Citizen Police Academy: Drugs and Traffic

The war on drugs is a battle being fought everywhere, including Newark, according to a detective with the Southern Alameda County Major Crimes Task Force. 

And the drugs come in various forms: methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and club drugs – including ecstasy and LSD.

Detective Jolie Gentry schooled our Citizen Police Academy Class on what each drug is and the effects of them.

So what are the main drugs seen on Newark streets? Marijuana and methamphetamine.

Meth – also known as crystal, crank, ice, spackle and Tina, among other aliases – is a highly addictive, central nervous system stimulus drug.

More than 12 million Americans have tried the drug and 1.5 million Americans use meth regularly, according to a report on Newsweek.  

Its impacts are detrimental, causing hyper activeness, bizarre behavior and paranoia. Meth also causes drastic physical changes among users, from major weight loss to scratches and scabs. See the faces of meth here. 

Marijuana is even more popular in Newark. Its aliases are numerous. It’s known as grass, trees, purple cush and dank. The names often come from the types of branches the plant is grown on, we learned.

You can smoke it or eat it.

And the content of  Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which causes the high, has increased in just 10 years from 7-8 percent to 32-38 percent.

Investigations of narcotics in Newark are headed by the Sourthern Alameda County Major Crimes Task Force. The force is made up of numerous officers from Newark, Fremont and Union City, along with the California Highway Patrol.

Slow Down on the Streets

Traffic officers might be given a bad rep, but they do much more than hand out tickets. That’s what we learned on Wednesday night. Their role is to slow you down so that the roads stay safe.

Newark’s Traffic Unit is made up of one commander, one traffic sergeant, two traffic officers and one former traffic officer who patrols.

Their main priorities are to educate, engineer and enforce traffic laws, said Officer Karl Fredstrom.

To do so, they hold community meetings in which motorists can learn about child seat safety and are present at community fairs. They also survey the streets to analyze drivers’ behavior and they carry out DUI checkpoints and decoy operations. And they conduct commercial enforcements.

Ever see a bunch of big rigs pulled over on Cherry Street?

That’s a commercial enforcement in which officers inspect the trucks for safety. The majority of fatal car incidents involve big rigs, Fredstrom said. And violations vary from overloading the trucks to bad brakes.

To learn more about the police department’s Traffic Division, click here.