CANADA'S OPEN DOOR TO METH

Justice Officials Plead for Tougher Enforcement

More than half the ephedrine imported into Canada through companies
licensed by the federal government ends up in illegal labs that make
crystal meth, one of North America's most dangerous and addictive
street drugs, a Free Press investigation has learned.

While provinces move to push medications containing small amounts of
meth's key ingredients behind drugstore counters, Health Canada too
often seems powerless to prevent the bulk sale of ehpredrine and
pseudoephedrine to criminals who make methamphetamine by the kilo.
Police have described meth use as the biggest law enforcement concern
in Western Canada today.

The Free Press interviewed justice and industry officials who said
that despite tough talk from Ottawa three years ago on measures to
control the manufacture of crystal meth, nothing effective has been
done to halt the meth pipeline that is destroying young lives as the
drug's availability moves eastward across Canada.

Gord Mackintosh, Manitoba's attorney-general, said as much as 70 per
cent of legally imported ephredrine and pseudoephredrine, its
less-potent synthetic cousin, ends up as crystal meth. That estimate
is shared by B.C. Solicitor General John Les. He said of the 70,000
kilos lawfully imported into Canada each year, only 30,000 winds up
with legal manufacturers.

An industry official agreed. "It sounds high, but it's not too far off
the mark," Gerry Harrington, a spokesman for the National Drug
Manufacturers Association of Canada, said in a interview. Harrington
said that neither Health Canada nor the industry know the actual
amount of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine imported into Canada each year.

Harrington said the federal government must devote more resources to
fight the diversion of the stimulants to meth labs.

"One thing that is sorely lacking is people on the ground. It's great
to have a regulatory framework, but it's the number of inspectors
that's been the missing piece."

Case in point: RCMP seized 9,000 kilograms of ephedrine just over a
year ago in police raids centred in Winnipeg. Police alleged it came
from a licensed Thunder Bay health supplement dealer who was charged
in the raids, and that the ephedrine was to be shipped to illegal meth
labs in Canada and the United States. The Thunder Bay dealer purchased
the ephedrine legally from a licensed Toronto importer.

Last week, Mackintosh wrote the ministers in the federal departments
of Health, Public Safety and Justice urging them to toughen
enforcement of regulations to halt the diversion of meth precursors -
mainly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - to traffickers.

"Currently, it is possible to purchase precursors legally with a
properly authorized license issued by Health Canada," Manitoba's
attorney-general wrote. "Health Canada, however, lacks strong
enforcement powers and the resources to adequately screen applicants
for licenses and has virtually no inspection cabability to determine
whether the end use of the product is legitimate ..."

Mackintosh urged Health Canada to "hire a sufficient number of trained
inspectors to conduct regular physical inspections that would track
bulk product purchases from the point of original purchase to end users.

"If Health Canada is not prepared to do so, it should consider
appointing the RCMP as its agents for these purposes." In an
interview, MacIntosh described Health Canada's lack of control as
"negligence."

"Health Canada has got to put resources on the ground. We can't allow
the nation to become a deer in the headlight of meth."

He said "minimal" checks are done on licensed dealers, and that there
are only three Health Canada enforcement officers for all of Western
Canada.

An RCMP officer whose job is to stop the flow of precurser products to
illegal labs said Health Canada's actions in January, 2003, to tighten
control have had no impact on the production of crystal meth.

Those measures included requiring licenses, permits, criminal
background checks, and end-use declarations. As well, dealers were to
keep records for at least two years, submit yearly reports and report
any "suspicious transactions."

But, "If we don't have a watchdog, what's the purpose," the officer,
who asked to remain unnamed, said. "It's just a paperchase."

He said companies are not required to report purchases of large
amounts of precursor substances to the federal regulator. And there is
the "fear factor," he said, adding that the Hells Angels and
Asian-based crime groups are behind much of the crystal meth
production in Canada.

"They're not nice people. They have been known to use
violence."

From west to east, police fear meth use could become epidemic. "It's
pretty much showed up everywhere," Staff Sgt. Ian Sanderson, a drug
awareness co-ordinator with the RCMP in Alberta said. "Once it hits it
basically has the ability to turn a town upside down and blow the
doors off."

Det. Doug McCutcheon, a Toronto Police Service spokesman, said: "The
regulatory body was caught flat-footed. The horse is now out of the
barn and they're trying to figure out how to corral it."

Police shut 25 meth labs in 2002. The next year they found 37 and in
2004, 40 labs. They are chiefly in B.C. and Alberta but police are now
finding labs in Ontario and Quebec as the drug's popularity moves east.

One of the largest labs ever found in Canada was shut Sept. 23 in
Abbotsford, British Columbia. Officials seized drugs worth $2.5
million at street level and found a sophisticated lab capable of
making more than 12 kilograms of meth every 48 hours.

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, two stimulants commonly used as
decongestants, are legally imported into Canada from India, Europe and
Asia, fall under the control of Health Canada. Other Class A
precursors are found in fragrances, flavourings and silicone products.

Paul Duchense, a spokesman for Health Canada, told the Free Press the
current regulations are under review but said the review was not
connected to any specific cases or loopholes which have been discovered.

"All records must be readily accessible at the site, either in paper
or electronic form, and must be made available for inspection,"
Duchesne said. "Failure to comply with regulations may result in a
suspension or revocation of a licence or permit."

There was no limit on the amount of ephedrine a licenced dealer can
import or export, but each "trans-border shipment" must first be
approved through Health Canada.

A senior RCMP source said he believes a handful of Health Canada
inspectors have been hired and are currently in training. But he said
their mandate is hampered by poor wording in Ottawa's Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act, specifically provision 6.1 regarding the movement
of precursor chemicals in Canada.

He said the act now covers only the import and export of ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine in and out of Canada -- not the domestic
distribution.

That is currently under review, but even if tighter controls are put
in place, Ottawa has to follow it up with aggressive inspections --
aided by police officers -- for it to have any teeth, he said.

As well, he said any change must include a criminal penalty for anyone
caught with large amounts off amounts of ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine.

"Right now Health Canada just regulates packaging," he said. "What has
to happen is that whole Controlled Drugs and Substances has to be
cracked open."