'PARTY PILL' PRODUCTION ON RISE

Ecstasy Labs Have Followed Pot Grow Houses From West Coast To York

They simply call it "E" and some York Region students say it's as easy
to find as a pen and pad in the halls of area high schools.

"If you want ecstasy, you'd have to talk to maybe a maximum of two
people and you can find it," said Alex O'Gleman, a student at Brother
Andre Catholic High School in Markham. "If it's weed you want, maybe
one."

"And it's like that at every school," added Brian Sanford, a former
student of Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School in Unionville.

Trudeau High is one block from the Brunswick Street home where police
and fire crews stumbled on a large quantity of ecstasy and a pill
press used to help manufacture the drug during a routine kitchen fire
call this week.

It's also within a few kilometres of the Manhattan Drive garage where
$10 million worth of ecstasy and the chemicals used to make it were
discovered by firefighters responding to a call about smoke billowing
from inside.

Ecstasy, which is known to produce a feeling of euphoria and render
its users very responsive to touch, is popular at rave parties and
dance clubs.

Its use has been linked to several deaths at raves and several
studies, while often disputed, say long term effects of prolonged use
may include brain and or spinal cord damage.

"It's a party pill," said Harry Capulong, who lives in the
neighbourhood near the two drug manufacturing operations. "Ravers,
party people, they're doing it every weekend. It's pretty widespread.
But it's definitely a Friday and Saturday night drug."

In its purest form, ecstasy is MDMA, a drug reportedly once used as a
psychoanalytical tool and a truth serum by the United States military,
although it never really worked.

It gained its first bit of popularity as a recreational drug in the
disco scene of the 1970s and became attached to the rave scene in
Europe in the early 1990s before widespread use began in Canada.

These days, any number of even more dangerous drugs are being sold as
ecstasy, including speed, LSD, heroine, ephedrine and ketamine.

Police know it's at local schools, clubs and raves and say it sells
for anywhere from $25 to $45 a hit.

And despite the fact the two clandestine labs shut down this week are
just the fifth and sixth found in the region since 2000, York Regional
Police drugs and vice officers said criminals looking to turn a quick
profit are producing ecstasy in York Region in ever increasing numbers.

"We know it's around," said Det. Sgt. Karen Noakes. "Much like the
marijuana grow ops, they started out west and have now moved here. We
know ecstasy labs are a growing trend out there and are starting to
come out this way as well."

Marijuana grow houses, 89 of which were found in the region in the
first six months of this year, compared to 173 last year, are a little
easier to spot than the designer drug labs, Det. Sgt. Noakes said.

While marijuana grows use excessive amounts of electricity, often
stealing it using makeshift wiring that isn't hard to spot, ecstasy
labs run on much less power and have fewer easily identifiable signs.

Also unlike marijuana, there are no bright lights and hydroponics
equipment. Large scale operations can be run in a small area such as a
garage using simple chemical lab equipment.

The chemicals used to make various forms of the drug are easy to come
by and ecstasy manufacturers will often pull vehicles full of the
chemicals and lab equipment into the garage before they unload, making
their movement into a neighbourhood difficult to spot, Det. Sgt.
Noakes said.

It's also quite a bit harder to clean up after officers locate the
labs, she said.

While a marijuana grow house can often be emptied by officers in a few
hours, Det. Sgt. Noakes said the care used in clearing the possibly
combustible and certainly dangerous chemicals from the Manhattan Drive
lab this week took three days.

Most of the signs residents can use to decide if there may be an
ecstasy lab in their neighbourhood are the same as marijuana grow
homes, she said.

"You don't know the neighbours. They rarely put garbage out.
Newspapers are piling up at the front door," Det. Sgt. Noakes said.
"The people in there making or growing the drugs treat it like a flop
house. So those signs are the same."

A Statistics Canada survey on drug use among Canadians released this
week showed 199,000 or 0.8 per cent of Canadians over the age of 15
admitted to using ecstasy in 2003 and 732,000 or 2.9 per cent admitted
having used it in their lifetime.

Researchers don't know whether use is increasing because the previous
study on drug use in 1994 didn't include ecstasy.

However, the latest survey grouped ecstasy in with four other hard
drugs including cocaine or crack, LSD, speed, and heroin, and showed
use of the group of drugs is going up.

In fact, 2.4 per cent of people aged 15 or older reported using at
least one of the harder drugs in the past year, up from 1.6 per cent
in 1994.

With the popularity of the drug continuing to rise among local youth
and the anonymity and size of suburbia increasing, Det. Noakes said
local ecstasy production shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

"As far as I'm concerned, the two this week are two too many," she
said. "But there will be more."