By Michael Sale
While I spend a lot of my personal and professional time in the “present,” I also have a passion for looking back on where we have been. Yesterday, I received all kinds of news, from a variety of sources, about “bath salts” and what this new substance is doing to people across North America. At the same time, I came upon a story from the Toronto Daily Star, published May 12, 1960. The headline read “Dope increasing in Toronto – RCMP – Beatniks blamed.” The story goes on to quote the opinions of RCMP Corporal Kelly La Brash who, during a training seminar for detectives, observes that marijuana smoking is “particularly noticeable among jazz groups, beatniks and musicians.” He also adds that “drug addiction in Ontario high schools is non-existent, as far as police are aware.”
In a little more than fifty years, Canadian society has witnessed the horrible growth of drug and substance abuse from a time when it was not “mainstream” to a state in which drugs have invaded most of our communities, in one way or another. Yesterday’s stories about bath salts, and the Canadian government’s response to this threat, revealed that New Glasgow, Nova Scotia may have been affected by this new threat more than any other Canadian community. New Glasgow? Nova Scotia? I remember when these kinds of stories were reserved for centers like Toronto, Montreal and, especially, Vancouver. Small-town drug problems, however, have been around forever and, in my experience, they can be a major impediment to community wellness and the productive contributions of citizens of all ages.
And now, bath salts, and the dangerous ingredients that are necessary to create this substance, have been added to the inventory of knowledge police officers, the courts and, most importantly, medical specialists have to keep foremost in their minds. (Here is the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on bath salts.) Public education for Americans and Canadians hearing about bath salts for the first time is critically important so that responsible citizens can do their part to prevent use and abuse of these dangerous drugs.
Back in the 1970s, when I was a young Metropolitan Toronto police officer, I was in a senior’s apartment, working on an investigation with a trainee who was assigned to me. He seemed so much older than me then; I was 24 and he was about 30 and it had occurred to me that he had watched a few too many television dramas and movies. As we were lawfully searching through the living room, I saw my protégé move a sofa and locate a piece of folded tin foil. Before I could say or do anything, he opened it up and discovered a white powdery substance. “Wow! Smack!” he exclaimed, whereupon he licked his baby finger and was about to dab it into the powder when I reached forward and grabbed his arm.
I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was going to taste the powder to see what it was. He apparently had never tasted any white powder like this in the past so he admitted that he didn’t know what it was supposed to taste like. I was more concerned about whether or not the powder could be lethal. Needless to say, we followed up with a discussion about the proper handling of unknown, and potentially dangerous, chemicals. I was a generalist cop who had never worked the drug squad, but I was certainly careful about what I put into my mouth and I kept this experience in mind when, a few years later, I was in a police classroom studying drugs and learning about the safe, proper methods required for handling them.
I also remember thinking about how complicated police work was becoming and the detailed knowledge that was required to manage all facets of the job, including drug investigations. Police officers were being required to have a good grasp of chemistry and biology and physics and the list was growing. A high school education was no longer sufficient to acquire the knowledge needed to fight crime and support communities with modern methods.
Fast-forward to 2012, many years after growth of the drug culture, and we continue to discover new threats to society with an expectation that those professionals charged with our protection will remain current and up-to-date. The work is never done. Perhaps that’s why we see so many police officers improving their knowledge online and in the classroom – it’s the best way for them to keep up.
~ Michael Sale served with the (Metropolitan) Toronto Police for thirty years, retiring as an Inspector after many years in public affairs and event management. He is a graduate of the 169th Session of the FBI National Academy. Mike has worked as a manager of emergency planning for the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and as a justice studies program coordinator for Humber College. He is currently a law enforcement education coordinator with American Military University and serves as the university’s representative in Canada.
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