POLICE USE DVD TO WARN YOUTHS ABOUT SYNTHETIC DRUGS AND CLANDESTINE LABS

But Some Health Officials Aren't Enthusiastic About It and Suggest
Police Focus Elsewhere

That little pill, purchased on the street from a friend of a friend,
may look like it was produced in a pristine laboratory by chemists in
white coats, but the reality is quite different.

Chances are, it's a mix of unknown quantities of toxic chemicals,
such as acetone, ammonia, starter fuel and iodine, slopped together
in a makeshift lab by criminals planning to make a quick buck by
selling synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines and ecstasy to kids
who won't ask questions.

That's the message in a new DVD produced by the RCMP to educate young
people about the dangers of such drugs and raise awareness among
adults about the clandestine labs that are being set up by criminal
gangs in every area across the country, including city suburbs.

"This neighbourhood could be any neighbourhood in Canada. Your
neighbourhood," says the opening voice-over as the camera pans a
typical residential street scene. Then, as police bust into a house
and handcuff a resident, the voice asks: "Do you know what your
neighbours are up to?"

The video warns that clandestine labs, known as clan labs, are
operating in neighbourhoods across Canada and producing drugs in huge
numbers, for sale locally and in the U.S. In 2007, police seized 4.5
million ecstasy tablets and 1.7 million doses of methamphetamine.

Then abruptly, the action moves to a rave, with electronic music,
dancing bodies and drugged up teenagers.

"Our main target is the kids," explained Staff Sgt. Pierre Mudie from
the national RCMP Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Service, which
is distributing the DVD nationwide. The hope is that it will be shown
to high-school teenagers, university and college students, first
responders and other members of the community, but details will be
worked out by provincial detachments, he added.

Canada is a hot spot for clan labs, and British Columbia is busier
than most provinces because many of the chemical precursors for
synthetic drugs enter the country through the Port of Vancouver, said
Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard, media relations officer for the RCMP's
Greater Vancouver Drug Section. "It is a fairly prolific problem in
the Lower Mainland."

Last year, the RCMP found evidence of 30 clan labs operating in B.C.
So far this year, they've located five meth labs, one lab each for
cocaine packaging, psilocybin and mescaline and three chemical dumps.

The DVD asks members of the public to watch for telltale signs of
clan labs -- such as chemical smells coming from a house or garage,
or solvent and chemical containers on a property or in the garbage.

Synthetic drug labs are popular among criminal organizations because
cooking up pills is a quick way to make money -- much faster than
growing marijuana. The clan labs discovered by police in B.C. are
almost always "super labs" operated by gangs rather than the
mom-and-pop meth labs that are often found in the U.S., Goddard said.

"They can be anywhere -- in hotel rooms, in the backs of trucks, in
storage facility places, warehousing complexes. You don't need an
awful lot of space. What you need is privacy, and of course the
province lends itself to that. We have a lot of these chemical labs
being located in the rural districts of B.C."

The DVD issues a warning about the danger of ingesting illicit drugs
without knowing anything about the ingredients. The effects are
unpredictable but can include paranoia, fear and damaged brain cells
and can lead to violence, accidents and suicides, it says, adding
that in some cases, the pills may be lethal.

Mudie said he expected an all-around positive reaction to the
15-minute video. But even before its release, some were questioning
police involvement in a DVD offering health messages about drug use.

Professor Benedikt Fischer, of Simon Fraser University's health
sciences faculty, said he supports efforts to raise awareness about
the perils of synthetic drugs but believes such work should be done
by health professionals not police, who don't have medical expertise
and often rely on stereotypes to deliver their messages.

Furthermore, he said the use of methamphetamines has declined,
despite the fear that swept the country a few years ago about a
potential meth epidemic. If police want to tackle the drug that poses
the greatest risk for young people, they should focus their attention
on alcohol, Fischer said.

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall was also unenthusiastic
about the video. Although he hadn't seen it, he said scare campaigns
and onetime interventions, such as a DVD screening, are a waste of
time. "They don't work," he suggested. "The literature is pretty
explicit about that."

They can even be dangerous for young people who are already tempted
by drugs because they give the impression that usage is more common
than it is, he added.

But SFU criminologist Ray Corrado, who specializes in youth crime,
said a DVD with a catchy style and a powerful message can have an
impact on all but the hard-core teenagers. "If you can get a popular,
appealing spin, kids will watch it," he said.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the budding popularity of crystal meth a
few years ago was defeated by a campaign that projected repulsive
images of compulsive skin picking by addicts, which caused open sores
on hands, arms and faces.

The RCMP's DVD is expected to make its debut on YouTube later this spring.