When a guy dressed in a beaver suit can arrive on a Vancouver street corner and score some heroin within minutes, it highlights a serious problem in the city. So says the program director of a local radio station whose morning show performed the bit live on the air.

On June 4, CFOX-FM (99.3 The Fox) morning-show personality Captain Scotty went to the notorious Main and Hastings corner in the Downtown Eastside dressed as a beaver, carrying a sign advertising his desire to buy some heroin. Within minutes, a deal had been completed - broadcast live on-air during The Jeff O'Neil Show. Among those listening were two Vancouver police officers out on patrol. They headed to the scene and confiscated the substance, but did not make any arrests.

"They found him, intervened and took a small amount of heroin from him. He was very co-operative. He was handcuffed and ... using departmental discretion, after some discussion with him, he was released at the scene," said Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Jana McGuinness. "It was very dangerous for him to do that, but also he was potentially making light of a tragic situation. ... It's important that people know it's not a joke. From our perspective, it was a silly prank that could have had some serious ramifications."

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CFOX program director Chris Duncombe (a.k.a. Dunner), who describes the program as an "edgy, comedy-based show," says the program was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to buy drugs in the city.

"There's been so many headlines in Vancouver about the accessibility of street drugs," he said. "It was to highlight the ridiculous nature of that. The show obviously made some errors in judgment in having done so, but their attempt was to highlight how simple it was for people to be able to buy drugs. Even a man in a beaver costume could do so."

But Ann Livingstone with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users was skeptical. "It sounds like a stunt to me," she said.

Ms. Livingstone, who did not hear the program in question, was not impressed to hear that police did not make any arrests. "They sure as heck wouldn't do that for anyone else. They'd charge them with possession," she said.

Constable McGuinness said police handed disciplinary responsibilities over to the radio station, which "took immediate action."

Mr. Duncombe said there were consequences for the staff members involved, but would not provide details.

"There was internal action taken with the morning show, but we're not going to discuss it. ... It's not our policy to do so."

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The rock radio station is owned by Corus Entertainment, whose assets also include a number of family-oriented properties, such as Treehouse, Teletoon, YTV, Discovery Kids, Kids Can Press and the animated production and distribution company Nelvana.

Attempts to reach the morning-show personalities involved were unsuccessful yesterday. They are on vacation, and the station is running best-of shows in their time slot until Tuesday. Mr. Duncombe said the vacations and taped programming were planned long ago, and were unrelated to the heroin-buying incident.