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I got a message from Iain in Canada who is worried that science as a subject is suffering due to the over vigilance of police in cracking down on people with chemistry labs in their homes. It is after an 18 year old boy got arrested under suspicion for manufacturing methamphetamine, the charges were dropped and police have admitted their mistake. See full details on that story here.

Iain says ..

Report in Saskatoon newspaper says chemistry student arrested by police for having his own lab in his parent’s garage. Initially claiming it to be a meth lab, they then admitted the lad wasn’t making crystal meth but explosives. From what I can see, he seems to have been arrested simply because he has laboratory equipment. Is Canada going the way of the US and becoming “anti-science”?

I replied to Iain ..

Hi Iain

I got your message about the chemistry lab student, and I read about the story here

From the article it seems that the police are genuinely just playing it safe in the pursuit of persons who may be manufacturing meth (an increasing problem nowadays) and the issue about whether science graduates are being discouraged I’m not sure I agree with .

Any thoughts to add?