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The Information Website and central resource database for the Crystal Meth problem in BC. This website is separate and distinct from the Crystal Meth Prevention Society. This site offers hope, through education and communication and is volunteer run for parents, educators, families and youth.

Meth News Canada

·Canada: Oped: Medical cannabis: Strengthening Evidence In The Face Of
·CN AB: Passing The Sniff Test
·CN AB: Police Witness Suffering On Front Lines Of Battle Against
·CN AB: Lethbridge OD Spike Watched Closely In The Hat
·CN BC: Laundering Linked To Drug Trade A 'structural' Issue: SFU

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News Articles: RCMP investigate possible mobile meth lab
EnforcementAn RCMP team is at Saanich police headquarters this afternoon, examining what is believed to be a mobile meth lab found in the trunk of a car during an arrest Wednesday.

Saanich police conducted a routine traffic stop in Gordon Head and the officer recognized the 32-year-old Saanich man as a known offender who was in breach of conditions. Upon searching the rented Nissan Rogue, the officer found unmarked containers of chemicals, suspected to be ingredients for cooking up crystal meth, said police spokesman Sgt. Dean Jantzen.

Police also recovered a small amount of crystal meth, a bottle of GHB, production paraphernalia such as pots and stirring mechanisms.

The RCMP specialized team arrived from Vancouver Thursday to inspect the chemicals. Two Mounties, dressed in full hazmat suits, carefully examined samples from three jerry cans to determine whether the chemicals are those typically used for making crystal meth.

The man is being held in custody on charges related to breach of recognizance, but drug charges have not yet been laid.

Once investigators determine what the chemicals are, samples will be collected as evidence and a hazardous-materials team will safely dispose of them, Jantzen said.

Posted by cryadmin on Saturday, March 31

News Articles: FROM THE UNDERGROUND TO THE MAINSTREAM
Parent Resources Despite efforts by authorities over recent years to protect the public from ecstasy pushers, the scene has quietly edged sideways and carried on. Scouring a teen's room for baby pacifiers, stuffed animals and glowing gloves will no longer yield the classic hallmarks of an E user.

If you knew that those accessories are commonly associated with raves, and you already knew that a rave is a late-night dance party set to electronic music, then you might also know that ecstasy is the reason the sensory toys are popular. Not the only reason - there are ravers who don't use drugs - but a large part of the desire to neon, glow-stick, and costume yourself to dance for long hours is fuelled by euphoria-inducing pills.

The context has moved, however, out of sweaty warehouse dance parties and 30-somethings' feel-good weekends, into the back seats of N-adorned cars and teenage get-togethers. The rave scene reached Canada around 1991. Historically, the risks associated with using ecstasy, or MDMA, were due to the hot, prolonged environment of the dance floors. Hours of physical activity combined with a lack of water was a recipe for overheating, seizures and organ failure.

People died, yet the party continued because ecstasy lacked the bad, back-alley reputation of crack or heroin. The brightly coloured pills, stamped with cartoon faces or cute logos, seem far removed from the dangers of hard drug use. Intimate house parties and weeknight concerts are the new backdrop to popping pills, and as the scene dilutes, the dangers mount.

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Posted by cryadmin on Friday, March 02

News Articles: ECSTASY: Chemical roulette
EnforcementNo amount of ecstasy is a safe dose.

UPDATE: Lower Mainland ecstasy death linked to lethal chemical Abbotsford teen loses her life after taking the drug ecstasy Abbotsford Police launch series about ecstasy and other street drugs Another ecstasy overdose in Abbotsford; woman battles for her life ECSTASY: 'If I don't stop this, I'm going to die' Ecstasy agony: Abbotsford couple speaks out about death of 20-year-old son

That’s the message from the Abbotsford Police Department and the Fraser Health Authority in the wake of 18 ecstasy deaths in B.C. since the start of 2011.

This week, APD launched Operation X, an initiative intended to warn and inform teens and parents about the danger of street drugs, including ecstasy. Dr. Victoria Lee, medical health officer for the FHA, says they are also actively working with schools to get that message out.

Ecstasy has taken hold in a young demographic who might not fully understand the risk. Lee reiterates that the safest and wisest choice is to not take it at all. “You can do permanent damage from the first time,” Lee advises. “Even one is unsafe.”

Ecstasy-related emergencies are bad news, agrees Dr. Roy Purssell. The medical director of the B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre is also an emergency physician at Vancouver General Hospital.

An ecstasy situation almost always means serious trouble, he says, because most people having a negative reaction wait too long to go to the hospital, or the people they are with don’t realize the seriousness of a delay.

