POLICE FORCES BRACE FOR DEADLY DRUG

Methamphetamine Information Session Held For Officers

Enamel On Users' Teeth Rots Away, Producing 'Meth Mouth'

Former Peel Regional Police officer Mike Bellais says he can quickly
spot a user of methamphetamine -- or "poor man's cocaine" -- by
looking at their mouths.

The enamel on their teeth has often rotted away. Sometimes the teeth
are reduced to ugly black stumps.

"It's terrible," says Bellais, now a police officer in the
southwestern Ontario city of Stratford.

"You see them everywhere," Bellais said. "You see the 'meth mouth,'
and the meth sores all over their faces."

Bellais has already spoken with fellow officers in the Toronto region
about what to expect when an anticipated wave of the drug hits GTA
streets.

While the drug doesn't have a major presence in the Greater Toronto
Area yet, police say it's only a matter of time.

York Regional Police and York Region Health Services are holding an
educational session today for frontline health care workers and . more
than 150 officers from police services including Toronto, Peel,
Durham, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police.

Topics such as how the drug is imported and exported, how to spot a
methamphetamine user, and the dangers facing the first officers to
arrive at clandestine labs are on the agenda.

The York force has also sent officers to B.C., the American southwest
and the American Drug Enforcement Agency to examine policing
strategies for dealing with the drug.

Public education sessions, hosted by police and health care workers,
will follow, said Insp. Tom Carrique of York Regional Police.

"We want to take a holistic approach," Carrique said. "You're never
going to arrest your way out of a problem, if you allow it to be a
problem."

Other police forces are also bracing themselves for what they see as
methamphetamine's inevitable arrival here.

"We're waiting for the wind to hit," Det. Const. Glen Furlong of
Barrie police said. "It's just a matter of time."

It arrived in Stratford about five years ago, after a local drug
dealer returned to his hometown from Texas, where he learned a recipe
for making "Pig Barn" methamphetamine.

Bellais, now a police sergeant, said the drug hit Stratford, a city of
31,000, with a vengeance.

"It's the worst drug I have ever seen for people," said Bellais, an
18-year-police officer.

The drug took hold in Stratford after the drug dealer sold the recipe
for methamphetamine to other local dealers for between $5,000 and
$10,000 a lesson, Bellais said.

Not long after that, police officers in the area began noticing "meth
mouth."

The drug can contain some 32 chemicals, including ingredients for
battery acid and drain cleaner.

Bellais said it's also not uncommon to smell a methamphetamine
user.

"Personal hygiene is not a main focus," he said. "They're up for three
days."

The drug is commonly made from over-the-counter cold medication. It's
so addictive only 6 per cent of addicts ever kick the habit, said Det.
Sgt. Rick Hawley, the OPP's clandestine laboratory
co-ordinator.

"The effects are horrifying," Hawley said. "The paranoia, the
violence, the family issues, the health issues ..."

One of the speakers at today's educational session is Catherine
Hardman, executive director of Stratford's Choices for Change
Counselling Centre, who praised the effort to jointly educate police
and health care workers.

"It's a community issue," Hardman said. "It's not just one agency or
one organization. You can't do it on your own."

The white, odourless powder makes users feel energetic and euphoric
but can quickly trigger violent mood swings, delusions, paranoia and
even death, as it stimulates the heart with surges of adrenaline.

"I do know that it destroys your brain, it destroys your liver, it
destroys your organs," Hawley said. "It is my understanding that it
will kill you faster through chronic use ... greater than any other
drug."

He said methamphetamine -- also known on the street as "crank," "ice,"
"speed" and "crystal" -- became popular in the California area, and
moved up the coast to B.C. before gradually moving east.

"A couple of months ago, we had never had a super lab in this province
capable of making several kilograms of drug in one cooking cycle,"
Hawley said. "We had our first one up in the Bruce Peninsula (on Lake
Huron) in June."

Carrique of York Regional Police said the drug yields dealers profits
of more than 400 per cent, while quickly creating addicts.

"It's so profitable to the dealer and so addictive to the user,"
Carrique said.

It's also harder to detect than marijuana grow operations, as it
doesn't take extra electricity to manufacture.

All the materials needed to make the drug can be packed into a duffle
bag, and a makeshift lab can be assembled in a washroom or even in a
van, police say.

"It requires very little space," said Carrique, who attended a
symposium on the drug in Quantico, Va., last winter.

The drug has already reached Barrie in small amounts, and Furlong
fears that it will soon became a major part of his city's drug subculture.

"Methamphetamine is like the poor man's cocaine," Furlong said. "It's
cheaper and gives you a longer high."

Furlong said he worries about the environmental dangers of the drug,
as a half dozen pounds of highly toxic waste are created for every
pound of the drug.

He is also concerned about the effect on the city's water system,
which operates on natural wells, if methamphetamine chemists dump the
by-product down drains.

Furlong noted that it took highly trained workers in Peel Region four
days this month to clean out a house that had been used as a
methamphetamine lab. Fumes from the drug can seep into carpets and
drywall, creating health problems for future residents.

He also worries about the safety of police officers who enter houses
used for labs, or who might mistakenly handle pressurized containers
used in the drug's production.

Anyone seeing a bluish colouring on the top of a gas tank should
immediately step back and call in someone with specialized training.

"If you inhale it, you're dead instantly," Furlong said. "A lot of
police officers are still learning to identify this stuff ... The only
way to deal with it is not to touch it, and to call an expert."