Pubdate: Fri, 31 Dec 1999
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSun/
Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/newsgroups.html
Author: Jeff Harder

ECSTASY EASY TO COOK UP, LIB FEARS

If you can't buy the designer drug Ecstasy at a rave, you can make it at home.

Recipes are available on the Internet as well as in free newsletters
distributed to rave goers.

"This kind of thing should be controlled," Liberal deputy leader Sandra
Pupatello said yesterday.

"It takes less than four minutes to find the ingredients on the Internet."

The drug, readily available at $30 a pop, has been linked to eight Ontario
deaths this year, deputy chief coroner Dr. Jim Cairns has reported.

He hopes to publicize the dangers of Ecstasy, and the rave culture which
favours it, at an inquest early next year.

Consumer and Commercial Relations Minister Bob Runciman is eager to help,
said his media adviser, Terry Simzer.

"We have been trying to put together a summit to get as many of the players
involved together," Simzer said yesterday.

"The whole idea is that we have health officials, police and fire
departments. We hope to do it in January or February."

Parents should also be included, said Pupatello, who's helping set up a
rave and Ecstasy task force in Windsor, her hometown.

"We need to teach parents what to look for," she said. "They need to know
where their kids can get it and how they may behave after taking it. They
have to study what their kids are doing."

That includes surfing the net for do-it-yourself guides.

Pupatello, who attended raves in Windsor, was given a makeshift book,
purportedly written by U.P. Yourpigs, which describes how to make Ecstasy
without blowing up your house.

"It was a homemade book," she said. "It even included precautionary measures."

Cairns is also warning women to keep a close eye on their drinks tonight,
as date rapists have started using liquid Ecstasy, a different chemical
compound, to spike drinks. The drug tranquilizes and then causes amnesia.
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