Pubdate: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 Source: Huntsville Forester, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2003 The Huntsville Forester Contact: http://www.huntsvilleforester.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2430 Author: Bruce Hickey 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart