Pubdate: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN) Copyright: 2008 The Leader-Post Ltd. Contact: http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361 Author: Anne Kyle, with files from Sylvia MacBean, The Leader-Post ECSTASY DEATH LEADS TO CHARGES The death of a 13-year-old Estevan girl from an overdose of ecstasy this summer highlights the growing drug problem in a city reaping the benefits of the oil boom in southeast Saskatchewan. "With the population growth and the oil boom and what not we are seeing an increase in everything else -- our drug problem and our crimes rates are going up. Our (crime) statistics are going up -- it's unbelievable," said Estevan City Police Sgt. Murray Cowan. "(Illicit drugs) have become a huge problem here -- cocaine and ecstasy and of course, marijuana has always been here." The death July 25 of this young girl from a drug overdose and the hospitalization of her teenage girlfriend, who was on the same drugs, was a huge wakeup call for the community, Cowan said. Police are not releasing the name of the girl or her friend. On Wednesday, Estevan City Police arrested a 16-year-old male on a charge of drug trafficking in a controlled substance. Police are alleging the teen, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, supplied the ecstasy to the young girls. He has been released on strict conditions and is to make his first court appearance in Estevan Provincial Court on Nov. 13. "The matter is still under investigation so I do have to be careful about what I do say," Cowan told the Leader-Post on Wednesday. "We are still looking into it to determine the source of the drugs." Cowan noted police are trying to determine whether the drugs this young girl took is somehow connected to a batch of ecstasy that was sold this July on the streets of Winnipeg and is linked to a drug overdose in that city. Winnipeg police issued a warning July 26 after a 15-year-old boy died in that city after taking ecstasy that was laced with methamphetamine and several other youth ended up in hospital this past summer. In January, American drug authorities alerted police drug enforcement officers that the illicit party drug laced with methamphetamine was being introduced on the streets on both sides of the border. "That is something that we are definitely looking into. I can't confirm, as of yet, that it came from there, but it is definitely something we are looking into," Cowan said, adding that some of the ecstasy pills seized by police have been sent away for forensic analysis. As a result of this tragedy, Cowan said, the city police have stepped up public awareness and education programs in the school and in the community. "This young girl's death had a huge impact on the community and opened some eyes in the community. People in the community have come to realize we have a big problem here," Cowan said, noting that with plenty of money flowing into the city so too come the problems with drugs. "The best thing I think we can do at this point is to educate the public, especially the kids, as to the dangers of the drugs and the risks that they take when they use them and try to discourage them. "But the sad thing is that at the end of the day they are the ones that are left with that decision whether or not to use them. All we can do is educate them and encourage them to say 'No,' " - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake