Pubdate: Thu, 03 May 2001
Source: The Daily Courier (CN BC)
Contact:  550 Doyle Ave., Kelowna, B.C. V1Y 7V1
Website: http://www.theokanagan.net/
Author: J.P. Squire

COPS' MOVIE PROVIDES SOBERING MESSAGE ABOUT DRUGS, ADDICTION

* Flipping The World, which was filmed by Vancouver City Police
officers will be shown to students throughout the Central Okanagan

KELOWNA - Hundreds of boisterous Rutland Middle School students
entered their gym Wednesday.

An hour later, they quietly filed out after a brutal look at the fatal
consequences of drug addiction on the mean streets of Vancouver.

Students met Shannon, a drug addict and prostitute, in Flipping the
World, which was filmed by Vancouver city cops who use the nickname
the Odd Squad.

This 32-minute documentary, under the auspices of the National Film
Board, tracked the downward spiral of those who end up on the
Eastside, called the Skids by the officers who work there.

Shannon, or April Lynn Reoach, was murdered on Dec. 25, 2000, said
Const. Toby Hinton.

In 24 hours, the Odd Squad dug out their old footage and sliced
together a six-minute memorial to the 25-year-old woman they had come
to know.

Vancouver police played the video and acted as an honour guard at her
funeral.  The video was also shown at a memorial for her family in
Squamish.

Even street-hardened cops had tears in their eyes, said Hinton, and
several Rutland students had the same reaction Wednesday,

"In honour of her memory, we showed only the best clips we had," said
Hinton, a 13-year police veteran.

Reoach had a tough life - she was raped, got pregnant at 14, was
living on the street at 17, was addicted to hard drugs and left an
11-year-old son behind, he said, adding her mother died of alcohol
abuse.

"We're not the experts on drugs.  We're the experts on human misery
that drugs cause," Const. Al Arsenault told students.

"you want the skinny on drugs, you talk to a drug addict.  They have a
Ph.D. in human misery and drug abuse."

Every addict has told them that their first high on hard drugs, was a
fantastic, wonderful experience, he said.

"They fight a losing battle trying to get in the same state as the
first time they took it.  They become a slave to drugs.  It's
addiction roulette. Make good choices and good things will come to
you."

One-half of the province's 14,000 to 16,000 addicts live on
Vancouver's Eastside.

The Odd Squad is presenting its message at six Central Okanagan
schools and a Student Crime Stoppers conference in Kelowna this week.

Hinton and Arsenault still put in regular shifts on the Eastside beat
and are also working on other anti-drug projects, including more
videos and a book.

The presentation is the second or educational phase of Kelowna's
drug-free zones project, said CrimeStoppers coordinator Mike Guzzi.

The Rotary (downtown) Club of Kelowna, which provided $35,000 in
funding for the program, also donated $400 to Reoach's memorial fund,
noted Hinton.

The Odd Squad videos Flipping the World and Blue Lens have both won
awards around the world.
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