Pubdate: Fri, 25 Sep 2009
Source: Bowen Island Undercurrent (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/hBvhPnMA
Website: http://www.bclocalnews.com/greater_vancouver/bowenislandundercurrent/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3852
Author: Marcus Hondro

'ECSTASY IS HERE': FORMER BOWEN COP

RCMP drug and organized crime awareness Cpl. Richard De Jong did not
meet Erin Spanevello in her life but in a manner of speaking the
former member of the Bowen detachment and Spanevello are working
together to save lives here and elsewhere.

The 21-year-old Spanevello was a part-time model who had been admitted
to college - she would have started this month - to train in graphic
design and marketing. She was a straight A student with a big smile
and a big heart who had many friends.

Her parents say she was excited about her future.

At a party last May in Vancouver Spanevello, who grew up in a small
town, was offered a drug called ecstasy, one the RCMP corporal said is
readily available and that many people mistakenly believe is a
harmless, recreational drug.

Spanevello made a terrible choice and took the drug and a few hours
later she was dead.

It's a choice some Bowen kids, De Jong reports, are having to make on
island, and he and Erin's parents are using her story on a national
ecstasy awareness campaign to educate people on why saying no is the
only choice.

"Erin was killed by ecstasy and ecstasy is here," said De Jong, who
still lives on Bowen. "At a very recent party on Bowen I have
knowledge that someone showed up with a bag of 25 e-tabs and started
giving them out for free."

He says ecstasy tabs are cheap and dealers routinely buy large
quantities and give out free samples.

The people who put this drug together make it attractive and safe
looking, De Jong says, and he has a book of photos of ecstasy pills
and they have comfortable-looking, hip and familiar logos on them: a
butterfly, a dolphin, a Calvin Klein logo, the Nike logo, Happy Faces
and, in upper case, the word SEX.

Had Erin Spanevello known ecstasy is a chemical cocktail often
including methamphetamine, and that methamphetamine is a dangerous
drug that once made up 9 per cent of ecstasy but now, as De Jong
reports, often makes up 72 per cent of the drugs composition, she
almost certainly would have made a different choice.

De Jong points out that even without methamphetamine in a tab, ecstasy
can still kill. He also says that with or without methamphetamine
ecstasy causes great harm, including, but not limited to, severe
depression and brain damage thought to be irreversible.

He also emphasizes these drugs are made for profit and not made by
pharmaceutical companies, so "there is no quality control, no dosage
control and no safe amount to take."

"You're playing Russian Roulette when you're taking these drugs," De
Jong said.

Even if the victim is rushed to the hospital they frequently cannot be
saved and the RCMP E-Aware website (drugawareness.bc.rcmp.gc.ca) says
of the drug: "Ecstasy disrupts the body's natural ability to regulate
temperature, blood pressure and heart rate, which may cause severe
complications leading to possible sudden death."

There are also parties on Bowen, De Jong said, with cocaine and other
drugs and he wants to get the message out that not just ecstasy is
lethal, but that using mood-altering substances - including alcohol -
is dangerous and potentially deadly.

He believes that creating awareness of the dangers of these substances
can change how young people look at them, and points out there are
already many young people on Bowen who do not use drugs or alcohol at
all.

Along with parents "engaging in their kids' lives" he feels awareness
is a big step toward helping young people, like Erin, choose not to
drink or do drugs.

"You can happily go through life without having to mood alter," De
Jong points out. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake