Methamphetamine Report for Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice

July 2007

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Appendix 1

Recommendations

Recommendation 1

Ensure that information campaigns directed at reducing methamphetamine use are consistent among all levels of government. Achieve this by:

• building upon existing collaborative efforts; and
• targeting populations that are harder to reach and that are more likely to engage in use.

Recommendation 2

Ensure appropriate levels of government support for information and prevention programs to address problems associated with the production, trafficking, and use of methamphetamine.

Recommendation 3

Enhance partnerships and program delivery between Justice and Public Safety ministries and others that support promising and emerging intervention and prevention programs for youths.

Recommendation 4

Develop and support innovative approaches to addressing methamphetamine use and related problems in the community. Drug courts and community courts offer governments and communities promising alternatives in developing these approaches.

Recommendation 5

Identify best practices across North America for the involuntary treatment of methamphetamine users. Monitor the effectiveness of legislative efforts in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which have introduced such measures for youths.

Recommendation 6

Research the viability and utility of committing adult offenders into involuntary methamphetamine treatment programs.

Recommendation 7

Establish a drug resource Web site for law enforcement professionals and partners with a tracking system providing comprehensive information about clandestine methamphetamine labs and information on existing intervention strategies.

Recommendation 8

Reassess the requirement to further monitor the domestic sales and importation of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, since the NAPRA scheduling has been implemented and Health Canada has completed its mapping exercise tracking the movement of ephedrine into and throughout Canada.

Recommendation 9

Develop common approaches among all levels of government controlling the access and sale of single- or multiple-ingredient ephedrine or pseudoephedrine products.

Recommendation 10

Continue to monitor the implementation of PCR licensing amendments addressing law enforcement concerns for a two-year period to determine the effectiveness of the measures. Have Public Safety Canada and Health Canada lead the examination with input from all jurisdictions.

Recommendation 11

Examine the possibility of establishing a suspicious-transaction database to monitor suspicious sales of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and other precursors. This could be accomplished by creating a tracking system similar to FINTRAC that could collect all information related to the diversion of precursors.

Recommendation 12

As proposed in the NCC Strategy, establish trained regional teams within the Canada Border Services Agency to inspect and take samples from suspicious and potentially dangerous shipments of precursor chemicals.

Recommendation 13

Expand Health Canada’s compliance program by hiring more officers to ensure uniform compliance and enforcement of the PCR within each region.

Recommendation 14

Establish a new CDSA offence prohibiting the possession of Class A precursors for the purpose of producing methamphetamine.

Recommendation 15

Establish a new CDSA offence prohibiting the production and trafficking of Class A precursors.

Recommendation 16

Establish a new CDSA offence prohibiting the possession of equipment, chemicals, and other substances for the purpose of producing methamphetamine.

Recommendation 17

Establish a new CDSA offence prohibiting the sale of equipment, chemicals, and other materials for the purpose of producing methamphetamine.

Recommendation 18

Amend section 10 of the CDSA to include as an aggravating factor in sentencing, the presence of children, or other dependent persons, where methamphetamine is produced.

Recommendation 19

Establish new, or maintain existing, clandestine drug lab teams in all jurisdictions to ensure uniform national suppression efforts.

Recommendation 20

Develop national standards of training and protocols for first responders to ensure consistency in approaches to protect first responders and the public from associated hazards. Federal, provincial and territorial governments should explore funding opportunities to support the development of these standards.

Recommendation 21

• a. All provinces should consider adopting “safer communities” or similar legislation, as has been implemented in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
• b. Federal, provincial, territorial, and First Nations governments should work together to ensure that “safer communities” legislation can be applied or adopted on reserves.

Recommendation 22

All provinces, territories, or local governments should evaluate the feasibility of legislative responses to:

• regulate the suppliers of equipment used for production operations and to require the appropriate reporting of sales;
• develop ways to assist communities to defray the costs of cleaning up property from property owners;
• require disclosure by realtors or seller of property of any use of the property for the illicit production of methamphetamine; and
• ensure the victims of methamphetamine or their families have a clear civil remedy against the trafficker or those that harbour the trafficker.

Recommendation 23

Develop a national methamphetamine dismantling protocol which guides local jurisdictions in the proper authorizations required and the safe shutdown of clandestine labs.

Recommendation 24

Establish appropriate national guidelines for the decontamination and remediation of clandestine laboratory sites and by-product chemical dumpsites. Convene a group of experts to develop these guidelines with the specific tasks of:

• reviewing relevant existing regulations, laws and guidelines relating to decontamination and remediation;
• identifying which authorities/agencies and jurisdictions are responsible for decontamination and remediation;
• outlining skills/processes necessary for effective decontamination and remediation; and
• identifying gaps in funding arrangements and developing proposals for funding.

Recommendation 25

Determine whether the rescheduling of methamphetamine to Schedule I of the CDSA is resulting in harsher penalties for drug traffickers and users. FPT officials should take the lead role in this evaluation and report back to Ministers as soon as information becomes available.

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