A 59-year-old woman was arraigned last week in Haines municipal court in connection with possession of numerous drugs discovered following a September traffic stop.
At the time the woman was stopped by police, she was reportedly driving without a license in an unregistered vehicle with her 6-year-old grandson riding in the front seat.
The woman was arrested by officer Chris Brown for driving under the influence of drugs.
Police later searched the vehicle and found three small plastic bags containing “small crystals” inside the vehicle’s console. The contents of one of the bags later tested positive for methamphetamine, according to arrest documents.
A suspected meth pipe, a container with white residue and two straws containing a white residue – all of which tested positive for methamphetamine – also were found in the console, the report said.
Haines Police chief Heath Scott said he is now compiling statistics on drug arrests.
While he’s not ready to provide statistics, he said the Haines Borough would be a likely landing spot for all kinds of drugs, including heroin and opioids, due to its miles of unchecked coastline, road access to Canada and frequent flights between Juneau and the Lower 48.
Brown said he believes methamphetamines in particular have become an underground problem in Haines.
“Do we have as big a problem as they have in Juneau? No,” he said. “There are dozens and dozens of people using meth here. But if we have even one person, that’s too many.”
Magistrate Mary Kay Germain said the woman faced five misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance. She allowed the woman, a Haines resident, to remain free without bail on condition that she not leave town and that she consent to random drug testing.
“I’ve been here for almost 30 years – I’m not intending on going anywhere,” the woman said during a court appearance last week. “I intend on seeing this out.”
Germain set the next hearing for Jan. 31, but not before offering the defendant a bit of advice about being a good role model to her grandson.
“He looks up to you,” she told the woman. “If this is what you’re doing, having this stuff around him, that to me is quite concerning.”