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Iqaluit ecstasy users pay $50 for caffeine rip-off

Ecstasy use booms in Iqaluit

ARTHUR JOHNSON

Some thrill-seeking youths in Iqaluit are paying $50 for a hit of the drug ecstasy - and winding up with the same caffeine high they could get in local coffee shops for less than $2.

In recent months, says Corporal Rob Legere of the RCMP's detachment, quantities of drugs sold as ecstasy around town have increased tremendously.

But upon analysis, he said in an interview this week, some of what was being passed off as the trendy party drug turned out to be plain old caffeine.

Cpl. Legere said that demand for ecstasy in Iqaluit and smaller Nunavut communities is such that in March and April, the RCMP seized a total of 1400 hits of what dealers were passing off as the fashionable drug among the high school to college age crowd.

Only a portion of the substances seized turned out to be the real thing - a methamphetamine whose effects can include a warm euphoric glow, a much increased heart rate, dry mouth, and, in a few reported instances, death.

The RCMP constable said that prior to the recent large seizures, it was more typical to seize ecstasy in quantities of 10 or 20 hits at a time. "We're seeing a lot more seized, therefore you can assume that there is a lot more demand," he said.

No arrests have been made yet as a result of these large seizures, he said, because investigations "involve other jurisidictions" outside Nunavut.

Ecstasy has been a favourite party drug among youths in the South for several years, but has been much slower to catch on in Nunavut. It gained notoriety as the drug of choice at dance clubs in large cities in the South, and at impromptu "raves" - gatherings of hundreds of youths who dance and do drugs all night.

Because ecstasy accelerates the heart rate, raises blood pressure and causes dehydration, some deaths have been attributed to the drug as such gatherings.

In Iqaluit, Cpl. Legere said, the drug is being sold "in front of local stores and in liquor establishments." It comes in to Nunavut on flights from the south, and even through the mail, he said.

What's more, ecstasy is now spreading to communities outside Iqaluit. Lately, he said, "we've been getting information from detachments in outlying communities" that RCMP officers are encountering the drug.

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