GETTING POLICE HOOKED ON DESIGNER DRUGS

A few years ago, an Ottawa police drug officer and a civilian youth worker
who'd been working all-night dance parties went looking for information to
help them deal with a rise in the use of chemical drugs.

They were unfamiliar with the drugs, their effects on users and how people
sold them.

Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault and Louise Logue, a registered nurse who
coordinates youth intervention and diversion for Ottawa police, got cursory
information, but they had to figure much of the relatively new scene on
their own -- largely through trial and error.

Frustrated, they decided to see if other emergency personnel around the
country had the same problems and started making some phone calls.

"We found the same thing pretty much everywhere we looked in the country,"
Staff Sgt. Pinault said.

"Patrol officers, even drugs officers, paramedics, firefighters and
hospital staff, were pretty much in the dark about what these drugs were,
the symptoms, the effects and how to deal with people using them."

There was a gap in the knowledge emergency personnel needed to deal with a
trend in drug use.

To remedy the problem, they teamed up with Vancouver RCMP drug awareness
officer Cpl. Scott Rintoul, who was already looking seriously at the issue,
and others to do something about it. They hatched a plan for a standard
training program for emergency personnel across the country on the issues
surrounding these relatively new drugs.

That was the birth of the national integrated training program on chemical
drugs for first responders, which will teach police and other officials all
about designer drugs.

"The idea was to come up with a comprehensive way to get these people
better prepared for what they're almost inevitably going to have to deal
with," Staff Sgt. Pinault said.

After a few months, they put together a business plan and sought money from
the Department of Justice's National Crime Prevention Centre, the RCMP and
the federal Solicitor General's office.

The centre administers Canada's Crime Prevention Investment Fund, which
finances innovative programs aimed at lowering crime rates. The centre
granted them the money to pursue their goal. They received $110,000 from
the fund, $30,000 from the solicitor general and $10,000 from the RCMP.
Police forces, hospitals, paramedic organizations and fire departments
across the country have made personnel and other resources available for free.

With this money, they outlined the national integrated training program on
chemical drugs for first responders. It will eventually include a training
manual, video, and computer presentations. It will explain what the drugs
are, trends in their use, where they are used, who uses them, their effects
and symptoms for users, and how to deal with people on which drugs.

Sections will tell how other government agencies and people can lessen the
dangers these drugs pose: bylaws on the use of buildings for all-night
dance parties and safety inspections of these facilities; security
requirements; ways of dealing with organizers of the parties; and how to
recognize a drug-assisted sexual assault.

Emergency personnel will be told how to run information programs for
parents, teachers and youth social workers, and how to stay safe when
entering a laboratory used to produce these drugs.

The idea is to cover every possible issue relating to these drugs. In the
last year, the number of raves and all-night dance parties has started to
decline, while the drugs, sometimes called designer drugs, have become part
of everyday culture for some young people. Officials with the Canadian
Centre on Substance Abuse say the use of drugs such as ecstasy, MDA,
ketamine, methamphetamine, GHB and MDE has grown exponentially in the last
few years.

Richard Garlick, spokesman for the centre, which conducts large-scale
surveys on drug use, says the use of some of the drugs in Canada is so new,
the centre has limited information on their use.

"These drugs didn't even show up in earlier surveys, and the use is only
being reported in the last few years," he said. "But with the limited
information available, it is safe to say there has been an increase in the
use."

Mr. Garlick cites the use of ecstasy. In 1993, a survey of roughly 5,000
Ontario students aged 12 to 18 showed 0.6 per cent had tried ecstasy in the
previous 12 months.

In 2001, the same survey saw that number increase to 6.0 per cent, a
tenfold increase.

The latest RCMP report on illicit drug trends in Canada reveals no seizures
of ecstasy in Canada until 1996, when 1,221 pills were confiscated. The
number has steadily increased to roughly two million pills being seized in
2001 (latest available statistics).

During this time, there have been increases in the overdoses reported, the
labs making the drugs discovered and charges involving the drugs.

"We are in an era of synthetic drugs in Canada and globally," Cpl. Rintoul
said. "And because the issues surrounding the use of these drugs touch on
many different areas, there has to be a coordinated approach. It's not just
a law enforcement issue."

The problem touches many areas of life, and the training program aims to
give officials the materials that they need to understand the use of these
drugs.

The officers have conducted three pilot training sessions in Vancouver,
Montreal and Ottawa. Cpl. Rintoul says the feedback has been overwhelming,
and word has gotten out about the project.

"I'm getting calls and e-mails from around the country saying, 'When will
this be ready? We want to get going on this,'" he said. "The goal is to
keep people alive, and we hope the manual will give people the information
they need to do that."

Another pilot training session in Toronto is scheduled for the fall. By
then, the executive committee of the project will be finishing the program.
They hope to start producing the end product before the new year.

Cpl. Rintoul, Staff Sgt. Pinault and Ms. Logue know completely stopping the
use of these drugs is not realistic, but the program will provide tools for
dealing with this type of drug use for anyone who calls.

Nobody will have to start from zero again.

"If we can prevent one death, we've been successful," Cpl. Rintoul said.