By Barb Pacholik, Leader-Post. ..."It's always the same stuff," RCMP Sgt. Chad McLeod says."Why? I don't know if it's a price point at the store," he says of the amber-coloured whiskey that's liquid gold to bootleggers. "I have no idea why it is. But in all the cases that I've been on up here - any of the whiskey that I've seized or been involved with in seizures - has always been Wiser's."
Each of the discarded boxes held a half-dozen 1.75-litre bottles - each better known as a 66 in reference to its premetric measure in ounces.
At the liquor board store in La Ronge - or at any other government-run liquor store in the province for that matter - the price of a 1.75-litre bottle is set at $52.50.
But take that bottle off the shelf in La Ronge, and bring it about a 90-minute drive north into Stanley Mission, and the prohibited booze will nearly double in price to $100 - a tidy profit of $47.50...
..."This is our crisis," McLeod says, peering at the empty boxes strewn in the bush.
"It's a huge problem, because it undermines the social fabric of the community - by community members generally that are doing it."
McLeod, who recently moved from Stanley Mission to Sandy Bay for his fourth reserve posting, is passionate about policing in the north. He loves the recreational opportunities it affords, but even more so, he loves the people.
And when the community itself has decided to take a stand to keep the drugs and alcohol out, McLeod is equally driven about wanting to ensure it happens.
"There are far more good people than there are bad people," he says. "It's not because we're aboriginal people that this stuff is happening. It's the same stuff going on in different magnitudes in bigger centres."...Read here.
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