DRUGS HARD TO KEEP OUT

Fort Saskatchewan jail guards have confiscated drug paraphernalia, needles,
cocaine and a hash pipe from their prisoners in the past four months,
according to documents obtained by The Sun.

And jail guards without drug-detecting technology can't do much more to
stop drugs coming in, says the chairman of Local 3 of the Alberta Union of
Provincial Employees.

"They're very imaginative in how they do things," said Mike Rennich. "They
will ingest it and then sit on the toilet and collect it out of the toilet
bowl.

"What seems to be the favourite (method) right now is, they will go to
court, and then a family member or a friend will pass them cigarettes and,
somehow, they open the cigarettes and seal them up again without destroying
the cellophane."

More than 15 drug-related charges were laid against Fort Saskatchewan
prisoners since December. And that means guards have to scrutinize
everything, Rennich said.

Provincial jails in Alberta rely solely on urine testing and searches to
determine if a prisoner has been using drugs, he said.

Rennich said guards are worried about drug use prompting volatile behaviour
from inmates. And if marijuana makes its way into cells, it's not much of a
leap to smuggle in cocaine, heroin and crack, he noted.

"The other (drugs) they can go haywire on, so that's our concern. They
become very unmanageable when they get their drugs or even their alcohol."

But he doesn't expect Alberta jails will get drug-sniffing dogs or the
drug-detection equipment used in federal prisons.

"We'd never turn down new technology, but right now, I think, there's more
important things for the money to be spent on, like Kevlar vests."