Bob's Bad Memory / Just Try Saying No / Don't Try This At Home

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Earlier, using nothing more certifiably trustworthy than our Wet Organic Memory, Vleeptron mentioned a Royal Canadian Mounted Police D.A.R.E. officer who died of an overdose of heroin he'd filched from the police evidence locker.

I was wrong; my memory is only partially reliable. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police D.A.R.E. officer died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine which he'd filched from the police evidence locker.

Shooting heroin and cocaine at the same time is known as Speedballing. It appeals to personalities who own two TV sets and like to watch "First Men on the Moon" with their right eye while watching "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with their left eye.

The Vleeptron Youth Drug Advice Program (V.Y.D.A.P.) recommends that you don't shoot heroin, and you don't shoot cocaine, and absolutely don't shoot them both at the same time.

We attach this Cautionary Tale designed to scare the shit out of teenagers.

V.Y.D.A.P. has commissioned a scientific study to determine whether our drug education program gets better results than D.A.R.E.'s drug education program, so we can apply for a federal grant. We'll let you know what we find out.

We wish to point out, however, that we feel we are at an unfair disadvantage in promoting our program to school administrators.

When we visit school administrators to show them our curriculum and what we have to offer, we park our Toyota 4x4 light pickup in the Visitors Lot and are wearing a wristwatch and a suit and tie.

When D.A.R.E.'s pitchmen and pitchwomen visit the principal, they shriek up to the front entrance of the school with flashers and sirens and are wearing a loaded 10mm Glock automatic pistol, handcuffs, pepper spray, sometimes a Taser, a nightstick and a badge, usually issued by the police department where the principal lives. Just Try Saying No to the marketing personnel under those circumstances.

D.A.R.E. was invented in 1983 by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, who, following a series of religious and political miracles and a big race riot, is no longer the Police Chief of Los Angeles. Wikipedia reports:

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The most common complaint is that [D.A.R.E.] is ineffective, and that there is no proof that students who go through the DARE program are any less likely to use drugs.[5]

The U.S. Department of Education concluded in 2003 that the DARE program is ineffective and now prohibits its funds from being used to support it. (Zernike) The U.S. Surgeon General's office, the National Academy of Sciences, (Zernike) and the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) have also concluded that the program is ineffective. (Kanof) The GAO also concluded that the program is sometimes counterproductive in some populations, with those who graduate from DARE later having higher rates of drug use. Studies by Dr. Dennis Rosenbaum, and by the California Legislative Analyst's office (Bovard) found that DARE graduates were more likely than others to drink alcohol, smoke tobacco and take illegal drugs.

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The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)
Saturday 17 February 2001

Coroner, Police And
Family Remain Baffled
By Officer's Death

by Kim Lunman

Courtenay, British Columbia -- An anti-drug-crusading police officer took heroin and cocaine from a Vancouver Island RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] detachment a day before he died of an overdose that Mounties yesterday called a tragic "death by misadventure."

Constable Barry Schneider took cocaine and heroin from police exhibits on Oct. 25 and Nov. 28 -- the day before his daughter found him collapsed on the family's kitchen floor from what everyone in Courtenay assumed was a heart attack. It was revealed last month the 43-year-old drug-awareness officer died of a heroin overdose and had cocaine in his system.

Police told a news conference Friday there was no forensic evidence Constable Schneider was a previous or long-term user of illicit drugs.

"Having considered all of the circumstances, this tragic event is likely 'death by misadventure' in the form of an accidental overdose, or the remote possibility of suicide could also not be eliminated," Corporal Grant Learned said.

A criminal investigation concluded there was no foul play but the coroner is investigating and the cause of Constable Schneider's death last Nov. 29 remains undetermined. It is not yet known how he ingested the drugs, which were probably consumed within three hours of his afternoon death.

The case remains an unsettling mystery in the small Comox Valley town where the handsome family man and 23-year force veteran preached against the evils of drugs and received a hero's funeral.

News of his drug death dropped like a bombshell on this seaside community of 20,000, located 200 kilometres north of Victoria. The coroner initially said Constable Schneider died of a heart attack but tests found lethal amounts of heroin and cocaine in his system.

Investigators revealed yesterday that cocaine and heroin were found in Constable Schneider's police vehicle in a carrying case the day after his death but say there was no evidence of drugs at his home. Further tests are expected to determine whether the lethal drugs came from the detachment samples.

Cpl. Learned said records showed Constable Schneider took the drugs from drug exhibits on Oct. 25 and Nov. 28 without filing the proper forms.

"There was no evidence at the time that Constable Schneider's administrative omission in accessing the drug exhibits was either willful or malfeasant," Cpl. Learned said. "He was a police officer of unquestioned character and integrity, with an exemplary service record."

Staff Sergeant Chuck Doucette, head of the RCMP's drug-awareness program in British Columbia, said Constable Schneider had access to drug exhibits for educational seminars.

Constable Schneider drove around town in a police car emblazoned with the words "Say no to drugs" and lectured educators and addiction counsellors. Newspaper stories and photographs about the Drug Abuse Resistance Education [D.A.R.E.] program were showcased along with his golf clubs and fishing gear at his funeral, which was held in Canadian Forces Base hangar in Comox to accommodate nearly 700 mourners. The program aimed to prevent young people from taking drugs.

His death has left his colleagues, friends and family baffled.

"There are many unanswered questions that only he knows the answers to," Inspector Dave Zack of the Courtenay RCMP detachment said.

Constable Schneider, who was married with two daughters, spent most of his career in the RCMP drug sections in Burnaby, Vancouver and Bella Bella before he was transferred several years ago to Vancouver Island's Comox Valley. He was widely regarded as a role model.

"He was beyond reproach," said Greg Phelps, a friend and spokesman for Constable Schneider's family. "Talk to anybody in the community. Talk to anybody that he served with. This was a guy who was dedicated to his job. That's why we're all so shattered by this. This guy ate, slept and breathed the DARE program in the time that he was with it."

Courtenay Coroner Glenn Partridge said microscopic tests on body tissue samples showed no previous long-term illicit drug use by Constable Schneider. Tests also ruled out the presence of crack cocaine in his system.

"There was no indication of addiction to illicit drugs," said Mr. Partridge, who refused to say whether there was any evidence of an addiction to prescription drugs, citing privacy issues.

There has been speculation about Constable Schneider's health after reports surfaced that he was taking painkillers.

A coroner's inquest has not been ruled out, Mr. Partridge said.

Mr. Phelps said the family does not want to disclose the officer's medical history.

"He believed that drugs are dangerous and his death obviously proves that point," the family said in a written statement released yesterday. "We remember him as 'a person,' someone who loved and was loved. We ask that you look to Barry and remember him not as he died but as he lived, in God's eyes."

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