EMERGENCY PERSONNEL LEARN OF IMPENDING DRUG LAB DANGERS

Firefighters and paramedics from across the region learned last week how to
protect themselves from the growing threat of drug manufacturers, who are
increasingly making places like Muskoka their headquarters.

Canadian Emergency Planning Consultants David Clarke and David Pipher
presented a day-long seminar to close to 80 emergency response personnel at
the Huntsville Centennial Centre on September 28.

The group learned that organized crime is moving into rural Ontario to set
up hydro-thieving indoor pot-growing farms and chemical drug labs.

"Criminals are renting homes in residential neighbourhoods and out of the
way places. It is no longer a specific police problem. We have firefighters
and paramedics being called to these places," said Clarke, a full-time
firefighter in Mississauga and member of the hazardous material team, who
also spent 11 years as a police officer and worked as a paramedic.

His partner, Pipher, currently works as a City of Barrie firefighter. He
spent 13 years with the York Regional Police, including time served as a
bomb technician.

The consulting firm is making its way across rural Ontario. Along with
Huntsville, it addressed firefighters in Burk's Falls recently. The
education sessions come less than a year after numerous marijuana grows
were uncovered in rented homes across the area, including Utterson, Dwight
and Magnetawan.

In each case, houses were rented for the sole purpose of setting up
sophisticated pot-growing labs, complete with hydro bypasses to fuel the
operations.

Clarke said the trend has spread from the city, and emergency personnel
have to be prepared. He said in Peel Region over the last three years,
firefighters were called to 17 drug labs which had burst into flames.

"These people are ruthless. They care not about the people in the
neighbourhood. If your kids were electrocuted due to them overriding hydro,
they wouldn't lose a wink of sleep," he said.

The emergency personnel in the audience learned how to watch for signs of
drug operations and the importance of not touching anything, for fear of
explosive reactions and booby traps set by paranoid criminals.

They also learned that marijuana-growing pales in comparison to what's on
the horizon. Clarke said a trend of chemical drug labs, which started about
10 years ago in the U.S., has seeped north across the border and is
starting to infiltrate rural communities.

"Now we are also seeing a trend of chemical drug labs spreading here from
the west coast. They don't have to rent a whole house. It is a multi step
process. They can do it in different locations," said Clarke.

The most predominant synthetic drug being produced in the clandestine labs,
said Clarke, is meth amphetamine.

"In places like rural Iowa, Kansas... small farming communities, similar to
what we have here, meth amphetamine has taken over the entire area and
become the drug of choice. If we use the American example, it is going to
happen here," he said.

"Meth amphetamine is a highly addictive drug, a stimulant, and associated
with violence, and that is something else a lot of our communities are not
prepared for."