As a reporter for a weekly newspaper on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, Vernon Oickle became increasingly aware of the expansion of the drug trade in the region. His research into the situation produced Busted! Nova Scotia’s War on Drugs, a mixture of investigative journalism and case histories of local people who have become involved with drugs and drug trafficking.

As Oickle points out in the early chapters, tough American anti-drug policies initiated in the late 1970s made Nova Scotia’s coastline a particularly appealing destination for smugglers. While the U.S. Coast Guard was policing the Eastern seaboard with increased vigilance, Eastern Canada’s relatively unpopulated and unprotected shores provided a less risky entry point for drugs intended for the North American market.

The impact of this geographic shift in the drug trade provides an interesting premise for further investigation.

- From Quill & Quire