IT'S 'PURE POISON'

They call it ecstasy, but the drug many teenagers think of as a harmless
high is really quite dangerous, says RCMP prevention worker Craig Douglass.

"There is a belief among young people that ecstasy is harmless but that is
not the case. It is a poly drug which quite often contains meth
amphetamine," says Douglass.

During 2004 he said 175 samples of pills being sold as ecstasy were
analyzed in the lab. A total of 91 per cent of the ecstasy (MDMA) samples
were found to be mixed with other drugs.

A total of 54 per cent of the pills had meth amphetamine in them.

A total of 14 per cent of the pills analyzed had the date rape drug
ketamine in them.

"You can buy everything you need to make meth at Wal-Mart, and it is the
most dangerous drug on the street today," says Douglass. "It causes major
problems in the brain and in the body."

He says meth can be made with ingredients such as Sudafed, camping fuel,
acetone, and red double lye such as might be found in matches and flares.

"It is many poisons thrown together disguised as a drug," says Douglass.

Wayne Lucier, an addictions counsellor and life skills coach working with
the Cariboo Chilcotin Metis Association, agrees that meth is a dangerous drug.

"It's made out of pure poison. I don't think anyone's body can take that,"
agrees Lucier.

Lucier says he has seen a lot of kids in the last little while trying meth.

"It's a pretty big problem and I believe it is slowly going to get worse
because it is such as cheap drug and the addiction rate is so high on it,"
says Lucier.

During his workshops, Lucier says he showed two very disturbing films, one
called Death By Jib which is slang for the ingested form of meth
amphetamine, and one called Tweak which is slang for the smoked form of
meth amphetamine called crystal meth.

Lucier says he talked about the devastating effects of the drug and where
people can go for help. Some main treatment centres are the Phoenix Centre
in Kamloops and Crossroads in Kelowna.

He says the main thing for parents to realize is that they shouldn't try to
figure it out for themselves. There are people who can help at agencies
such as the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Metis Association,
Addiction Services, the Cariboo Friendship Centre and the Boys and Girls Club.

He cautions there are waiting lists at treatment centres and that a lot of
centres don't want meth addicts because they are more violent than other
addicts and treatment takes a lot longer than for other drugs.

"He agrees with Douglass that a community response is needed to the
problem. "We need to join forces and work together because nobody is going
to fix this by themselves either," says Lucier.

Douglass spoke to a group of about 80 parents and professionals at a
workshop September 21 sponsored by Cariboo Chilcotin Family Resources.

Lucier gave a presentation to another group of parents and interested
individuals at a meeting in the evening sponsored by the Kiwanis Club and
the Cariboo Chilcotin Metis Association.

They had a full house of about 60 people and had to schedule another
meeting for Monday evening to accommodate those who had to be turned away.