METH ALERT LEADS TO PAPER CHASE

Jail Staff On Lookout For Drug Being Smuggled Inside On Stamps,
Envelopes

First it was LSD on postage stamps. Now inmates are getting their
hands on methamphetamine smuggled into jails on paper, Alberta guards
have been warned.

Edmonton Police Service detective Pete Cherniawsky said a memo has
been sent to jails throughout the province warning the drug is being
concealed in paper.

"You can dissolve it in water and soak it in the paper, just like
sugar. Who would notice that?"

Julie Keravel, director of preventative security and intelligence for
Corrections Canada, said meth hidden in paper has already been found
in federal jails in the east, but hasn't yet been detected in the West.

"It's like acid. They can put it on stamps, on envelopes, on Christmas
cards."

Edmonton Institution spokesman Gary Sears said "suspicious-looking"
incoming mail is being examined for meth, but none has been found.

"It's a relatively new technique, but it's something we're able to
intercept with the ion scanner."

Doug Hayhurst, regional vice-president of the Union of Canadian
Correctional Officers, said the problem with scanning is that a lot of
mail isn't checked.

And a guard at the Edmonton Remand Centre, who asked not to be
identified, said most staff don't know what to look for.

"To be honest, I wouldn't know meth if it jumped up and bit me on the
ass. Our department hasn't kept us up to date."

Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees,
said the fact meth can be hidden in something as innocuous as paper
means there are much easier ways of getting it into jails than through
the mail.

"They can bring it in that way through body cavities. I'm hoping they
do more drug testing, because there is a real problem with violence
and increased drug activity."

When inmates get their hands on meth-soaked paper, they have the
option of eating it, said Cherniawsky.

But that method loses much of the drug's potency. Some users soak the
paper in water and then leave it to evaporate, he said, leaving the
methamphetamine crystals behind.

Keravel said smuggling meth in paper isn't a big problem because it's
not currently a drug of choice in most jails, and scanners and dogs
can detect it.

But Cherniawsky said it's an issue that's likely to get worse as meth
use becomes more widespread.

"If they can make a man into a woman, they can certainly smuggle meth
in paper into an institution."

Meanwhile, the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party said reports that
Edmonton dealers are mixing meth with marijuana to get kids hooked
don't make sense.

Marc Emery said he believes it's chemically possible to mix the two
but because they have very different effects it's not a combination
that has any long-term market value.

"Teenagers are very vulnerable to trying experiments of all kinds and
I don't rule out that it could be done," he said.

"But you may as well sell outright methamphetamine. It doesn't make
sense to cross-dress it as anything else."