IMPROPER ONT. DRUG TESTS CAST CHARGES INTO DOUBT

TORONTO (CP) - People who have been accused or convicted of drug charges in
Ontario have been burning up a government phone line trying to clear their
names on a technicality.

It's been two months since Canada's Justice Department took out newspaper
ads to track down those whose drug charges and convictions were put in
question because of improper lab testing. As of Aug. 17, the department had
received 182 calls about the 192 lab results in question.

Some results issued by a Toronto lab to prove the nature of substances in
drug prosecutions may have been part of the group Health Canada has
identified as questionable because of allegedly shoddy work by an analyst.

Dorette Huggins, director of communications for the Department of Justice,
said the number of calls has slowed down since the June 21 warning of
trouble. But she expects the calls may pick up again soon.

"We're not sure why (the calls have slowed down)," Huggins said. "It could
be that people are on vacation."

In April, Health Canada learned that an analyst at Toronto's Drug Analysis
Service lab had not followed standard operating procedures since 1988 in
analysing samples of illicit drugs used in criminal prosecutions. As a
result, 3,500 samples handled by the analyst dating back to 1996 have been
reviewed.

Dann Michols, Canada's assistant deputy health minister, said standard
operating procedures were not followed in two to three per cent of the samples.

The problem with the samples was discovered in March when the employee went
on vacation and left two of the analyses in progress. A co-worker was
concerned about the quality of the work and alerted a supervisor, which
prompted the investigation.

A government review of the work of all drug analysts in the Toronto drug
lab concluded the problem was confined to one employee in one lab. The
employee no longer works at Health Canada.