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 injects another $36M into vaccine injury compensation fund
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
'Secret report' or standard research? B.C. government addresses safe supply allegations
B.C.’s premier and one of his top lieutenants are pushing back against allegations by the Official Opposition that he covertly commissioned a report into the diversion of safe supply drugs onto the streets.
Video shows suspects waving weapons, smashing glass in Toronto jewelry store robbery
Arrests have been made after five men were captured on video rampaging through a jewelry store in Toronto, waving weapons and smashing glass display cases.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
She was too sick for a traditional transplant. So she received a pig kidney and a heart pump
Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart.
What Canadians think of the latest Liberal budget
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
opinion Why you should protect your investments by naming a trusted contact person
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Teacher shortages see some Ontario high school students awarded perfect grades on midterm exams
Students at a high school in York Region have been awarded perfect marks on their midterm exams in three subjects – not because of their academic performances however, but because they had no teacher.