DRUG TRAINING QUESTIONS REMAIN

RCMP Admits No National Protocols In Place For Controversial Program

There are still questions and concerns surrounding a Dec. 2 police
drug training program. It saw drug users - including aboriginal
sex-trade workers - recruited to show up high so police could study
them in the wake of proposed tough new federal laws cracking down
drug-impaired drivers.

The training sessions saw nine drug users show up at Edmonton's Metis
Child and Family Services Society, 10437 123 St., to be observed by
24 law enforcement officials including a Crown prosecutor and members
of the RCMP and Edmonton Police Service.

A social worker with the Metis society agreed to contact drug users
so they could be studied. According to a police officer there, about
half of the participants were aboriginals.

Police steadfastly defend the operation although it's ruffled more
than a few feathers. There's an ongoing EPS internal affairs probe
into the operation, which was launched after EPS received a citizen's
complaint.

Some members of the aboriginal community aren't too pleased either,
including a national Metis organization.

"By the Edmonton city police, the Crown prosecutor and the Metis
social agency using these marginalized aboriginal women for
experimental purposes and depriving them of their dignity - it's
tantamount to breach of trust," said David Chartrand, vice-president
of the Metis National Council.

He's demanding "an in-depth inquiry" into the actions of "all three
organizations." Alberta's Liberal Opposition has called for answers
from the province's solicitor general.

The Edmonton operation was part of a national RCMP initiative called
the Drug Recognition Expert Training Program that began in 1995.

One aspect of the operation that has raised hackles are concerns that
some drug-study volunteers had originally gone to the Metis society
looking for help in getting clean.

In fact, the co-ordinator of the national program, Corp. Evan Graham,
admitted some people who volunteered to get high for the RCMP
training operations elsewhere in Canada were undergoing court-ordered
drug testing.

So people are ordered by courts to stay straight and to submit to
drug-testing and they wind up getting stoned for a police training
session? What's wrong with that picture?

Graham, who attended the Edmonton session, wasn't aware of the
specific backgrounds of the drug users who showed up to be studied in
Edmonton. He said he didn't know if any were involved in court
diversion programs that might have mandated they stay drug-free.

Shouldn't he know? Shouldn't somebody involved know? How can police
figuratively turn their heads as people use illegal drugs -
especially if there's any chance that one of those people might have
been ordered by a court to stay clean of dope?

Graham reiterated that the nine subjects in Edmonton came in of their
own free will and police didn't promise anything in return for their
participation.

But did anyone else involved in this experiment promise them anything
in return? Are street drug users really that socially conscious that
they'd agree to do their own dope, then sit in a room on a Saturday
to be studied by 23 cops? "The people we bring in are people who've
made poor decisions and they want to give back to society," said Graham.

He said police didn't ask or know much about the individuals who
showed up for this or past operation. "I don't even know what they
did for a living. It's irrelevant whether they're a frosh student or
a multimillionaire.

He says the participants are told: "We don't want to know what your
real name is. We don't want any information that could tie you to being here."

Graham was candid when I spoke to him Friday, but that didn't serve
to quell many of the ethical questions.

There is no official protocol for the national operations, he
admitted. No doctor or ambulance was onsite, he said, arguing people
didn't appear to be severely impaired but all tested positive for
drugs in their urine - namely pot and crack cocaine. Volunteers don't
have to sign anything. There are no police reports made after the operations.

Although the program started here in 1995 after being modelled after
U.S. operations, there isn't even an RCMP website on it. Graham
pointed me to a website for the U.S. program ( www.decp.org ), after
which Canada's is modelled.

The RCMP corporal says there were five such training operations last
year in Canada including in Winnipeg, Regina and at the Ontario
Police College. A training program was held Friday in Moncton, N.B.,
and another one is planned for Alberta after April 1, he said.