FOUL-UP LETS STUDENT SLIP DRUG CHARGES

Sloppy paperwork forced a federal prosecutor to withdraw drug charges
against a high school student.

The 17-year-old was the first of 14 Oakville students set to stand trial on
charges of selling marijuana and hashish to an undercover Halton police
officer.

Federal prosecutor Bob Lush withdrew the first trafficking charge because a
certificate of analysis of the drug was not given to the accused, which is
required by Canadian law.

``On counts two and three, the evidence may have been switched,'' Lush said
outside the court. ``What we say looks like hash turns out to look like
marijuana. I may have been able to fudge it (not draw attention to the
switched items) but decided against it.

``Sometimes that's what happens.''

The teen was charged in May after a Halton police officer passed himself
off as a student during a two-month investigation, buying an assortment of
drugs from a number of students. He bought marijuana, hashish and
psilocybin (magic mushrooms) from 14 students at General Wolfe High School.
Eleven of those were charged under the Young Offenders Act.

Defence lawyer David Harris was more blunt with an explanation of the
dropped charges.

DIFFERENT MISTAKES

``They made a number of different mistakes but basically fouled up the
paperwork to the extent they couldn't prove whether the particular items
purchased on that particular day by the officer were the drugs specified in
the charge,'' he said. Harris said he was ready to argue a number of
issues, including entrapment, had the case gone to trial.

``The first issue was going to be the agent for the purchaser defence,''
Harris said. ``He wasn't selling drugs. He was acting as an agent for the
purchaser. It is not illegal to buy drugs. It is only illegal to sell them,
to transport them, to handle them and he didn't do any of those things.

``The second would be the entrapment issue, the befriending of this teenager.''

Harris said there was no suggestion the teen sold any drugs to the
undercover officer or that he got anything out of the deal other than the
fact he was ``a good friend of the police officer''.