DRUGS!


     One January day in 2003, while in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, a group of us went to the docks to load special pipe that had been unloaded on the docks the day before.  The ship was registered in Panama and was named the “Bright State”.  As the pipe was being loaded onto a truck a piece accidentally dragged along the ground knocking off the plastic end cap.  This was not a concern except for what fell out.  That became a big deal, as a fine white powder came out of it.

      The supervisor was called and soon after the customs and police, along with their drug sniffing dogs, arrived to assess the situation.  The dock was immediately shut down.  As more pipes where checked, it became obvious that they also contained this same white powder.  The dogs were directed to sniff around all the pipes but did not react to the powder. Some time later the police asked the Chinese man in charge what all this powder was in the pipe.  His reply was “Oh the powder is (some long name was given) that is used in the pipe to keep it dry and keep it from rusting”.  After all this commotion it was found that this "powder" was not drugs as originally thought.

      The next day the rest of the pipe was "live load" onto the trucks, which means that the load is unloaded directly from the ship onto the trucks without touching the ground.


Vancouver Docks
Photo by Duncan Smith
Vancouver Docks
Photo by Duncan Smith

Previous
Previous Page
Dimensions

Home Page

Chapter 3
Created 8 February 2003
Last Updated  8 February 2003