A brief history of a "less than lethal" weapon

Now used in virtually every police district in North America, pepper spray was initially designed in Canada as a bear repellent. It attracted the attention of the U.S. Post Office, which began supplying its mail carriers with pepper spray to ward off unfriendly dogs. In the late '80s it was adopted by law enforcement agencies in the U.S. as a "less than lethal" weapon and a safer alternative to batons and firearms.

The active ingredient in pepper spray is oleoresin capsicum, which is derived from cayenne pepper. It acts by constricting the respiratory tract, thus rendering the victim less able to fight and automatically forcing his or her eyes shut.

Pepper spray gained popularity as a police tool largely as a result of a study conducted between 1987 and 1989 by FBI agent Thomas Ward. Ward pronounced the spray safe, but his study was discredited last year when Ward pleaded guilty to accepting $57,000 U.S. in kickbacks from a Florida-based pepper-spray manufacturer called Luckey Police Products (now Zarc International).

According to a 1995 report on pepper spray by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC), Ward's study is also questionable because human tests were performed on FBI special agent trainees and law enforcement officers attending the FBI Academy--generally people who are in good physical condition. Subsequent tests performed by the U.S. Army, the U.S. National Institute of Justice and the California Environmental Protection Agency, among others, have found that pepper spray poses a serious health risk for people with asthma and cardiovascular disease, people under the influence of drugs or alcohol and the mentally ill.

According to the ACLU/SC, roughly one person dies for every 600 times pepper spray is used. Although none of the victims' autopsies identifies pepper spray as the cause of death, the ACLU/SC maintains this is because so little is known about the spray's effects. There is also evidence that pepper spray produces health problems such as death of nerve tissue, cardiovascular and pulmonary toxicity, blistering of the cornea and mutagenic and carcinogenic effects.

In Montreal, roughly 40 community groups, including the Black Coalition, and some of the more progressive members of Montreal City Council campaigned to have Montreal police officers take mandatory training in weapon use and equip them with pepper spray after the fatal police shootings of Anthony Griffin in 1987 and Marcellus François in 1991. The MUC police originally declined for cost reasons, but adopted pepper spray as a less than lethal weapon in 1995. Last year one victim, Nelson Perrault, died after being sprayed by MUC police. An autopsy concluded that Perrault had died of a cocaine overdose.

According to the MUC police guide, pepper spray entails "few risks of injury or death." The guide adds that deaths reported after pepper spray use are not linked to the spray, "but to asphyxia due to the position of the prisoner, drug consumption, sickness or obesity." --Jacquie Charlton