Kamloops RCMP Supt. Syd Lecky is an advocate for a safe drug supply, which he believes will help ease some of the pressures on first responders (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

Supt. SYD LECKY

Kamloops RCMP superintendent pushing for safe drug supply, focusing on prolific offenders

Mar 11, 2021 | 3:41 PM

KAMLOOPS — The officer in charge of the Kamloops RCMP says the detachment has to start thinking outside the box and doing business differently. Supt. Syd Lecky would like to see the introduction of a safe drug supply here and across the province to curb some of the problems.

“The need for a safe supply, I think, is obvious now,” he told CFJC Today. “The pandemic is bad enough as it is, but when you look at the impact it’s had on our community for the drug situation, there’s no question that we need to start doing things differently.”

The federal government in February committed $15 million over four years to create four safe drug supply projects across the country. Vancouver and Victoria are two cities in B.C. taking part.

Beyond that, there are calls on the provincial government to follow suit and provide funding for similar experiments elsewhere. However, B.C.’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe says the problem is, the administration of a safe supply is up to individual physicians.

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“They can choose to prescribe or not, so if we really wanted to ensure as a province that safe supply was available across the province, then it would mean setting up clinics, it would mean the health authorities making the proactive move to set up clinics in every area of the province, so that no matter where you are, you’re not too far away from somewhere where you can access to safe supply.”

Lapointe says the introduction of safe supply would not be providing “free drugs” to anyone. The province would have to foot the costs, but she argues it would help municipalities save money — with fewer first responders being called to overdoses and other problems created by a tainted drug supply.

“We are as a province, as a country, spending millions of dollars now on the overdose crisis,” she said. “In terms of emergency response — ambulance, paramedics, police, coroners, hospitals, emergency rooms — it is not an insignificant amount of money that is trying to manage this crisis. Really, it would be switching streams.”

For Lecky, a safe drug supply is one thing, but the detachment overall has to be creative in its approach.

“One of the things we’re doing here is focusing on some of our prolific — the most prolific of our prolific offenders — and trying to put clear packages together to justifying why they need to be held in custody.”

Lecky shares in the frustration from residents and business owners who notice the same people committing crimes repeatedly. He says recent changes to the judicial system — with tougher criteria to put forward charges and longer bail periods — are a challenge.

“When you have that and you have them back on the street in a short period of time, it is frustrating,” he noted. “And it does challenge us in terms of being able to manage the risk… whether the risk for these offenders to continue offending, whether it be violence or property crime. It’s really going to create some pressure on us to be able to put an end to that.”

Lecky notes property crime in 2020 was down overall, but break-and-enters at businesses in Kamloops increased by 59 per cent during the pandemic with some closed down.

He was asked by council on Tuesday about the impact of social housing buildings on property crime. Lecky says it’s happening with some residents needing to feed their addictions, but he adds property crime is happening everywhere in Kamloops.

“It’s certainly not any one group that I can point fingers at as to the property crime,” he said. “But I think there is a correlation between property crime and some of the changes that we’re seeing, and COVID.”