Ecstasy Makes a Comeback, Via Canada
By: Katie Drummond
Source: AOL News
Date: October 04, 2010
Source: AOL News
Date: October 04, 2010
Ecstasy was so hot in the 1990s. And now the rave-favorite drug is making a major comeback, as Canadian purveyors ship loads of the euphoria-enhancing substance across the U.S. border.
One a drug that circulated in baggies via small dealers, ecstasy is now being packed up by the box-load and driven into the United States by truck drivers, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press.
"It's coming back, and coming back strongly," Rich Isaacson, with the Detroit division of the Drug and Enforcement Administration, told the paper. "It's one of those things that without keeping a finger or an eye on it, it'll come back even stronger than it was in the rave party era."
Federal authorities are reporting an uptick in drug busts, many involving hundreds of thousands of pills created in what the authorities are calling "super-labs."
The Canadians, already renowned for their potent strains of marijuana, appear to have given ecstasy the same north-of-the-border treatment.
The ecstasy coming in from Canada has been tinkered with, according to experts, who caution that version 2.0 is stronger and more dangerous than the original.
Experts suspect that teens are the most frequent purchasers of the drug. And their inkling makes sense, given that a recent national survey on drug abuse found an increase in ecstasy prevalence overall, but especially among adolescents.
"I think we're kind of letting our guard down on these drugs," Daniel Lemisch, with Detroit's U.S. Attorney's Office, told the Free Press. "I think people underestimate the harmfulness of this drug."
Indeed, though medical research has recently warmed to the potential for ecstasy to treat mental illness, recreational use of the drug is accompanied by serious hazards.
Ecstasy can trigger anxiety and depression, even weeks after being taken. And the drug can be fatal: ecstasy increases the body's temperature, which can cause lifelong liver, kidney and cardiovascular damage, and can also kill.
But lest citizen activists consider taking matters at the border into their own hands, Lemish reminds the paper that some truckers are just trying to get their shipments of bagged lettuce into the right hands.
"He also noted," the Free Press writes, "that not all Canadian truck drivers are couriers."
One a drug that circulated in baggies via small dealers, ecstasy is now being packed up by the box-load and driven into the United States by truck drivers, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press.
"It's coming back, and coming back strongly," Rich Isaacson, with the Detroit division of the Drug and Enforcement Administration, told the paper. "It's one of those things that without keeping a finger or an eye on it, it'll come back even stronger than it was in the rave party era."
Federal authorities are reporting an uptick in drug busts, many involving hundreds of thousands of pills created in what the authorities are calling "super-labs."
The Canadians, already renowned for their potent strains of marijuana, appear to have given ecstasy the same north-of-the-border treatment.
The ecstasy coming in from Canada has been tinkered with, according to experts, who caution that version 2.0 is stronger and more dangerous than the original.
Experts suspect that teens are the most frequent purchasers of the drug. And their inkling makes sense, given that a recent national survey on drug abuse found an increase in ecstasy prevalence overall, but especially among adolescents.
"I think we're kind of letting our guard down on these drugs," Daniel Lemisch, with Detroit's U.S. Attorney's Office, told the Free Press. "I think people underestimate the harmfulness of this drug."
Indeed, though medical research has recently warmed to the potential for ecstasy to treat mental illness, recreational use of the drug is accompanied by serious hazards.
Ecstasy can trigger anxiety and depression, even weeks after being taken. And the drug can be fatal: ecstasy increases the body's temperature, which can cause lifelong liver, kidney and cardiovascular damage, and can also kill.
But lest citizen activists consider taking matters at the border into their own hands, Lemish reminds the paper that some truckers are just trying to get their shipments of bagged lettuce into the right hands.
"He also noted," the Free Press writes, "that not all Canadian truck drivers are couriers."