B.C. KEY SOURCE FOR ECSTASY EXPORTS TO U.S.

American Drug-Enforcement Agent Cites Big Hike In Seizures At Border

B.C. has been the primary source of ecstasy for Americans wanting a
hit of the love drug because of previous lax regulations around the
precursor chemicals needed to manufacture it, according to the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

But tougher new laws on possessing the chemicals in Canada has led to
a drop in the number of labs up here - and is leading to the spread
of new types of drugs, police say.

Jeffrey Scott, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, said his country has seen a marked increase in
ecstasy seizures along its border with Canada, most of them linked
with Canadian-based Vietnamese drug trafficking gangs. In 2010, he
said, 15 million tablets of ecstasy, also known as MDMA, were seized
in the U.S. - with four million of those on the country's northern
border, compared with two million in 2006.

"It goes without saying that ecstasy seizures around the northern
border show an increase," Scott said. "Canadian-based, ethnic-Asian
drug trafficking organizations remain one of the primary suppliers in the U.S."

Last year, Joseph Patrick Curry, a 50-year-old Fraser Valley man who
once had close ties to the leader of the United Nations gang, was
sentenced in a Washington court to more than eight years in a U.S.
jail for ecstasy smuggling.

In a separate case, Silvano Cicuto, 72, of New Westminster, was
convicted in New York of ecstasy smuggling.

Scott said it's often easier to ship ecstasy rather than a bulk
shipment of marijuana because pills can be stashed in a suitcase.

Ecstasy is usually marketed to people younger than 30 for parties and
raves. The drug, which can cost as little as $3 to $10 per pill,
offers effects that can last two to six hours "if the first pill
doesn't kill you," said Sgt. Duncan Pound of the RCMP's drug
enforcement division.

Ecstasy is considered a dangerous drug cocktail that varies in
potency because the criminals who manufacture it aren't regulated and
care more about making a profit, Pound said.

The drug is often laced with other drugs such as methamphetamine,
ketamine and cocaine, which have their own adverse effects.

In the past week, use of the drug has left a 17yearold Abbotsford
girl dead and a 24-year-old woman from the same Fraser Valley
community in hospital in critical condition. At least three recent
deaths in Calgary have been linked to the drug.

B.C.'s chief medical health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, said that
according to the B.C. Coroners Service, there were an average of 10
to 24 ecstasy-related deaths per year in the province from 2007 to 2010.

People who suffer an adverse reaction to ecstasy can have psychotic
breakdowns, hallucinations and agitation as well as seizures, kidney
failure and, in rare cases, heart attacks.

"You don't know what's in it and you don't know what the dosages
are," Kendall said. "Depending on the dose, your size, how long
you've been taking it - you can have a variety of adverse effects."

Police and health officials in B.C. have issued a public warning
urging people to avoid taking the drug.

Pound said Canada had been a hotbed for producing ecstasy because it
was easier to access the precursor chemicals - ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine - than in the U.S.

Before 2011, the importation of the chemicals was regulated, but
possession once they were in the country was not illegal, making
Canada an attractive location in which to manufacture ecstasy.

An amendment to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act now makes it
a crime to possess the tools of synthetic drug production.

Pound said the new law has led to an increase in new drugs that are
similar to ecstasy - with similar euphoric stimulants - but don't
have the same complex chemical makeup.

"They're trying to find a new niche where they can make money," he said.