Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers 37 WhAT CAn A COP, Drug DEAlEr, AnD A COlOMbiAn TEACh YOu? by Matt Ingrouille The world of drugs has always fascinated me. As soon as I began my law enforcement career, I focussed as much as I could on this area. I have never felt that I truly excelled at any single skill in life. I was average at most things, some slightly above, some slightly below. However, from 2009 to 2014, I worked in the Saskatoon Integrated Drug Unit (it has changed its name a few times since then) and felt like this area of work sparked enough passion for me to exceed even my own expectations. Every area fascinated me from learning through informants, working on highly organized undercover investigations and wiretaps, all the way down to simple street level drug work. The drug unit was tasked with a lot of community initiatives that took time away from enforcement. Initially, I was confused by this but years later, I now know that this is where society needs to focus. Just like our addiction to oil, drug issues will never be resolved without eliminating the demand. Enforcement focusses on the supply, while education focusses on the demand. I began spending countless hours researching the demand of drugs. What is addiction? What causes it? Is there a difference between use and abuse? Why does it seem that the supply never reduces? The more I researched these questions, the more I realized what I thought I knew about drug use and addiction was totally wrong. I have been fortunate, as most police officers are, to meet thousands of people addicted to substances. Most are extremely open to answer questions regarding their life and how their addiction began. I learned very quickly, that what I learned in the text books of my college course on addiction was wrong. In 2010, I worked on a project known as Fraxinus. We were targeting a west coast gang member with ties to Saskatoon. He began supplying the province through a network of new drug traffickers, one being “Phil”. Phil seemed unique. He had, what appeared from the outside looking in, to be a very normal life. He was young, very friendly and played hockey with people we knew. One of our undercover operators started buying marihuana from him as an ‘in’ to the group. We assumed that Phil would have access to harder drugs so we asked for an ounce of cocaine. We were right, and we watched Phil middle a cocaine transaction. When Phil was eventually arrested, I sat with him in an interview room and have never forgotten how open and honest he was about
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