BLAME CANADA FOR GROWING ECSTASY USE BY U.S. YOUTH

Warns Of New Drug Threat From North

A resurgence of the use of ecstasy by young Americans is being
fuelled by Canadian producers smuggling the drug into the U.S., the
White House drug czar says.

John Walters, director of the office of national drug control policy,
is warning Americans to be aware of a "dangerous new drug threat
coming from Canada."

In a news release distributed in the U.S. and also sent to The
Province, Walters warned that ecstasy, a pill that triggers the
feel-good brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine, is becoming popular
again. He said the pills are increasingly laced with highly addictive
crystal meth.

"Historic progress against ecstasy availability and use is in
jeopardy of being rolled back by Canadian criminal organizations," he
said, which is "alarming for the youth of both Canada and the United States."

Walters said ecstasy usage rose in the 1990s in the rave culture,
where users took the "hug drug" and danced all night. Usage dropped
in the early 2000s. But he said there was a 40-per-cent spike in
usage between 2005 and 2006, with one-third of users under 18, and a
decrease of the perception of risk.

"These increases coincide with increased trafficking of ecstasy from
Canada," he said. The number of ecstasy pills seized at the
Canada-U.S. border grew tenfold in three years, to 5.5 million in
2006 from 570,000 in 2003, he said.

A spokesman from his office who wouldn't be identified said that
before 2003 the pills were imported largely from the Netherlands and
Belgium, but Canada has become a new "target country."

"We thought we kind of had this problem licked" through stepped-up
law enforcement and education programs that highlight the dangers,
such as damage to the brain and other organs and even death.

Cpl. Richard De Jong of the RCMP's drug and organized-crime squad
said the force shares the U.S. concern about the increased production
of chemical drugs in Canada and the increasing use of crystal meth.