Sunday, February 23, 2025

Monday, February 24. 2025

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Physical Geography - Today you’ll look at tectonics and plate boundaries. We'll highlight a few notes on divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries along with hot spots. While you're doing this we'll watch:



B Block Criminology - Today we will be in the classroom with a notebook cart working on our third journal / blog entry. I would like you to tell me what you think about crime trends and victims here in Canada / B.C. NOTE... Grade 11's going into Grade 12 you have a course selection @ 10:30...you'll go from the OK Corral to the Outback in the library for this.

Specifically, I want you to tell me what you think about drug related crime and the tainted opioid crisis. Violent and property crime patterns are generally decreasing however one area that is clearly on the rise is drug possession, trafficking, importing, and exporting (specifically possession of Heroin, non-Heroin Opioids, and Methamphetamine). 

British Columbia declared "drug-related deaths" a public health emergency in 2016. Since the pandemic, rates of opioid use here flared to alarming levels, with a record 2,224 deaths in 2021, compared to 1,767 in 2020, and one of the highest per capita rates in North America at 42.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. In 2021, BC – comprising approximately 13% of Canada's population – had nearly half of all police-reported opioid trafficking, production, and distribution incidents in Canada.

2,383 British Columbians lost their lives to toxic drugs in 2022 and preliminary reporting released by the BC Coroners Service confirms that toxic, unregulated drugs claimed the lives of at least 2,511 people in British Columbia in 2023. The total number of lives lost in 2023 equates to an average of 6.9 deaths per day and is 5% more than the previous high of 2,383 deaths recorded a year earlier in 2022. About seven in every 10 decedents were aged between 30 and 59, and more than three quarters were male. B.C. Coroners Service says in 2024, 2,253 people, or more than 6 per day, were killed by unregulated drugs..



Toxicological testing confirms that illicit fentanyl continues to drive the toxic-drug crisis. Fentanyl and its analogues were by far the most regularly detected substances, appearing in more than 85% of test results conducted in 2023. In April 2016, the province declared a public health emergency as a result of illicit drug overdoses. Since then, 16,047 people in B.C. have been killed by the toxic drug supply, according to the coroners service.

And remember, from January 31, 2023, to January 31, 2026, adults 18 and older in BC are allowed to possess up to 2.5 grams of illicit substances (cumulative – the weight of all drugs combined), without being subject to fines, arrest or drug seizures. The drugs to be decriminalized include opioids (e.g. heroin and fentanyl), cocaine (powder or crack), methamphetamines, and MDMA (ecstasy).

 BC has always been a province where drug crime has been a problem. Look below...




In addition to this Stats Can states, "British Columbia has consistently had a relatively high rate of police-reported drug offences. Regardless of the type of drug or the type of offence, the rates of drug crime in British Columbia have been among the highest in Canada for 30 years. In accordance with the province as a whole, relatively high rates of drug offences are found in the census metropolitan areas (CMA) of Vancouver, Victoria and Abbotsford. The rates in Vancouver and Victoria have been among the highest in the country since 1991".


So....Today you will need to write your thoughts on the following: Why has British Columbia consistently had high rates of police reported drug offences and What is the impact on both individual families and the province generally of the public health emergency connected to illicit drug overdoses?  Use what you've learned about crime theories and your own thoughts on crime theories to answer why.

Once you've done this, then find an article about a recent drug crime here in B.C., make a link to the news article on your blogsite and then write how crime theories explain the crime (Look at this news about a 35 kilogram cocaine bust off in the Kootenays or this news about six people arrested in Saanich for 26 litres of GHB gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid a date-rape drug, 100 grams of crystal meth, four ounces of heroin, 16 grams of marijuana and $20,000 cash or this news about police seizing 55 kilograms of cocaine, 47 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and more than a kilogram of heroin in Surrey. You could also check out this incident in 2019 of a bust 9.3 kg of fentanyl and analogues; 7.6 grams of W-18 mixed with caffeine and fentanyl; 2.6 g of carfentanil mixed with fentanyl, heroin and caffeine; ketamine; cocaine; MDMA; U-47700; 4-ANPP; alprazolam; synthetic cannabinoids; a Glock 17 handgun with ammunition; Olympic Arms PCR 99 semi-automatic rifle with ammunition; more than $195,000 in Canadian currency; and 2.19 Bitcoins. OR you could check out an RCMP seizure here in Courtenay of cash, cell phones and what is believed to be fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs). Unregulated drugs killed fewer people in 2024 in B.C., but advocates say numbers still far too high



Today's Fit...


 

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