City Parents First Targets of New Alberta Law

Two sets of Calgary parents have become the first four people ever
charged under a new provincial law that targets people who raise their
children in drug environments.

Police announced yesterday the first charges under the Drug Endangered
Children Act (DECA), and said more local parents will likely be
charged under the new legislation once officials go through the cases
where children have been removed from homes surrounded in drugs.

Members of the Calgary Police Service Child At Risk Response
Team (CARRT) laid the first official charges on May 14 against
the parents of a four-yearold and 18-month-old after the children were
rescued during a marijuana grow-op bust in the city's southeast.

In that case the children were initially apprehended on Dec. 12,
2006.

A second set of charges were laid by CARRT on May 15 against both
parents of four children aged seven to 16 in a case stemming from a
grow-op bust on Dec. 8, 2006.

None of those charged can be named in order to protect the identities
of the children.