WESTON INTRODUCES ILLEGAL DRUGS BILL

West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MP John Weston wants to make it easier to
prosecute producers of crystal meth and ecstasy by outlawing their
tools of the trade.

On Nov. 2, Weston introduced bill C-475 in the House of Commons that,
if passed, would make it illegal to acquire ingredients or tools used
to produce the common street drugs with the intent to manufacture them.

A father of three, Weston said he was moved to introduce the bill
because of the particularly harmful effect crystal meth and ecstasy
can have on children.

"We're standing up for kids who are vulnerable to predators who, in
the organized crime world, are selling kids highly addictive and
dangerous drugs," he said in an interview Wednesday. "What is well
known on the North Shore is that no family is immune to this.
Demography and economic class are not indicators of whether a child
might become a victim of these awful drugs," he added.

Bill C-475 follows closely in the footsteps of similar legislation
previously introduced by Peace River MP Chris Warkentin, which
targeted the production of crystal meth only. The bill made it through
second reading in the Senate before it died when the federal election
was called last fall.

Weston said he added ecstasy to his version of the bill because the
drug is particularly popular among teens.

According to Hollyburn Family Services' Paul Butler, who works closely
with teens at the North Shore Youth Safe House, ecstasy is a widely
used drug among youth on the North Shore. Easily available and often
marketed to kids, Butler said ecstasy can be particularly risky when
combined with other drugs and alcohol. "It's not just the ecstasy, but
the mixture of ecstasy with alcohol and other drugs that (teens are)
using that creates much more serious drug-induced effects," he said.

"From the hospitals' point of view, I think they're probably seeing a
lot more young people end up in emergency because of the chemical
effect it's having on the young brains that are still developing,
causing much early psychosis in teens."

Butler said crystal meth is also a drug used by teens, but pales in
comparison to the prevalence of ecstasy.

Butler said he supported the sentiment of bill C-475, but questioned
how it would be enforced, as some ingredients used in crystal meth and
ecstasy are common over-the-counter cold and cough medications or
household cleaners.

"You can pass a bill, yes, but who's going to monitor it, and how is
it going to get monitored?" he said. "Manufacturers will become much
smarter, they're not going to walk into a hardware store or a drug
store and buy in bulk."

Weston said under this new bill, the onus would be on law enforcement,
prosecutors and the courts to determine whether those products have
been acquired with the intention of manufacturing drugs.

However, Weston added, the bill could make it easier to prosecute
people in possession of more suspicious tools. "Other countries, for
instance, can prosecute for having custody of pill presses that are
proven to be used as one of the tools for manufacturing and
distributing these drugs, so that could be caught in this new bill,"
he explained, adding Canada has become a known source country for
crystal meth and ecstasy.

Weston expects the bill to be debated within the next three months and
then go before the justice and human rights committee for review.