FIREFIGHTERS LEARN DRUG DANGERS

Digby area firefighters learned a lot about growing marijauna and
cooking methamphetamines last week.

Three officers from special RCMP drug units spoke at the Digby Fire
Hall on Tuesday, March 27 about the dangers of grow ops and meth labs.

"If you take anything out of this lecture," said Constable Paul
Robinson, "it should be just how dangerous these labs are. These are
life threatening. If you open a door and see what you think is a lab,
just turn around and walk out."

For example Robinson explained that phosphine gas, one of the
products of the chemical reactions, is lethal at concentrations of
only three parts per million. Even giving mouth-to-mouth to someone
who had breathed in phosphine could be fatal.

Close to 100 firefighters, a couple pharmacists, and municipal
councillors took in the presentation arranged by Digby's staff
sergeant Phil Barrett.

Constable Karine Bernier said some grow ops are protected with guard
dogs and booby traps such as electrified door knobs, homemade
shotguns or fish hooks hanging at eye level.

Electrical dangers are also a grave concern at grow ops due to
amateur wiring, by-passed fuses and circuit breakers, lack of proper
grounding and insulation and the abundance of water. Mylar, used to
reflect light back onto the plants, often covers entire rooms and
also conducts electricity.

Corporal Gord Vail and Constable Paul Robinson described meth labs as
exponentially more dangerous.

"Just remember these slides and what a lab looks like," suggested
Vail. "Ninety-five per cent of them just look like a dirty kitchen.
If you see Pyrex jars, tubing, lots of Red Devil Lye or piles of
Coleman camp fuel, there is a big probability you're in a meth lab.
Leave and don't touch a thing. Don't turn off the lights and don't
even close the door."

RCMP officers themselves are not allowed to enter without chem lab
training and protective gear. They also need to be accompanied by two
chemists from Health Canada.

The officers showed slides of and described houses that literally
disintegrated when a chem lab exploded - possibly ignited by a
furnace or fridge kicking in. First responders could also face toxic
and corrosive chemicals and gases.

The officers say methamphetamines are not yet a drug of choice in the
Maritimes. There have been no lab seizures in the Maritimes and only
60 in all of Canada. American authorities by comparison have made
over 10,000 chem lab seizures.

"Still I'd be ignorant to say there was no meth in the Maritimes,"
says Robinson. "Or to pretend it wasn't coming here. All drug trends
in Canada have been West to East. It's a plague out West and with the
big numbers of people headed out there for work, that's how it will
get back here."

Robinson says he knows of a factory on the Prairies that employs
1,000 people, 200 of which were addicted to methamphetamines.

He says the only meth seized so far in the Maritimes is in pills sold
as ecstasy. He believes ecstasy is available at every high school in
Nova Scotia and in many places he says it rivals marijuana in popularity.

Robinson says very little pure ecstasy is available on the market.
Because meth is cheaper to produce it is often passed off as ecstasy
and no one can tell the difference except a chemist.

"Meth has the highest potential for addiction of any drug," says
Robinson. "Six per cent of users get off it and stay off. Ninety-four
per cent is the rate of recidivism."

Digby fire chief Robert Morgan says it is good to know what to look
for because his department operates in a rural area with lots of
isolated houses that could be hiding anything. In his 28 years with
the department he does not remember ever coming across anything as
dangerous as the officers explained.

"But this was an excellent presentation. This stuff will come here so
we need to know about this."

The Synthetic Drug Operations Unit of the RCMP has made close to 50
presentations province-wide in the last 15 months to educate their
own ranks, other first responders and pharmacists about meth.
Robinson says that part of their mandate is as important as
investigating and dismantling synthetic drug operations.

"I'm scared to death a new officer or a first responder is going to
come upon one of these chem labs and not know what to do and they are
going to die."

SIGNS OF A GROW OP

* Covered or blacked out windows

* Light leakage

* Condensation on windows

* Marijuana smell

* Unkempt yards, unshovelled driveways, piles of flyers

* Same lights all the time

* No snow on roof

* Sounds of venting

* Lack of normal activity - coming and going at weird hours

* No garbage on garbage day