Marijuana Policy Project

NASHUA — Nashua Police Chief Donald Conley said Thursday he believes most crimes in the city can be linked to just one problem: drug abuse.

Thefts, burglaries, assaults — they're often committed by people with substance-abuse problems searching for money to feed their habit, Conley said. He named drug use as the city's No. 1 crime problem.

"The use of marijuana in particular . . . in my opinion, it drives and fuels the majority of crime," Conley said.

The chief spoke at a breakfast forum on crime put on by the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce. It was the last of a three-part "Backstage Pass" series designed to give business folks the inside scoop on city issues.

Also speaking on the panel were Hillsborough County Attorney Marguerite Wageling and New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.

Ayotte said the marijuana coming into New Hampshire from Canada and Mexico is so potent, it fetches $2,000 to $3,000 a pound – the same price as cocaine. Heroin and prescription drug abuse also make up a significant portion of drug abuse in the state, she said.

Many of the drugs in Nashua are coming up from Lawrence and Lowell, Mass., Ayotte said.

The AG's office has put together a drug task force made up of strictly undercover officers on loan from local police departments. However, Ayotte cautioned that any talk about crime in New Hampshire has to be put in perspective, considering the state has been voted the safest in the nation.

Here are some other crimes identified by the three panelists as high priority with law enforcement in Nashua and throughout New Hampshire:

• Gang activity — Conley says he has to be careful when he mentions gang activity as a problem because it makes up a small percentage of the crime in Nashua. However, the offenses tend to be serious.

"The overall amount of crime committed by gangs in Nashua is minimal," he said. "The crimes themselves are not minimal."

Conley said Nashua's focus right now is prevention — identifying young kids who are at risk and getting them involved in programs that give them a productive alternative to gang activity.

Ayotte said the state's most organized gangs are motorcycle groups such as Hell's Angels.

• Sex crimes against children — Since taking office, Ayotte has successfully lobbied for stiffer penalties for sexual predators against kids. Now, she's hoping to get two bills passed: one that increases penalties for adults who use the Internet to solicit kids for sex and another that makes it easier to find and keep track of convicted sex offenders. The latter would make the offender registry uniform with other states and allow for DNA sampling of all convicted felons.

Wageling pointed to the 2006 creation of the Hillsborough County Cyber Safe Task Force, which within the first week scored more than 85 screen names of men trying to solicit sex from children.

• Family/domestic violence — Conley said that at any given time he probably has 75 open cases that deal with family violence. The risk of violence is more significant at home than anywhere else, he said.

"I'm concerned from time to time because I think this issue is put on the back burner," Conley said.

Wageling said that in her 20-plus years with the county attorney's office, she could count on her hands the number of stranger-rapes she has prosecuted. The vast majority involve people who know each other.