Pubdate: Fri, 20 Nov 2009
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Sam Cooper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

POOR-MAN'S HEROIN ARRIVES IN B.C.

New Poppy Drug Used In India And Pakistan Troubling South Asian Community

Surrey police have made the first strike in B.C. against "doda," a 
"highly addictive" opium-derived drug that is being openly sold 
throughout the Lower Mainland and is tearing up the South Asian 
community, says Surrey Newton MLA Harry Bains.

An RCMP drug unit raided a large manufacturer in a busy Surrey 
shopping centre on Wednesday and allegedly turned up hundreds of 
kilograms of poppy pods and a "large quantity" of the related 
substance doda, which police say is known as "poor-man's heroin." It 
was the first large-scale seizure, of doda in B.C., according to RCMP.

Police say doda is made from crushing opium poppy pods into a powder 
which is then mixed with tea. The concoction is popular in the South 
Asian community, and commonly used by truckers and taxi drivers.

Reported effects of doda are intense feelings of pleasure followed by 
calm drowsiness, red eyes, slurred speech, mood swings, constipation, 
loss of concentration, impotence, and finally addiction, according to police.

A large, industrial-scale milling and manufacturing operation was 
raided but police will not disclose the location. Four unnamed people 
were arrested and later released.

Bains told The Province the drug is cheap and easily sold to minors, 
and he informed Surrey RCMP about doda after seniors in the South 
Asian community told him the drug has destroyed many families in 
India and Pakistan, and they are concerned it's increasingly taking 
hold in B.C.

Surrey RCMP are forwarding the seized product to a Health Canada Lab 
to confirm the presence of illegal opium and its derivatives and 
expect charges to follow "after lab results are known."

The legality of doda is murky.

A January 2009 letter to Bains from the office of B.C.'s 
solicitor-general says some doda samples seized in Toronto did not 
contain enough opium to rate a positive test. Consequently, those 
samples didn't result in charges.

Bains said he hopes the Surrey bust nets charges and sets a precedent in B.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom