Pubdate: Tue, 13 Dec 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Karen Howlett
Page: A1

OTTAWA TABLES BILL TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL SHIPMENTS OF OPIOIDS

Incoming packages will be inspected if there are reasonable grounds to
be suspicious. This is vital when you are dealing with deadly
substances like fentanyl and carfentanil. Ralph Goodale Public Safety
Minister

The federal government has unveiled a series of measures aimed at
curtailing Canada's booming underground market in fentanyl, just as
the death toll climbs and more communities sound the alarm about
illicit drugs.

Under Bill C-37, tabled in the House of Commons on Monday, pill-press
machines used in clandestine labs to manufacture bootleg fentanyl
could no longer be imported into Canada, and border guards who inspect
goods coming in would have broader powers to seize and open suspect
packages.

The bill is the Liberal government's most comprehensive response to
date to Canada's opioid crisis and signals a significant departure
from its predecessor's tough-on-crime approach.

"We need to take swift action on the opioid crisis to save lives,"
Health Minister Jane Philpott told reporters. "We need a renewed focus
on harm reduction."

Dr. Philpott said the government's new Canadian Drugs and Substances
Strategy replaces the National Anti-Drug Strategy introduced by
Stephen Harper's Conservatives in 2007. The Minister of Health rather
than the Minister of Justice is leading it.

"It will reframe problematic substance use as the public health issue
that it is," Dr. Philpott said. "We will reinstate harm reduction as a
key pillar in this strategy."

The proposed legislation also reduces barriers to opening and
operating supervised drug-consumption sites in Canada. The previous
government attempted to shut down Vancouver's Insite, then the only
site in North America where people could inject illegal drugs under a
nurse's supervision.

After losing that battle in court, the Tories introduced legislation
making it difficult if not impossible for other sites to open and any
mention of harm reduction was banished from Health Canada's website.

In addition to giving supervised injection sites the green light, the
other measures are aimed at reducing the influx of illicit drugs into
Canada.

A Globe and Mail investigation this year revealed how China's
chemicals industry has helped foster a market for illicit fentanyl in
Canada.

The drug is manufactured in China, ordered online and easily shipped
overseas by suppliers who exploit gaps at the Canadian border)

Border guards are currently not authorized to open packages weighing
less than 30 grams without the consent of the recipient. They can open
and inspect any package exceeding that threshold and use detection
technology to screen all international mail.

Bill C-37 would eliminate the size distinction, giving agents the
go-ahead to search international packages less than 30 grams arriving
through the mail and by courier.

"Incoming packages will be inspected if there are reasonable grounds
to be suspicious," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told
reporters. "This is vital when you are dealing with deadly substances
like fentanyl and carfentanil."

In a 30-gram pack, he said, holding up a small envelope, "that's
15,000 deadly doses [of fentanyl]."

The Canada Border Services Agency is the first line of defence in
preventing illicit goods from entering the country. But the Globe
investigation found that online suppliers in China devise ways to
conceal the drugs and skirt inspection rules.

The suppliers often ship drugs in packages under the 30-gram threshold
and conceal the fentanyl powder in silica packages placed alongside a
pack of urine-test strips. Another way they avoid seizure at the
border is to gift-wrap the package or label it as household detergent
with an accompanying certificate of analysis.

Once the drug arrives in Canada, it is cut into, or made to look like,
other drugs, including cocaine, heroin or the popular prescription
painkiller OxyContin, which was removed from the market in Canada in
2012.

The pill presses are used to stamp out pills that are dyed green and
stamped with an 80 on one side and CDN on the other to resemble OxyContin.

Senator Vernon White, who has been calling for a ban on importing
pill-press machines, questioned why the government did not introduce
the changes by way of regulation, which could have taken effect
immediately. The legislation, by contrast, will take a few months to
work its way through the House of Commons.

"They don't need legislation," Mr. White said in an interview. "If you
know what it is you want to do, do it."

So far this year, at least 622 people have died of illicit drug
overdoses in British Columbia, the epicentre of the crisis. As well,
carfentanil, a synthetic opioid used to tranquilize elephants and
other large animals, has been detected in four provinces. Just last
week, Waterloo Region, Toronto and St. Thomas each announced that
carfentanil, which is many times more potent than fentanyl, had turned
up in their cities.
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