Prof Presenting Paper on Illegal Drugs to Oxford University
University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Darryl Plecas is not your traditional, tweedy, Ivy League professor clenching a pipe full of foggy academic theories.
Like many of his UFV peers, this professor takes a more practical, unique approach to university research -- an approach where ideas for research projects are usually driven by community needs and, subsequently, where results often bloom into community benefits.
And now, for the second year in a row, UFV's hands-on research approach has been recognized in the United Kingdom by one of the world's most prestigious universities -- Oxford.
As you read this, the jet-lagged professor is preparing to present a UFV paper later this week to the Oxford Round Table on the growing problem of adulterated illegal drugs. This is the practice of adding substances other than the expected main ingredients in street drugs such as ecstasy -- additives that can lead to death or permanent injury.
The paper is a summary of an extensive joint research project conducted by Plecas and his UFV team, Fraser Health Authority regional addictions manager Sherry Mumford and Amanda McCormick of the B.C. Centre for Social Responsibility.
"We found, for example, that the average ecstasy tablet contains nine different contaminants, and this often includes highly addictive methamphetamines [a.k.a. crystal meth]," he told me just prior to his departure. Plecas explains that the increasing use of adulterated street drugs also causes horrendous problems for staff in emergency wards when they attempt to treat overdose victims.
Now that the study has identified the extent and scope of this contaminated street-drug problem, Plecas hopes that positive public action will follow -- namely, implementation of the paper's primary recommendation for changes in federal legislation to allow for stiffer court penalties for crimes involving adulterated drugs.
To that end, having this study presented to an invitation-only international policy forum like the Oxford Round Table will likely add considerable weight to the paper's influence on lawmakers.
"Like this study, all the research projects we plan and undertake are driven by community need," Plecas says.
"That makes us fundamentally different from most universities.
"If a community agency comes to us with a problem, this usually sets our research agenda," he adds.
"But the research not only benefits the community, it also gives our students highly valuable hands-on, applied research experience."
This summer, for example, 36 criminology students at UFV are going to get what Plecas calls "the experience of a lifetime."
In response to a Surrey RCMP request for research on ways for the huge detachment to better deploy its officers, the UFV students will spend two months doing a total of 880 "ride-alongs" with general duty officers, supervisors and detectives and record all their specific activities -- on a minute-by-minute basis.
The researchers will even have the officers linked to heart-rate monitors, pedometers, etc. for measuring their on-duty physical data.
"We're very excited about this unique time-and-motion study, because the new data will enable us to make better informed decisions on how to apply our resources," says Chief-Supt. Fraser MacRae, who heads the Surrey detachment.
"The Surrey project is another example of UFV's practical, evidence-based research that's designed to solve practical community problems," Plecas says.
In other words, the research labs at UFV are often found on local streets.