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Posted by cryadmin on Friday, March 02

News Articles: LOVE DRUG EVOLVES INTO DIRTY KILLER
Parent ResourcesLOVE DRUG EVOLVES INTO DIRTY KILLER

Not so long ago, Myles Murphy popped "E" caps like they were candy. He and his two buddies would pool their money to buy 21 ecstasy pills during the week from a dealer in school or on the street. Then on the weekend, they'd steal away to someone's basement and throw "mini-raves" for themselves, glow sticks and all.

"I couldn't stop, right? It became just something I needed, I liked," said Murphy, who was introduced to the drug in Grade 9 at a party with a bunch of older kids. These days, however, the gregarious 19-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., has a different take on the so-called "love drug" that is so popular among clubbers and partygoers and whose properties, it is commonly said, jack up the senses to the point where you can "see the music" and "hear the colours."

"It's one of the cheapest, dirtiest drugs," Murphy said. "You don't know what's in it." The warning is being echoed by police and public health officials in the wake of a spate of ecstasy-related deaths in Western Canada. Many of the deaths -- nine in Alberta and five in B.C. -- have been linked to ecstasy that has been tainted with para methoxymethamphetamine or PMMA, dubbed by some drug experts as meth's "ugly cousin."

Theories abound about what could be behind the cluster of PMMA-related deaths. It is possible, police and health officials say, that a crackdown on pre-cursor chemicals used to make methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA -- which is ecstasy in its traditional or pure form -- has led drug producers to turn to other synthetic drugs, such as PMMA. It is also possible that inexperienced producers intended to add meth into the toxic blend but ended up creating PMMA by accident.

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Posted by cryadmin on Tuesday, February 07

Legislation: WE ARE NOT 'POT DOCTORS'
GovernmentWE ARE NOT 'POT DOCTORS'

I would like to clarify a few issues regarding the Health Canada Medicinal Marihuana Access Regulations ( MMAR ) program.

Physicians do not "prescribe pot." Every Canadian citizen qualifies automatically for MMAR if they meet the Health Canada criteria-anyone providing evidence of a qualifying condition, and/or anyone who's been to a specialist for their condition. This has nothing to do with the doctor's views on the matter-patients either qualify or they do not.

Doctors authorize for MMAR by filling out forms declaring that the patient has the condition. This automatically authorizes the patient to possess and grow marihuana. The patient instructs the doctor as to the daily quantity and method by which they consume marihuana. This is much different than a physician prescribing a medication-where the doctor instructs the patient.

Although above the B.C. average, Chilliwack doctors underauthorize for patients needing MMAR. According to the World Drug Report issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( 2007 ), 16.8 per cent of Canadians, ages 15 to 64, smoked or ingested cannabis in 2006. It follows that out of 69,217 residents in Chilliwack, 11,628 would be users. Daily users are usually self-medicating for a range of conditions from depression to severe arthritis pain to cancer. In my large 4,500-patient practice, about 200 qualify for MMAR. Extrapolating from this, over 3,000 in Chilliwack could require access to medicinal marihuana and are not receiving the care they require. It is not about joints or THC. In cannabis, THC is only one of over 60 cannabinoids ( natural medicinal chemicals ). THC gets the user 'stoned' when it is heated ( smoked or cooked ). Cannabidiol ( CBD ) is a pain-fighting, anti-inflammatory cannabinoid that gives no high and can mitigate the euphoric effects of THC. THC is not active in its raw form whereas CBD is.

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Posted by cryadmin on Friday, February 03

News Articles: Teen's death may be linked to ecstasy
Parent ResourcesCoroner probes connection to other MDMA fatalities

A 16-year-old Langley boy died early Sunday morning after reportedly mixing ecstasy with other pharmaceutical drugs. The B.C. Coroners Service is now investigating whether paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), an adulterant added to ecstasy believed to have recently killed at least 10 people in B.C. and Alberta, may have been a factor.

The boy reportedly took the drugs on Saturday night with several other people, according to the agency. Early Sunday, they heard him collapse and called 911. Paramedics transported the teen to Langley Memorial Hospital, however he could not be revived. It is not known what other drugs may have been in the boy's system.

"Toxicology testing will be completed as quickly as possible to determine whether the use of ecstasy was a factor in the death, and if so, whether the ecstasy tablet included the presence of PMMA," the Coroners Service said in a news release Monday. It is also reviewing the province's 16 ecstasy-related deaths in 2011, as PMMA had never before been found in ecstasy and was not routinely tested for previously.

Five British Columbians, ranging in age from 14 to 37, have died from PMMA-laced ecstasy since August, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said last week. Of those, two happened this month. Three of the deaths occurred in the Lower Mainland and two on Vancouver Island. Five Calgar-ians have also died from tainted ecstasy in recent weeks.

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Posted by cryadmin on Friday, February 03

News Articles: Material in Pritchard garage could produce several kilograms of crystal meth
EnforcementKamloops area - There was enough raw materials in a Pritchard man's garage to make several kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, a B.C. Supreme Court judge was told Tuesday.

Ivan Georgiev, 39, is charged with several offences, including production of a controlled substance and possession of crystal meth for the purpose of trafficking. The federal Crown alleges he converted his Warren Road garage into a clandestine drug lab, where he cooked up large quantities of the illegal drug.

The lab was found after police raided the rural property in June 2009 following several weeks of surveillance. Health Canada chemist Sarita Jazwal told the court she found enough raw materials, including ephedrine, red phosphorous and hydriodic acid, to produce roughly 11 kilograms of crystal meth.

The man was jailed last year for three years on top of eight months he had served since his arrest after he pleaded guilty to weapons offences stemming from the same search that revealed the drug lab. The guns were found after police executed search warrants at Georgiev’s Pritchard property in 2010.

Officers found 28 firearms throughout the house. Many of them were loaded, with rounds in the chamber, ready to fire. Some of the weapons were prohibited and cannot be legally owned in Canada. Georgiev was prohibited from possessing firearms at the time. He was banned after he was convicted of production of marijuana in 2001.

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Posted by cryadmin on Monday, January 30

News Articles: TAINTED ECSTASY CAUSING DEATHS
Parent ResourcesA rash of ecstasy-related deaths in the province has been linked to a highly toxic and yet unpredictable chemical found in the toxicology results of its victims.

Paramethoxy-metamphetamine ( PMMA ) has been associated with at least five ecstasy deaths in B.C. over the last six months. On Jan. 16, the BC Coroners Service confirmed that it was investigating a fourth 2012 fatality believed to be the result of an ecstasy overdose - a 16-year-old Langley male.

"It's a learning process for us; we're gathering information as we go along," said chief coroner Lisa Lapointe. Over the past six years, the rates of ecstasy-related fatalities in the province have more than doubled.

Whereas 2006 saw seven deaths in the province, the three years leading up to 2011 each saw at least 20 people lose their life to the drug. Last weekend's death brings the early 2012 count to four. "Does that mean that we'll see these numbers continue to climb over the years? We certainly hope not," Lapointe said.

The traditional chemical found in ecstasy is MDMA, or methylenedioxy methamphetamine. But tablets of the drug often contain a mixture of other substances and usually in unknown quantities.

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Posted by cryadmin on Wednesday, January 25

News Articles: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Crystal Meth UsersEcstasy can kill you.

Can that message be driven home any more acutely than it has in this community? In the past five weeks, the popular man-made drug has taken two lives, and is responsible for another that hangs in the balance.

On Nov. 27, Tyler Miller, 20, took ecstasy. He was a gifted Abbotsford musician and student, with great career plans. It's all over. He was dead in eight hours.

Ecstasy Pills often contain Meth.

On Dec. 19, 17-year-old Cheryl McCormack of Abbotsford ingested ecstasy with some friends ostensibly as a weight loss aid. She became unresponsive, and three days later, she died. She was a bright, fun and athletic teen.

On New Year's Eve, a 24-year-old Abbotsford woman engaged in "recreational" use of ecstasy with three friends. By 6 a.m. she was in critical condition in hospital, where she remains today.

The grief and suffering of the family and friends of these victims is excruciating. In that context, it is such cruel irony, considering ecstasy is known for inducing euphoria and a sense of well-being. It's chemical Russian roulette. You can feel good and survive perhaps many times. Or, you can end up dead, or on life support. It doesn't take prolonged use or abuse of ecstasy to court disaster.

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Posted by cryadmin on Monday, January 09

Press Releases: ANOTHER ECSTASY OVERDOSE IN ABBOTSFORD
Crystal Meth UsersWoman Battles for Her Life

A 24-year-old Abbotsford woman is battling for her life after ingesting ecstasy with three friends on New Year's Eve. Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the woman, whose name has not been released, was at a home in the 33700 block of George Ferguson Way when she became unconscious and unresponsive.

She was treated on scene at about 6 a.m. on New Year's Day by BC Ambulance and Abbotsford Fire Rescue personnel before being transported to hospital. MacDonald said the women, ages 23 to 31, took "numerous" blue ecstasy pills throughout the evening, starting at the residence. They then went out for the night and returned to the home, ingesting the last pills at about 4 a.m. The friends indicated that the victim consumed more pills than they did, MacDonald said.

This is the second ecstasy overdose in Abbotsford in less than two weeks. Cheryl McCormack, 17, died Dec. 22 after having taken ecstasy with three other friends at a sleep-over on Dec. 19. McCormack's friends indicated that the girls had been taking the drug, which can suppress appetite, to aid in weight loss.

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Posted by cryadmin on Friday, January 06