Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jan 2008
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2008 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/letters/index.html
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Camille Bains, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

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.. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake