the legalization of cannabis products in 2019, a move that’s resulted in the police service finding a lot more people using cannabis while driving, because “they assume it’s not a dangerous drug.”
The police chief says cannabis is just as dangerous as alcohol in terms of impairment behind the wheel.
“The number of people engaged in both drug and alcohol impairment are significantly up, and that’s why we continue to push social media and public information and awareness about the use of cannabis while driving, and that is a concern for all police services across Ontario,” he said.
The public can read the police service's annual report for 2020 in its entirety here.