ECSTASY SEIZURE A RECORD FOR CITY

Radio Personality One Of Four Charged

A Winnipeg radio personality is one of four suspects charged in what police
describe as the biggest ecstasy drug seizure so far in the city -- almost
2,400 pills with a street value of $60,000.

Undercover officers found the drugs on Monday morning in a Country Club
Boulevard home in the comfortable suburb of Westwood.

Police say it's another sign that use of the drug, which began as a
favourite at all-night dance parties known as raves but has since moved
into the mainstream, is expanding in the city.

"Absolutely we're seeing more of it," said Det. Sgt Jeff Bellingham of the
Winnipeg Police Service's drug unit.

Four people are facing numerous drug charges in yesterday's bust, among
them Joanne Cochrane, 29, a radio personality on Power 97 FM.

Others charged are Gordon Russell, 45, Tyler McLeod, 28, and Sean Wilson, 22.

Police say Cochrane and McLeod were residents of the home.

During the search, police also found a dozen marijuana plants and three
grams of cocaine. Officers also seized $28,000 in cash and a 1989 Chevrolet
pickup truck believed to be used in the drug operation.

Previously, the largest ecstasy bust in Winnipeg involved 150 pills.

The largest ecstasy bust in the world is believed to have occurred in Los
Angeles last July when a shipment of 2.1 million pills, worth $40 million
on the street, was seized at the airport.

The pills, labelled as clothing, arrived on an Air France flight from
Paris, intended for an Israeli dealer in Los Angeles.

The use of ecstasy has grown dramatically across North America over the
last couple of years.

Seizures of the drug by the U.S. customs service jumped to 9.3 million
pills in 2000, up from only 400,000 pills in 1997.

It is difficult to gauge how prevalent the drug is in Manitoba, but prior
to 1998, Winnipeg police had not seized any ecstasy pills

The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba didn't even include it on a 1997
survey about drugs given to high school students.

The foundation is putting together another survey this year which asks
students about the drug.

The results are not yet available but Laura Goossen, supervisor of youth
community-based services at the addictions foundation, said they know just
from talking to kids that ecstasy has arrived in the city.

"We are seeing more of it," said Goossen. "The kids are more aware of it."

Bellingham said historically Germany has been one of the biggest producers
of the drug.

However, he said more labs are sprouting in North America.

The profits are huge. A pill can be made for less than a dollar, said
Bellingham, and is sold for $25.

It's not clear if the pills seized in the Winnipeg bust were smuggled or
made locally. To date police have only discovered one ecstasy producing
lab. That was last summer when they busted an operation on Boyd Avenue.

Bellingham said instructions for making ecstasy are readily available on
the Internet.

While some portray ecstasy as a benign party drug, police say that is far
from the case.

"That's totally false," said Bellingham. "It reacts differently with each
person that takes it."

Ecstasy can induce a state of bliss that's been described as something
similar to the effects of LSD or mescaline, only without the hallucinations
and severe emotional swings.

However, in severe cases it can lead to internal damage and heart problems.

Prosecutors in Manitoba are asking for tougher sentences. They want the
courts to treat ecstasy dealers the same as cocaine dealers. That would
mean prison sentences.

Many states in the U.S. have already gone that route.

New York requires a minimum sentence of three years for possession of 100
pills.

And an Illinois bill, passed by the state last month and awaiting the
governor's signature, would carry what's believed to be the toughest
penalties of all -- an automatic six to 30 years for selling as few as 15 pills.