COPS FEAR METH, ECSTASY MIX

Most Ecstasy Pills Sold Now Contain Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine has been found in 76 per cent of ecstasy pills seized
at raves, clubs and dances in the Lower Mainland over the past year.

Police believe the huge increase over 1999 test results, which showed
the drug in eight per cent of samples, may be partly a consumer-driven
phenomenon.

"You're not making it weaker. You're making it stronger. Obviously,
someone likes that," said Cpl. Scott Rintoul of the RCMP's drug
awareness section.

Of the 125 ecstasy tablets tested at Health Canada labs so far in
2005, 95 contained meth. The median amount of meth in the tablets was
eight milligrams, with 16 mg the high and four milligrams the low.
Rintoul noted the typical dose of amphetamine given to U.S. air force
pilots to keep them awake on long missions is about 10 mg.

Meth's promise of energy and invigoration may be what's drawing the
party crowd to "speedy" ecstasy, Rintoul said.

Dr. Bill MacEwan, a psychiatrist at St. Paul's Hospital who works with
people suffering from drug-induced psychosis and mental illness, says
the results reflect what he sees in his ward.

MacEwan says patients occasionally arrive at hospital with the
tell-tale symptoms of meth abuse -- anxiety, psychosis, hallucinations
and sketchiness -- but they insist on never having done meth, only
ecstasy.

MDMA typically does not produce those symptoms, MacEwan
noted.

One of the key conclusions is that ecstasy users who wind up in mental
trouble are consuming methamphetamine, sometimes unknowingly.

"It's not surprising because of the availability of meth. It's not
surprising clinically," he said.

A 13-year-old girl died in September when she took what she and
friends believed was ecstasy they bought from a street dealer in Victoria.