Meth, not pot, causing crime

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This article was published 15/12/2018 (1958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The head of Steinbach’s RCMP detachment said on Wednesday that so far the legalization of recreational cannabis has not led to any change in the amount of fines or arrests by police.

While presenting the latest Steinbach RCMP crime stats during a Wednesday morning Hanover council meeting, Steinbach RCMP Staff-Sgt. Harold Laninga was asked by rookie councillor Travis Doerksen if cannabis legalization had led to any changes in the amount of traffic offences or other reported crimes in the area.

“At this point we have not seen any change,” Laninga told council. “At this point it is still fairly new, but we are not noticing a marked increase.”

During a council meeting in the winter of 2017 Laninga raised concerns about cannabis legalization, telling council at that time he feared that legalization would lead to a large increase in impaired driving violations and other crimes in the area.

Laninga added that the majority of drug related issues they deal with are related to methamphetamines.

“If you’ve seen the news lately you will know that meth is becoming an increased problem throughout the province, and it’s definitely a problem within our area,” he said.

Laninga told council that a lot of petty crimes are happening in the area because meth users are looking for money to support their drug addiction.

“The thing about meth is that it’s fairly cheap, it costs about $10 a day to stay high on meth, so people are committing petty crimes and crimes like shoplifting and theft from vehicles,” he said.

Laninga added one of his concerns about petty crimes is they make residents feel unsafe in their own communities.

“If you go out to the car in the morning and your glove box is open and papers are all over the floor, then you feel violated and that makes people feel unsafe,” Laninga said.

“We don’t get a lot of violent crimes here, but the property crimes are really what make people feel like they are not safe.”