Pubdate: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Sheila Dabu Nonato, Postmedia News UN REPORT LISTS CANADA AS A TOP EXPORTER OF ECSTASY Ten Recent Deaths in Southern Alberta Linked to Drug Canada is a top producer and exporter of ecstasy, a synthetic drug linked to more than a dozen recent deaths in Canada, according to a UN report published Tuesday. The Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2011 comes on the heels of a rash of ecstasy-related deaths in Alberta and British Columbia. The provincial medical examiner's office has linked 10 recent deaths in southern Alberta to ecstasy laced with a toxic drug. B.C. officials have linked five deaths in the past six months to similar tainted ecstasy drugs. "Canada remains a significant source for 'ecstasy' trafficked into the United States, with a resurgence of the abuse of the substance in the (U.S.) being attributed by officials to its smuggling into the country from Canada," according to the board's report. The International Narcotics Control Board is an independent and quasi-judicial monitoring body charged with implementing the UN'S international drug control treaties. Police seizures of ecstasy from Canada destined for the U.S. doubled between 2007 and 2008. Ecstasy traffickers in Canada have also expanded to new markets in Asia, Mexico and the Caribbean, it said. In 2009, the UN report also identified Canada as a "significant manufacturer" of ecstasy, likely to be sold on the street as MDMA or "Molly." The drug is intended mainly for the Canadian black market, but "is increasingly being trafficked" to the U.S., Australia, Japan and New Zealand, it said. The RCMP issued a mid-february public warning against ecstasy and other synthetic drugs. It launched a Synthetic Drug Initiative in 2008 seeking to deter and prevent the trafficking of synthetic drugs. The RCMP warn that ecstasy is manufactured in rudimentary labs with toxic chemicals, "mainly by people connected to organized crime and with no quality control." According to the UN, North America accounted for more than half the total number of police seizures of ecstasy. Traffickers in Canada obtain "required precursor chemicals" from sources in other countries, mainly China and India. The report also noted that Canada "is also increasingly being used as a transit country" for some precursor chemicals smuggled into the U.S. to illicitly manufacture methamphetamine. Given the scope of ecstasy production in Canada, the report said "border authorities have concluded" that large quantities of precursor chemicals necessary for producing ecstasy are entering Canada undetected - or alternative precursors are being used. Meanwhile, the report also highlighted key areas of concern in the illicit drug trade in Canada. Although cocaine seizures in Canada fell sharply to 1,131 kilograms in 2010 from 2,352 kilos in 2005, the annual amount of cocaine seized entering Canada from the U.S. more than doubled in that same period. Marijuana seizures in Canada increased dramatically to nearly 95.5 tonnes in 2010 from 1.2 tonnes in the previous year. On prescription drug abuse, the report referred to the $500-million forfeiture of a leading Internet search engine that allowed Canadian Internet pharmacies to place ads targeting U.S. consumers. This led to the export of prescription drugs to the United States, violating U.S. laws banning the practice. The International Narcotics Control Board pinpointed Afghanistan as the primary source of heroin trafficking in Canada, amounting to about 78 per cent of heroin abused in Canada. The board said Afghan heroin destined for Canada is usually smuggled by Iranian, Indo-canadian and Pakistani criminal organizations. Its usual transit route is through India, Pakistan, Turkey and Iran, it suggested. Heroin consumption in Canada was estimated at 1.2 tonnes in 2009. However, from 2005 to 2010, police seizures of heroin declined from 83 kilos to none at all. The report also criticized Vancouver's "drug injection rooms," which the Supreme Court of Canada exempted from federal drug control laws last September - referring to the province's safe-injection sites. The International Narcotics Control Board "further reiterates its position that drug injection and consumption outlets that allow illicit drug possession and use are not in line with the international drug control conventions, to which Canada is a party," the board said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.