Sgt. Don Sherrard stands over a table with household cleaning products, cold medications and a few lab beakers. He calls it a standard B次元官网网址淏eavis and Butt-head tweaker lab.B次元官网网址�
ItB次元官网网址檚 a setup heB次元官网网址檚 seen time and time again as an officer in the Phoenix Police DepartmentB次元官网网址檚 drug enforcement section. Small labs cook up a cocktail of pills and household chemicals, destroying untold numbers of lives in the aftermath.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 stuff you might use in the garden or shop. You take cold medications and mix with hazardous chemicals, and youB次元官网网址檝e turned pseudoephedrine into meth,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a highly addictive stimulant, and it drives people crazy. Meth leads to a life of nightmares."
Sherrard and Richard Rosky, with the U.S. National Meth and Pharmaceutical Drugs Initiative in Phoenix, Ariz., delivered the meth awareness message to 120 Capital Region police officers, emergency responders and child welfare agents at Bear Mountain in Langford this week.
Most of the attendees already understand that meth is a catastrophically ruinous drug which can harm far more people than just the user. The American police officials offered a unnerving perspective from ground zero in the drug wars.
Sherrard listed off horror stories from the field, of parents murdering their children in fits of meth-driven psychosis. Rosky recalls a meth bust gone awry as tweaked-out drug dealers in a van ram through grocery carts and cars to escape capture.
"(Users) donB次元官网网址檛 care about relatives or their marriage, itB次元官网网址檚 about getting money for the habit,B次元官网网址� Rosky tells the audience. B次元官网网址淭hey donB次元官网网址檛 care about their children. You find houses with no hygiene, no food. The kids are on their own.B次元官网网址�
Meth grew into an epidemic in the U.S. after pseudoephedrine medication was deregulated in the 1970s, Sherrard said. Mom-and-pop meth labs flourished into the 2000s, until the U.S. federal government had cold medications put behind the counter, limited purchase volumes and required pharmacists to take ID.
That created a job position called a B次元官网网址渟murfB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� people who spend their day travelling from pharmacy to pharmacy to purchase legal amounts of cold medications.
Mexican drug cartels are also competing in the meth market, Sherrard said, and are financing B次元官网网址渟uperlabsB次元官网网址� in California to cook industrial volumes of meth.
B次元官网网址淵ou canB次元官网网址檛 import pseudophedrin into Mexico, youB次元官网网址檝e got to smuggle it in,B次元官网网址� Sherrard said. B次元官网网址淣ow in the U.S. theyB次元官网网址檙e hiring smurfs to buy pseudophedrin. ThatB次元官网网址檚 all they do all day.B次元官网网址�
Sherrard said the main message for emergency responders of all stripes is to be aware of the nature of meth users and the toxic, explosive environments created by meth labs.
B次元官网网址淢eth goes so far beyond someone who is addicted to alcohol or cocaine. Other drugs donB次元官网网址檛 leave such a severe path of destruction,B次元官网网址� Sherrard said. B次元官网网址淚t spreads like wildfire and takes hold in communities very fast.
B次元官网网址淲hat we found works best is a co-operative effort between health services and law enforcement. You canB次元官网网址檛 arrest your way out of this problem.B次元官网网址�
Police departments in the Capital Region often seize small quantities of meth during drug busts, but meth labs remain rare, especially compared to marijuana grow-ops.
West Shore RCMP Cpl. Kathy Rochlitz said the forum is designed to boost awareness of risks surrounding meth for emergency responders, and not allow local agencies to become complacent.
B次元官网网址淭he U.S. has dealt with meth for much longer and can speak to the long term impact on their communities," she said.
B次元官网网址淲e want to keep (meth) in the forefront. There may not be a significant problem (in Greater Victoria), but we want to educate people and have them talk about this issue. The impact of meth is on so many levels. It permeates everything."
editor@goldstreamgazette.com
