Children as young as 12 years old have been linked to a drug house in the B.C. Interior where Mounties discovered thousands of dirty needles.
The RCMP said it raided the Prince George home in August and found 15 people inside, including two youths, along with cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and prescription drugs.
“The residence was known to us as a drug trafficking house, or what we’d call a crack shack,” Cpl. Craig Douglass said.
When officers were called to the property again in November, they found no sign of children, but did locate roughly 10,000 hypodermic needles.
“They were in pretty much every crack and crevice throughout the residence, which is highly unusual,” Cpl. Craig Douglass said. “Finding needles isn’t unusual, but finding that many needles? Certainly unusual.”
As shocking as the situation is, the province’s children’s watchdog said it’s far from unique.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, said she fears there could be as many as 50 kids in similar situations in the area.
“My concern in Prince George is that there’s an at-risk group of young people, some of whom are engaged in IV drug use or their parents are engaged in IV drug use, and they’re frequenting drug houses,” Turpel-Lafond said.
“Their lives are really careening out of control.”
Some of the children may be in ministry care or waiting for support, she added, and the government response to the situation has so far been lacking.
Turpel-Lafond said there’s an urgent need for more resources to help intervene in these children’s lives.
“Someone should be checking those drug houses all the time, looking for young people and engaging with those young people and getting them out of that situation,” she said.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development was alerted about the case and told CTV News it’s working with officers to come up with a response to keep kids away from the home.
The ministry said it’s coordinating with the RCMP’s High Risk Youth Task Force, which was created three years ago to work in the community.
According to the government, the task force currently consists of only two members: a civilian member and an RCMP Constable.
The ministry insisted there are adequate resources for kids in the province, and that it is taking a proactive role in the situation.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Bhinder Sajan
