ECSTASY DEATH LEADS TO CHARGES

The death of a 13-year-old Estevan girl from an overdose of ecstasy
this summer highlights the growing drug problem in a city reaping the
benefits of the oil boom in southeast Saskatchewan.

"With the population growth and the oil boom and what not we are
seeing an increase in everything else -- our drug problem and our
crimes rates are going up. Our (crime) statistics are going up -- it's
unbelievable," said Estevan City Police Sgt. Murray Cowan.

"(Illicit drugs) have become a huge problem here -- cocaine and
ecstasy and of course, marijuana has always been here."

The death July 25 of this young girl from a drug overdose and the
hospitalization of her teenage girlfriend, who was on the same drugs,
was a huge wakeup call for the community, Cowan said.

Police are not releasing the name of the girl or her
friend.

On Wednesday, Estevan City Police arrested a 16-year-old male on a
charge of drug trafficking in a controlled substance.

Police are alleging the teen, who cannot be identified under the Youth
Criminal Justice Act, supplied the ecstasy to the young girls.

He has been released on strict conditions and is to make his first
court appearance in Estevan Provincial Court on Nov. 13.

"The matter is still under investigation so I do have to be careful
about what I do say," Cowan told the Leader-Post on Wednesday.

"We are still looking into it to determine the source of the
drugs."

Cowan noted police are trying to determine whether the drugs this
young girl took is somehow connected to a batch of ecstasy that was
sold this July on the streets of Winnipeg and is linked to a drug
overdose in that city.

Winnipeg police issued a warning July 26 after a 15-year-old boy died
in that city after taking ecstasy that was laced with methamphetamine
and several other youth ended up in hospital this past summer.

In January, American drug authorities alerted police drug enforcement
officers that the illicit party drug laced with methamphetamine was
being introduced on the streets on both sides of the border.

"That is something that we are definitely looking into. I can't
confirm, as of yet, that it came from there, but it is definitely
something we are looking into," Cowan said, adding that some of the
ecstasy pills seized by police have been sent away for forensic analysis.

As a result of this tragedy, Cowan said, the city police have stepped
up public awareness and education programs in the school and in the
community.

"This young girl's death had a huge impact on the community and opened
some eyes in the community. People in the community have come to
realize we have a big problem here," Cowan said, noting that with
plenty of money flowing into the city so too come the problems with
drugs.

"The best thing I think we can do at this point is to educate the
public, especially the kids, as to the dangers of the drugs and the
risks that they take when they use them and try to discourage them.

"But the sad thing is that at the end of the day they are the ones
that are left with that decision whether or not to use them. All we
can do is educate them and encourage them to say 'No,' "