MOUNTIE CALLS FOR MORE EDUCATION ON RISKS OF ECSTASY

VANCOUVER -- Although use of ecstasy among Vancouver youth trails
that of alcohol and marijuana, the dangers of the party drug have not
been properly conveyed to users, according to the RCMP.

"We have undermined the harms of ecstasy. We haven't done enough on
it," said Sergeant Scott Rintoul, a member of the RCMP Drug and
Organized Crime Awareness Service.

"When you hear reports of meth being made available to young people,
people get concerned and scared. It's an easy sell. Ecstasy has the
perception it's benign, which is not true. We just haven't done a
good enough job."

Sgt. Rintoul said there has been a spike in ecstasy use in the past
few years, including among Vancouver young people. According to a
study done for Vancouver Coastal Health in the spring, 20 per cent of
people aged 16 to 24 have reported trying ecstasy, putting the drug
behind only alcohol and marijuana in terms of use.

"Ecstasy has been a drug that hasn't received as much attention as
several others. There is a need to take a fresh look at ecstasy,"
said Cameron Duff, who conducted the study. "We're finding here in
Vancouver that a number of young people are experimenting with this drug."

Dr. Duff emphasized that the vast majority of Vancouver youth do not
have a drug problem. However, he said, the rates of use for ecstasy
are much higher than cocaine and three times higher than crystal
methamphetamine.

However, the study says young people view ecstasy as far safer than
either of those drugs and, when asked what the risks of taking
ecstasy were, generally listed social - such as affecting
relationships - over health risks.

One of the biggest concerns about ecstasy is that the percentage of
tablets containing methamphetamine has skyrocketed since 1998. When
the RCMP first started analyzing ecstasy taken from drug raids,
around 8 per cent of the tablets contained meth, Sgt. Rintoul said.
Last year, 71 per cent of the tablets analyzed had meth in them.

"We're not talking about a large amount - between eight to 10
milligrams of meth in a tablet - where the ecstasy in a tablet is
anywhere from 75-100 milligrams," Sgt. Rintoul said. "But when you
look at methamphetamines, eight to 10 milligrams is still a pretty
strong dose for someone who doesn't have a tolerance for meth."

He said there is a fair amount of concern that the volume of meth
being put into ecstasy tablets is going to increase in the near
future, causing more ecstasy users to get hooked on meth.

"That's the risk, because now a person is consuming an ecstasy tablet
that also has a lot of meth in it. That could be the carrot that
takes them to more methamphetamines."

The majority of Canada's ecstasy is produced in British Columbia,
mainly in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Methamphetamines
started being added to ecstasy around 2000, Sgt. Rintoul said, when
the drug stopped being smuggled into the country in tablet form and
instead came in powder form.

"Powder's not street ready; it's got to be repackaged and put into
tablets, and that's when we started seeing meth added to it," he said.

A typical ecstasy high lasts for three to five hours, and while
taking meth at the same time doesn't prolong the effects, it does
increase the intensity of the high.