Federal agents are targeting a turbo-charged form of Ecstasy that is gaining in popularity, fearing it will lead to fatal overdoses similar to ones experienced a few years ago caused by heroin mixed with fentanyl.
Michigan and nine other states along Canada's border would see the first wave of any such overdoses, and officials are warning that the so-called "extreme Ecstasy," which is mixed with methamphetamines, is becoming a problem.
"They (drug dealers) are remarketing and packaging it and trying to glamorize it," said Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "We just went through this issue with fentanyl. We learned a lot of things from that. We have to get on it early and get on it aggressively."
Lax views toward drug use in Canada, coupled with successes scored by U.S. agents against European Ecstasy producers and smugglers, have fueled the problem, Burns said.
Federal agents seized about 5.4 million dosage units of Ecstasy in the 10 states near the Canadian border in 2006, up dramatically from the 568,000 units seized in 2003, according to statistics from Burns' office.
About 55 percent of the units had methamphetamines in them, Burns said.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials do not dispute that their country has seen an increase in Ecstasy production or smuggling. They said 5.2 million units smuggled in from Canada were seized in the United States in 2004, up from 1.1 million in 2004, according to data collected with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, RCMP officials said.
RCMP officials could not say how much of what was seized had methamphetamines.
"Prior to the past few years, we were seeing drugs brought into Canada," said RCMP Corporal Cathy McCrory. "We have taken the unsavory title of exporter of this drug."
Richard Isaacson, special DEA agent and public information officer for the Detroit field division, said it is too early to call extreme Ecstasy a problem in Michigan. But he said there is no denying that Ecstasy is coming into the country in droves through Canada.
"This is one of the major routes Ecstasy is making its way into the U.S.," he said, noting the Detroit office handles Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. "It needs to be understood that Ecstasy on its own is a dangerous, potentially fatal drug. People have died from ecstasy. Mixing it with another hallucinogen you are going to exacerbate the damage."
Burns said federal drug officials now will warn medical facilities, drug treatment sites and others to get the word out.
"This is a public health issue," Burns said.
