DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS REJECTED

RCMP Debunk 'Extreme Ecstasy'

VANCOUVER -- The head of the RCMP's national drug branch is debunking
claims by the United States' drug czar, who claims organized crime
rings in Canada are dumping dangerous, methamphetamine-laced "extreme
ecstasy" into his country's illegal drug market.

Supt. Paul Nadeau said he doesn't know why John Walters, of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, would make such
statements in a widely distributed news release without checking
facts with Canadian officials.

"I shook my head when I read the release that they put out," said
Nadeau, adding he's never heard of extreme ecstasy.

"That term is unknown to us, certainly in Canada, and I can tell you
that I've spoken to law enforcement people in the U.S. and they've
never heard of it either so it would appear that it's a term that
somebody came up with in a boardroom in Washington, D.C."

The release has generated huge media buzz in the U.S., with some news
outlets using names such as "turbo-charged ecstasy," which is
supposedly flowing across the border from Canada.

In the release, issued earlier this month, Walters warns public
health and safety leaders that more than 55 per cent of ecstasy
samples seized in the U.S. last year contained meth, a stimulant that
affects the central nervous system.

"This extreme ecstasy is a disturbing development in what has been
one of the most significant international achievements against the
illicit drug trade," Walters said.

"Cutting their product with less expensive methamphetamine boosts
profits for Canadian ecstasy producers, likely increases the
addictive potential of their product and effectively gives a
dangerous 'facelift' to a designer drug that had fallen out of
fashion with young American drug users."

Nadeau said there's nothing new about ecstasy -- the so-called love
drug that gained popularity during the 1990s rave scene -- being
laced with methamphetamine or other stimulants.

"According to our stats the presence of methamphetamines in ecstasy
is dropping," he said, adding tests by the RCMP indicate that
currently, about 35 per cent of ecstasy pills contain meth, down from
75 per cent several years ago.

"Why now do they feel the need to announce this to the world?" Nadeau
said of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Walters' office did not return calls from The Canadian Press.

But John Carnavale, an economist who worked for four previous U.S.
drug czars between 1989 and 2000, said Walters is "cherry-picking
data" to blame Canada.

He said that's likely because of Canada's harm-reduction approach to
dealing with drug addiction, compared with the "user accountability"
model American drug czars have preached.

"It was news to me that Canada was allegedly emerging as the source
of supply (for ecstasy). Mexicans have really dominated the market,
given the data up to now," Carnavale said..