DRUG-ENDANGERED CHILDREN WILL GET HELP

Police Trained To Help Kids Who Are At Risk

Twenty-five police officers from the Capital Region are being trained
in a course on investigating drug-endangered children.

The course was held last week in Edmonton for several police agencies
as well as Alberta Children's and Family Services investigators and
several firefighters. One member of the Strathcona RCMP took part in
the training.

"It's just another way that we can help protect children," said Const.
Darren Anderson, spokesman of the Strathcona RCMP.

The program focused on how to deal with the children that police
sometimes find living in the drug houses and marijuana grow operations
they've raided.

"It's becoming more frequent, unfortunately," said Staff Sgt. Ian
Sanderson of the drugs and organized crime awareness section of the
RCMP.

"We see the marijuana cultivators using the children living at home as
decoys so that it doesn't look like a quintessential grow-op home. . .
There has to be a realization by people living in these homes, each
one has immediate dangers."

In the spring sitting of the legislature, former children's services
minister Heather Forsyth introduced the Drug Endangered Children Act,
which became law on Nov. 1, 2006. It allows police and caseworkers to
take kids into custody based solely on the fact they're
"drug-endangered."

"I'm a dad. I've got a couple of kids of my own and you have to find
it within yourself to remain professional when you're dealing with
those situations because they're absolutely heart-wrenching," said
Cpl. Ian Gillan of the joint RCMP-Edmonton Police Service green team.

He'll work with kids found in grow operations and meth
labs.

"They look like anybody's kids," he said, adding many of the children
are unwashed and have greasy hair.

"I've seen kids that are undernourished. Sometimes they've got a few
bruises on them."

The training scenarios, run by Mounties with help from two California
cops, included a room that portrayed a typical drug house: an unmade
bed, pizza boxes, pajamas and animal food strewn around, a knife, gun
and bullets nearby.

There's also Sudafed, acetone, a jerry can, ephedrine and hydrogen
peroxide -- used to make meth -- in the washroom.

"Those particular style of houses are extremely common," said
Gillan.

"What's uncommon about that room is the meth-lab production equipment.
We don't find that very often. I've been in numerous crack and meth
addict homes and those rooms up there are nice compared to those sort
of setups."

Anderson said that although the problem of drug-endangered children
may be emerging as a bigger issue in the Capital Region, it is yet to
be a major problem in Strathcona County.

"There have been (marijuana) grow-ops but we haven't seen a full-blown
meth lab in a long time," he said. "But we have to be prepared to help
those innocent children."

With files from the Edmonton Sun.