DRUG MAKERS IN ECSTASY

Lax Canadian Laws Allow Easy Production Of Illicit Chemicals

Canada is becoming a safe haven for manufacturing designer club drugs like
ecstasy because the country lacks laws to control the sale of the chemical
ingredients for those drugs, according to an internal RCMP report.

Some drugs "such as methamphetamine, you can get all the ingredients at
London Drugs, Canadian Tire, Revy, Home Depot -- you can get it all and
you do not need a chemical background," said Cpl. Scott Rintoul of the
RCMP drug section in Vancouver.

"They're products that we use on a day-to-day basis."

Recipes are available on the Internet and Canada's lack of regulations on
the sale of chemicals allows traffickers to purchase the ingredients
openly, according to a criminal intelligence brief prepared for the RCMP
last December.

Chemical companies may co-operate with police, but "most of these guys are
pretty creative, portraying themselves as legitimate people requiring these
chemicals," Rintoul said.

U.S.-based manufacturers are taking advantage of this hole in Canadian law,
says the report.

"In some instances, the American groups manufacture the methamphetamine in
Canada before returning to the United States with the finished product," it
says.

In the U.S., these chemical precursors are far more strictly controlled.

"Say you had one or two or three chemicals, the required ingredients to
make ecstasy or MDMA, then in the States you could be charged but in Canada
you can't," Rintoul said.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Customs in Washington, wouldn't comment on
Canadian laws.

He said ecstasy is imported to the United States from all over the world,
particularly the Netherlands.

"I think there has been more smuggling across the northern border, actually
going both ways," Boyd said. "But it's still nothing compared to our
southwest border."

In 1996, just over 1,000 ecstasy pills were seized entering Canada. By
2000, that number had risen to 1.5 million.

The increase is due in part to increased intelligence on smuggling but also
to increased importation, says the report.

RCMP say Canada is also a popular entry point to North America for designer
drugs destined for the United States.

"They arrive from Europe at Dorval Airport in Montreal or Pearson
International Airport in Toronto and continue on to their U.S. destination
by land," says the report.

Most of the world's ecstasy is produced in the Netherlands and Belgium.