WHITE HOUSE WARNS OF DEADLY CANADIAN METH-ECSTASY PILLS

Combination Drug Smuggled Into U.S.

A resurgence of the use of ecstasy by young Americans is being
fuelled by Canadian producers smuggling the illegal chemical drug --
which is increasingly laced with crystal meth -- into the United
States, according to White House drug czar John Walters.

The director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy is warning
Americans to be aware of a "dangerous new drug threat coming from Canada."

Canadian-made ecstasy pills laced with crystal meth are being dumped
into the U.S., prompting Walters to issue a warning Thursday.

"Certainly we are very concerned about this combo product coming
south," said a top official from the Washington office, who asked not
to be named. "We need people to know this drug is much more dangerous
(than ecstasy)."

More than 55 per cent of the ecstasy samples seized in the U.S. last
year contained methamphetamine, according to the policy office.

Drug enforcement authorities in the U.S. have been working with the
RCMP to learn of the origins of the ecstasy-meth pills, he said.

Walters called the "extreme ecstasy" a disturbing development.

"Historic progress against ecstasy availability and use is in
jeopardy of being rolled back by Canadian criminal organizations," he
said on Thursday. "Desperate to develop their client base, they are
dangerously altering a product for which demand by youth and young
adults had plummeted and are exploiting vulnerabilities along our
shared border.

"This is alarming for the youth of both Canada and the United States."

The drug combination of methamphetamine and ecstasy can have severe
health consequences, as both have toxic effects on the brain,
according to the policy office. Together the drugs can interfere with
the body's ability to regulate temperature, leading to hypothermia --
which can result in liver, kidney, cardiovascular system failure and death.

The potential for a life-threatening or fatal overdose is further
increased when meth-laced ecstasy is combined with alcohol.

The combination of ecstasy and meth on the streets of Windsor, Ont.,
across the border from Detroit has not yet been a problem, says to a
Windsor police officer in the drugs, intelligence and guns unit.

It is much more lucrative for traffickers to sell ecstacy in the
U.S., where a single pill fetches between $30 and $50 -- up to 10
times the rate on this side of the border, he said.

China and India have been identified as nearly the exclusive
producers of the chemicals needed to make the street pills, said the
U.S. drug authority.

"The chemicals are smuggled into Canada we believe primarily by Asian
organized groups," he said. "You have criminal groups with ties to
those countries who get the raw ingredients . . . to Canada and that
has caused problems for both (Canada and U.S.) populations."