Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jan 2006
Source: Sun Times, The (Owen Sound, CN ON)
Copyright: 2006, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1544
Author: Bill Henry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)

CITY BRACES FOR CRYSTAL METH INVASION

Before This Thing Explodes, We're Trying To Get A Handle On It,' Says 
Deputy Police Chief

Owen Sound is bracing for what police fear is an inevitable increase 
of crystal meth use in the city.

Police have made only a few meth arrests to date, but senior officers 
and Owen Sound fire and emergency officials heard last week that the 
illegal drug, easily cooked up in dangerous home laboratories, has 
rapidly become Stratford's worst drug problem.

Crystal meth and related crime shoplifting, robbery, home invasions 
and violence among drug dealers has hit Stratford hard in the past 
few years. So hard that that city's police have become provincial 
experts dealing with the drug. Some of those experts were in Owen 
Sound last Friday to help the city prepare.

"Before this thing explodes, we're trying to get a handle on it," 
said Owen Sound Deputy Police Chief Frank Elsner.

Stratford's meth troubles began about four years ago when a Mitchell 
man working in Texas was deported back to Perth County for drug 
activities. He brought back a recipe for making crystal 
methamphetamine, also known as speed or crank, Sgt. Mike Bellai, who 
heads up Stratford's drug enforcement unit, said in a telephone interview.

The relatively inexpensive, highly-addictive street drug caught on 
and has become the city's illegal drug of choice, attracting users as 
young as 13, said Bellai.

"It's become somewhat of an epidemic," he said. "It's all walks of 
life. It could be anybody. It could be the prom queen, it could be 
business owners that have lost their business because of using it, 
virtually anybody."

Related crime includes frauds to get money for the drug, shoplifting, 
theft and robbery. Basement meth labs have caused serious fires and 
officers have had to deal with violence and murder.

"We had an attempted murder earlier this year that was a direct 
result of the accused being on methamphetamine. A murder that 
occurred a few months after that was between drug dealers . . . Home 
invasions, robberies, it's just never-ending and it's all because of 
the crystal methamphetamine problem," Bellai said.

Arrests for both possession and dealing the drug have "gone through 
the roof . . . Not to say that we don't have all the other drugs that 
all the other cities have as well, but methamphetamine seems to be 
the most popular right now."

Bellai, who spoke to local emergency officials last Friday, said he 
planned to detail the Stratford experience for them.

Looking back, he said, Stratford officers probably could not have 
done things differently to curb meth's rising popularity anyway.

"We're trying to get ahead of it, but there's only so much you can 
do. Are you ever going to eradicate it? No. Are you going to suppress 
it? Absolutely."

He said he would be warning Owen Sound emergency workers about the 
hazards around the home labs criminals use to cook up crystal meth 
using fertilizer, decongestant cold tablets and other ingredients.

"They are extremely, extremely dangerous. It's basically a ticking bomb."

A fire which started in a basement lab in Stratford recently could 
have killed a pregnant woman and two young children, he said. The man 
who had been making the drug "ran out of the house and forgot 
completely about his family because he was a user as well. The 
neighbours got them out of there."

Crystal meth has become such a widespread problem that the regulatory 
group that oversees prescription and non-prescription drugs in Canada 
has stepped in to try and make an essential component more difficult to obtain.

The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities last week 
ordered corner stores and grocers across the country to stop selling 
a wide range of cold and allergy medications that contain ephedrine 
and pseudoephidrine, essential ingredients for cooking up crystal meth.

The NAPRA ban takes effect April 10 and does not include pharmacies, 
although some of the strongest cold and allergy medicines will be 
moved behind the counter and will not be available without first 
consulting a pharmacist.

Elsner said the move was "way overdue" and came only after a lengthy 
police lobby effort.

Bellai said in Stratford, most pharmacists are aware of the crystal 
meth problem and have already at least moved those products to where 
they can be easily watched.

Shoplifters have been hired by illegal drug makers to steal the 
components and moving the raw materials behind the counter may just 
lead to more after-hours break-ins, he added.

Still, "if you put it behind the counter and the pharmacist has to 
give it out, that's going to help," he said. "If you have to ID 
before you get it, that would help. If they can regulate, that's 
great. It makes it more difficult, but unfortunately criminals are 
going to find a way around it."

Manitoba and Saskatchewan have already restricted availability of 
some products, as have 37 states in the United States.

Elsner said those restrictions have made a difference there and he 
welcomes anything that will keep crystal meth at bay in this city.

"We haven't seen a lot of it, so it hasn't got a really good foothold 
here," he said. "Our issue is that we're afraid that it will. We're 
trying to be proactive and do what we can to stop it."

Const. John Kummer, spokesman for the South Bruce OPP detachment, 
said crystal meth use is on the increase in the Walkerton area and 
throughout Bruce County, Huron County and Perth counties. Project 
Roller, a police operation last June, rounded up almost 40 crystal 
meth dealers in three counties and led to more than 200 drug charges.

"If it's not in Owen Sound yet it's coming, that's for sure. It's 
around, there's a lot of it going on," Kummer said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom