DRUG ENDANGERED CHILDREN ACT GIVES POLICE TOOL TO HALT ABUSE

EDMONTON - As a member of Edmonton's green team, RCMP Cpl. Ian Gillan
has seen too many heartbreaking cases of young children being
neglected or abused because of their parents' drug activity.

The father of two wholeheartedly supports Alberta's Drug Endangered
Children legislation, which strengthens police power to seize and
hold children found living in homes where drugs are sold or produced.

"I've been pushing the DEC agenda since 2003 when I first became
aware of it," Gillan said Thursday, during a break in an RCMP-hosted
investigator training session at K-Division headquarters.

"I have come across homes with children that are absolutely
heart-wrenching," Gillan said. "I have seen drug addicts show up at a
drug dealer's house at three in the morning in minus 30 with a
three-day-old baby in a basket with a pile of rigs and syringes,
looking for reloads."

On Nov. 1, Alberta became the first jurisdiction in Canada to pass
legislation giving police the power to charge parents with exposing
their children to drugs.

Under the Drug Endangered Children Act, officers can seize and hold
for two days children found living in homes where drugs are sold or
produced, such as methamphetamine labs or indoor marijuana grow operations.

If the children cannot be safely returned after the two days, they
will begin receiving help under Alberta's Child, Youth and Family
Enhancement Act.

More than two dozen RCMP members, along with a number of police
officers from across Alberta, took part in Thursday's training
session designed to educate them on how to investigate cases of
drug-endangered children.

The training also included investigators from Alberta Children's and
Family Services, and members of the Medicine Hat fire service and the
Edmonton fire department.

The training session involved not only teaching investigators how to
recognize the environmental signs that a child is drug-endangered, it
also included interviewing techniques that won't cause unnecessary
stress to the child or cause them to fear their parents or guardians.

"The issue of children exposed to the dangers of drug manufacturing,
indoor marijuana grow operations and drug trafficking is becoming
more common," said Staff Sgt. Ian Sanderson, of the RCMP's northwest
region drugs and organized crime awareness service.

"Research has found that drug-endangered children are at high risk
for chronic respiratory disorders, neurological damage, cancer and
physical, emotional and sexual abuse," he said.

In the worst-case scenarios like clandestine meth labs, where the
drugs are cooked in the home, children are exposed to a toxic
chemical stew that coats their clothes, walls and carpets, and
endangers them to explosions and fire. Even a child's beloved pet can
be exposed and contaminated by the toxins, sometimes leading to its death.

Gillan said the training provided by the RCMP should give trainees an
awareness that police now have a tool to deal with the issue of
drug-endangered children, and that the legislation is all about their
well-being.

"It's not about charging the parents or convicting anyone. It's an
intervention that is designed to protect the kids and give them a
chance at a positive life instead of the negative one they are
probably going to have living in drug houses," he said.

Two weeks after the legislation was enacted, Edmonton police took a
two-year-old toddler found in a west-end drug house into protective
custody. Officers seized several dozen Oxycontin tablets, one gram of
cocaine, ammunition, a sawed-off shotgun, a rifle and more than $700
in cash from the house.

In December, Calgary police seized six children following two
separate marijuana grow-op busts in that city.