Pubdate: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 Source: Windsor Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Windsor Star Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/PTv2GKdw Website: http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501 Author: Mark Brownlee Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) MDS DECRY 'SURGE' IN KIDS USING DRUGS OTTAWA - A "surge" in the number of children needing help for mental health issues stemming from drug use in the past year is frustrating doctors at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, one of the hospital's psychiatrists said Wednesday. Dr. Michael Cheng spoke at a news conference the Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted at its national headquarters to warn about the dangers of using so-called synthetic drugs, such as ecstasy. CHEO'S experience in dealing with children who use drugs is part of an ever-expanding problem at the national level, police said. The hospital has received so much demand for the services that staff have had trouble keeping up. "As a clinician, I am increasingly getting more and more frustrated at having to deal with this problem," Cheng said. "We can help one family at a time with different therapies, but we're beginning to realize we have to start looking at the underlying social causes." The concerns follow 12 deaths linked to ecstasy in Western Canada since late last year. The latest was a 23-year-old student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary who died on Jan. 21. Police believe the deaths were linked to the pills being laced with paramethoxymethamphetamine - known more commonly by the acronym PMMA. The substance is five times more toxic than ordinary ecstasy. Police said even drugs people think contain no PMMA can still be dangerous. "That's the problem," Mike Cabana, assistant commissioner with the RCMP, said in a prepared statement. "There's no way to know what you're taking and how it will affect your body." CHEO spokeswoman Marie Belanger said the number of children visiting the emergency room for mental-health issues jumped by 25 per cent in 2011, while the number of people admitted jumped by 68 per cent between January 2010 and January 2011. Catherine Spanevello, whose daughter, Erin, died in 2008 of an ecstasy overdose at the age of 21, said the drug had prompted a "national crisis." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom