ECSTASY NOW RANKS AS TOP STREET DRUG, CORONER SAYS

Three Deaths Tied To Use So Far This Year, Inquest Told

Ecstasy is now the top street drug marketed in Ontario and anyone trying it
is playing Russian roulette with their health, the province's deputy chief
coroner says.

"In terms of seizures and use, it appears to be the number one recreational
drug," Dr. Jim Cairns told reporters Friday outside the Coroner's Courts on
Grosvenor St., where an inquest into the death of Allan Ho is being held.

The 20-year-old Ryerson Polytechnic University business student died in
October after taking the drug and collapsing at a west-end Toronto rave, an
electronic dance party attended by about 3,500 people.

Testifying at the inquest, Cairns agreed with Rusty Beauchesne, lawyer for
the Toronto police when he noted 144,000 ecstasy pills were seized last
week. The pills, seized at Montreal's Dorval Airport, had an estimated
street value of $5.1 million.

More than 174,000 ecstasy pills with an estimated street value of nearly $6
million have been seized by customs officers this year in Greater Toronto.
In one shipment last month, customs officers found approximately 54,000
pills with an estimated street value of $1.89 million in 16 jars containing
skin and hair cream.

Ecstasy, known as MDMA (methylanedioxymethamphetamine), is an illegal
amphetamine-based drug that causes euphoric and mildly hallucinatory
effects.

Cairns told coroner's counsel Paul McDermott there were nine deaths related
to ecstasy last year and three so far this year. In 1998, there was only
one; before that there were none recorded.

All 13 of the dead were men and nine died in the Greater Toronto Area.

"The significant thing was these were healthy individuals," Cairns said.

In one of the deaths last year, a 25-year-old man in a small town took a
half tab of ecstasy, his girlfriend took the other half. He went to a bar,
choked on his own vomit and died with 0.05 milligrams of MDMA per 100
millilitres of his blood. Ho's level was 0.13 milligrams per 100
millilitres.

McDermott asked Cairns what level of ecstasy is safe.

"The only safe level is zero," Cairns replied. He said ecstasy pills are
made in clandestine labs and most are imported from the Netherlands.

"So you don't know what you're getting. You're playing Russian roulette as
to whether the pill you are getting is what you think it is."

The coroner's office has tried to find out where the 13 victims consumed the
drug. Five were taken at unknown locations, three were taken at home, two at
bars and three at raves. In six of the deaths, no other drug but MDMA was
involved.

Under cross-examination by Louis Sokolov, lawyer for the Toronto Dance
Safety Committee, Cairns acknowledged it was possible ecstasy could have
been consumed before a victim arrived at a rave.

Diane Riley from the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy testified that
where efforts are made to increase safety at raves - for instance having
medical personnel on site - "you have a very, very low level of harm and
death."