“You essentially create both a drug, and a hierarchy vacuum,' he explained. 'What happens is, other people step up and become higher level meth traffickers then they were.

And, therefore, it is less likely that as many people will either use and become addicted to it.”īut while Project Ice was successful in that way, it had an unintended consequence. “If you can reduce supply then the price goes up and the availability goes down. “I think law enforcement efforts can help reduce supply, which is always our goal,” Bair said. Project Ice was an enforcement initiative last year primarily to reduce the distribution of crystal meth in Guelph. “It has significantly hit Guelph over the last three years, and I would say peaked in 2015,” Bair said. “We’ve had a significant increase in crystal meth in the city,” Bair said, adding that London, Kitchener, and Hamilton also have a high incidence rate for crystal meth use. The drug is noted for being unpredictable, and sometimes lethal. Typically, when the supply of one drug is hampered, prices go up and users will seek alternative drugs to get high on. Bair said there has been an increase in heroin use in the city. Those rumours didn’t pan out upon investigation. But demand remains high, and other dealers have swooped in to meet it.īair said there are no known crystal meth labs manufacturing the drug in Guelph, although there have been rumours of them. Well over 20 arrests of traffickers – most of them convicted – disrupted the crystal meth supply chain, he indicated. Illegal drugs that provide an ecstatic rush, at least on the first try, have been growing in popularity in Guelph in recent years, as they have in many communities in southwestern Ontario, the leader of the Guelph Police drug unit said this week.Įnhanced drug enforcement last year helped stem the tide of mounting crystal methamphetamine and crack cocaine use, said Det.

Crack back meth