Pubdate: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Mark Brownlee, Ottawa Citizen CHEO EXPERIENCING 'SURGE' IN PATIENTS NEEDING TREATMENT FOR ECSTASY USE 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 their national headquarters to warn about the dangers of using so-called synthetic drugs like 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 local concerns follow on the heels of 12 deaths linked to ecstasy in Western Canada since late last year. The latest was a 23-year-old student 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. Ottawa is one of the many communities across the country seeing more ecstasy pills laced with PMMA, said Chief Barry Mcknight of the Canadian Association of the Chiefs of Police. Another officer 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." 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." The RCMP included her in the news conference so she could get out her message encouraging parents to address the issue with children. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.