North Bay police chief concerned with amount of street drugs in the city
Police have arrested eight people in the last week in relation to drug busts, and Chief Scott Tod told CTV News this is concerning.
“We do have a drug problem in North Bay,” Tod said.
“We do have a growing number of individuals in our community that use drugs. My biggest concern is what it’s doing to the people in our community -- it destroys families, it destroys relationships it destroys people from being employed.”
Of the eight people recently arrested, the majority are from North Bay, but Tod said that isn’t always the case.
“We’ve been very successful at targeting people coming into our community to sell drugs, people largely from the Greater Toronto area, and also from Ottawa and Montreal,” he said.
“We’ve also seen an increase in trafficking of a larger weight of drugs within our community by local people that are associated to North Bay in general.”
City Coun. George Maroosis has been on council for the majority of the last 40 years, and he said street drugs have been a problem in North Bay for a while now.
What concerns him is the number of overdoses the drugs lead to.
“Since we are the Gateway City and you can go in all directions, I’m sure we have a multitude of drugs that pass through here,” Maroosis said.
“I’m concerned about street drugs because that’s when we get into the overdoses. We’ve had an epidemic in the north -- not only in North Bay -- of drug overdoses.”
The most recent arrest police made saw them seize more than $100,000 in illegal drugs. Tod said recently, each drug call police have dealt with seems to be for a significant amount of drugs.
“The last three arrests that we have made of a combination of groups of people, we see a larger amount of drugs being seized and cash on those people also,” he said.
“Yes it is concerning, that we believe people profiting from trafficking drugs in our community and that’s very distressing as the chief of police to see that happening.”
Police said drugs they are most often seeing are cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 mm among weather alerts in effect for 7 provinces
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres, air quality advisories and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Ukrainian child asylum seekers in St. John’s get class of their own
Roughly 50 children will gathered in a St. John’s classroom for the first time on Saturday for unique lessons on Ukrainian language, culture and history.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo's David raises questions about freedom of expression
Michelangelo's David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished.