Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2005
Source: Tri-City News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005, Tri-City News
Contact:  http://www.tricitynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1239
Author: Janis Cleugh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POCO COLD MEDICINE REGS TO BATTLE METH PROBLEM

Cough, cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine 
could be behind the counter in Port Coquitlam stores if a city councillor 
gets his way.

Yesterday (Thursday), Coun. Greg Moore proposed a new bylaw to regulate the 
sale of such non-prescription items in an effort to stop the spread of 
methamphetamine production in the city.

Earlier this year, Mounties dismantled a meth lab in a strata complex at 
1615 Shaughnessy St. in PoCo, removing 200 exhibits and 24 pounds of 
"finished" ecstasy - meth that was ready to be pressed into pills. 
Coquitlam RCMP described the lab as dangerous and "ready to blow at any time.

Moore, who chairs the city's protective services committee, said the Meth 
Watch program, a partnership between the city and the RCMP, is working well 
with businesses to alert them about the sale of massive amounts of key 
meth-making ingredients. But more controls need to be put in place to rid 
the scourge, he said.

"I think we should have a made-in-Port Coquitlam approach to this problem," 
he said at Thursday's committee meeting. "We should have a bylaw that will 
send a clear message to the community... that this is a dangerous drug in 
our society.

Moore also suggested retailers limit the number of cough, cold and allergy 
medicines with pseudoephedrine or ephedrine being sold to one person. The 
non-prescription medicines are a key ingredient to making meth, along with 
the chemical acetone, rubbing alcohol, iodine, starter fluid, gas additives 
and drain cleaners.

Jodie McNeice, manager of the PoCo community police office, which is 
co-ordinating the Meth Watch program, said businesses in Terrace are 
already restricting the sale of the cold medicines to discourage meth cooks.

The local public education campaign is also extending to Coquitlam RCMP 
auxiliary volunteers, who will talk to children in district schools about 
the dangers of meth. As well, health, police and political representatives 
will meet Wednesday to talk about how to curb the production, sale and 
abuse of the illegal drug in the community.

The cities of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam are expected to start their Meth 
Watch programs this year, McNeice said Meanwhile, the BC Association of 
Social Workers is pressing BC's ministry of Children and Family Development 
(MCFD) to develop a standard protocol for social workers investigating 
children found in homes with marijuana grow operations.

It recommends the protocol to include: a direction for social workers to 
check out the physical safety and security of any alternative home for the 
children; a policy to have the affected children undergo a physical by a 
doctor the day after the grow-op bust; and that MCFD keep contact with the 
high-risk families for at least three months after the children return to 
the parents' care.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom