Federal drug officials have issued a warning about a rise in methamphetamine-laced Ecstasy entering the U.S. from Canada. Gary Kendell is director of Iowa’s Office of Drug Control Policy. He says the new meth-laced tablets, sometimes called "extreme Ecstasy," have yet to surface here in Iowa.

"We wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up someday," Kendell says, "it’s just got a lot to do with who’s distributing it. Most of the controlled substances coming into Iowa are coming from the Mexican trafficking organizations and it’s the Asian trafficking organizations that are distributing the Ecstasy and meth-laced Ecstasy. So, it’s just basically who we’re getting our supplies from." Ecstasy, which gained popularity during the "rave" party boom in the 1990s, is known to induce euphoria and hallucinations – along with memory loss and increased heart rate. The synthetic stimulant has not be widely found in Iowa.

Kendell says a number of Ecstasy cases were prosecuted in Iowa a couple of years ago and that seemed to stem any problem. However, as he puts it, "we’re not kidding ourselves…we know it’s still here." Kendell says adding meth lowers the cost of producing Ecstasy, while making the drug potentially more addictive and dangerous.


Audio: Radio Iowa’s Pat Curtis reports. :43 MP3