Pubdate: Mon, 07 Feb 2000
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
Forum: http://www.lfpress.com/londoncalling/SelectForum.asp
Author: Don Murray

SCIENCE WHIZ GETS PROBATION FOR ECSTASY LAB

A London chemistry whiz kid, caught setting up a lab to produce the
rave drug ecstasy, won't do any jail time for what a judge called his
"bizarre curiosity."

Nikolay Valerie Burdan has already paid a steep price, Superior Court
Justice John Kennedy said in suspending sentence and putting the
24-year-old Russian native on one-year probation.

Burdan, who must also do 200 hours of community service, has seen his
brilliant academic career brought to a screeching halt and brought
shame to himself and his family, the judge said.

Burdan was a fourth-year honours chemistry student at University of
Western Ontario, working with a summer chemistry research group in
1998, when police responded to an odour complaint at his Oxford Street
townhouse.

In the basement they found a laboratory put together with equipment
and chemicals "borrowed" from the university.

In convicting Burdan after a one-day trial, Kennedy said the budding
chemist was only a few days away from producing the euphoric drug
that's soaring in popularity among young people.

Burdan, who came to Canada at age four, said the lab was an "academic
challenge" and that he'd plumbed the UWO library and Internet for
how-to instructions.

Kennedy noted UWO expelled Burdan after the arrest and his situation
has blocked his transfer to other schools. He's now working in Toronto.

The judge rejected the nine-to 12-month jail sentence urged by
federal prosecutor Tim Zuber, saying he's satisfied Burdan won't come
before the courts again. It was an opinion shared by Zuber and defence
lawyer John Getliffe.

Kennedy noted Burdan still has hopes of returning to chemistry or
studying architecture or industrial design. But for now, his
professional career is on hold.

The tall, blond Burdan graduated from high school with a 96 per cent
average and continued to earn high marks through university.

Kennedy also ordered Burdan to pay the London police department $1,952
- -- the cost of having Toronto's health and welfare department
dismantle the basement lab. 
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