Pubdate: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2012 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Jason Van Rassel, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News B.C. LIKELY SOURCE OF TAINTED PILLS Experts Says Supply and Demand Behind Spate of Drugs Laced With Toxic Substance If history is any guide, the ecstasy that has killed 10 people in southern Alberta since last July likely came from B.C.'S Lower Mainland. Law enforcement agencies around the world have identified Canada as a major exporter of ecstasy, and the Lower Mainland is considered one of the main places where it's made. "It seems to be it's being controlled by certain organized crime groups and the majority of ecstasy coming into Alberta is coming from B.C.," said Sgt. Donna Hanson, the RCMP'S drug awareness co-ordinator for Alberta. Ecstasy is not a new drug, nor are deaths and illnesses associated with taking it. What is new - and what has elevated concern among police and public health officials - is a spate of deaths among people who have taken ecstasy containing the drug paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA). The provincial medical examiner's office has linked 10 recent deaths in southern Alberta to ecstasy containing PMMA. In neighbouring B.C., officials have linked five deaths in the past six months to PMMA. Because ecstasy is an illegal drug made and sold by criminal organizations, it's difficult for authorities to say for certain why Canada is a major player and why PMMA has recently shown up in cases involving deaths and serious overdoses. Police and drug experts have theories, mostly centred on the availability of the substances, known as precursors, used to make ecstasy. The main precursor in ecstasy is safrole, an oil taken from the sassafras plant. Criminals use chemical processes that change safrole's molecular structure, eventually resulting in methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the drug known as ecstasy. Safrole and the products it is converted into on the way to becoming ecstasy are controlled substances in Canada, meaning their import and export must be documented and licensed. Still, the rules for precursors are less strict than the United States, leading U.S. authorities to claim that Canadian crime groups are getting large amounts and diverting them into the illegal manufacture of ecstasy. "MDMA ... is predominantly produced in Canada. As some of the precursors to produce MDMA are not controlled substances under Canadian law, they are often shipped in bulk from China and India," reads a 2012 threat assessment for Washington state written by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. The same report documented large quantities of ecstasy seized by U.S. authorities in Washington state, presumably most of it coming from B.C. U.S. agencies responsible for border enforcement in Washington intercepted 1.4 million doses in 2010 and 2.6 million doses the year before. Yet during the same time period, U.S. authorities didn't find a single ecstasy lab in the Pacific Northwest region. It's a similar story in Alberta, where police haven't discovered any largescale ecstasy labs in recent memory. Two weeks ago, police laid trafficking charges against two Calgarians found with nearly a kilogram of ecstasy powder containing PMMA, but they are not accused of manufacturing the drug. When authorities have found large amounts of ecstasy in Calgary, the evidence has pointed toward the Lower Mainland. In 2002, Canada Border Services Agency officers at Calgary International Airport intercepted 120 kilograms of ecstasy powder hidden inside pianos en route to Vancouver after arriving on a flight from Frankfurt, Germany. At the time, European countries were considered a major source of ecstasy in Canada. No more: Canada is now a major producer and exporter according to the United Nations and U.S. agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration. Ecstasy seized and tested by police is routinely found to contain other drugs, such as methamphetamine. But police in Alberta and B.C. recently identified a new risk: ecstasy containing PMMA, which is highly potent in low doses. Authorities said there is an added element of risk because PMMA is slow-acting, making some people more prone to take large amounts if the effects of the ecstasy don't kick in as quickly as they're accustomed to Someone who believes they are taking a small amount of ecstasy could actually be unknowingly taking a lethal amount of PMMA. Officials in Alberta and B.C. began noticing deaths and hospitalizations linked to PMMA in mid-2011, raising the issue of why someone began putting it in ecstasy. Without proof of any more complicated reasons, experts have offered a simple explanation: supply and demand. If supplies of the usual precursors became scarce for some reason, manufacturers would probably turn to something similar. "You have groups that are waiting for the next cook, the next quantity to come, so they'll use the next best thing," said Martin Bouchard, a Simon Fraser University criminology professor who co-wrote a recent study on ecstasy and methamphetamine trafficking for Public Safety Canada. Although Bouchard's research takes issue with U.S. and UN studies that rank Canada as one of the world's top exporters of ecstasy, he said large seizures made abroad leave little doubt Canadian organized crime groups are capable of making vast quantities. "Certainly, we're a major player based on our population," he said. Although no one can say for sure, Bouchard said it's plausible a decision by only one or two organized crime groups to use PMMA may be behind its sudden, widespread appearance in ecstasy found in Alberta and B.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.