The message was that they, too, must be extra vigilant in the effort to protect their children against the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Students from Anita Piercey's and Margaret Ann Cleal's two Grade 6 classes were rewarded June 14 for the successful completion of the DARE - 'Drug Abuse Resistance Education' - program, instructed by Cst. Mike Martel of the RCMP's Burin Customs and Excise Section, with certificates and a party at the school.

In addressing the group, Cpl. Geoff Greene, also of the Burin Customs and Excise Section and a former DARE officer at the school, suggested parents need only take a walk through a nearby area known as 'The Pit', frequented by students at neighbouring Pearce Junior High during breaks, and take a look around the grounds to see what's going on.

"It'll be a big eye opener for some of you."

According to Cpl. Greene, some youth are experimenting with prescription drugs they find at home, searching medicine cabinets for pills, researching their effects on the Internet and popping them at school.

A lawyer for Randy Potts, a member of the Hells Angels who pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking offences, says Potts should be sentenced to either a period of probation or a short jail term.

In December, Potts, a full-patch member of the East End chapter of the notorious motorcycle club, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and traffic in methamphetamines and to trafficking in cocaine.

The prosecution told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask that Potts, now out on bail, should receive a jail term of 12 years, minus a year for presentence custody.

But on Wednesday, Bonnie Craig, a lawyer for Potts, argued that the judge should consider his sentencing last year for gun offences when sentencing for the drug crimes.

Mounties have begun raiding labs producing synthetic drugs even before the pills get produced. RCMP drug cops say the new tactic is already making a dent in B.C.'s party-drugs trade.

At Vancouver's E-Division Tuesday, police displayed 14,000 ecstasy pills, $250,000 in cash and seven guns they seized after busting a drug operation in Richmond following an 18-month investigation.

Nine people, including two women, face numerous drug charges. Two are linked to Asian organized crime, police said.

"This is a bust that is very significant," said Supt. Brian Cantera, who heads the RCMP's drug-enforcement branch.

Cantera said the probe involved surveillance and undercover police work, and was high risk and high cost.

Standing by his side, B.C. Solicitor-General Kash Heed said he's asked the federal government to restrict the availability of so-called "precursor chemicals" such as pseudoephedrine.

Right now, it's not a crime to possess large quantities of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in ecstasy production. There are also no restrictions on owning pill-pressing machines. Legal loopholes are a big reason why B.C. leads the country in the illicit trade, Heed said.

"These illegal drug networks threaten the security of our communities and must be absolutely destroyed," said Heed, a former top drug cop in the Vancouver Police Department.

Heed has also demanded better background checks on all those who come into possession of the chemicals, along with more federal inspections.

"What we can do within our powers, we are doing," said Heed. "What we cannot do is close the loopholes."

Last week's tragic death of a young Whistler man who perished after ingesting a quantity of the drug known as Ecstasy this week prompted a local RCMP official to issue a stern warning to those who may be thinking of taking illicit drugs.

"These drugs are made by criminals using methamphetimine and toxic chemicals. Anytime you're taking these drugs, you're taking your life in your hands," Whistler RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair said on Tuesday ( Nov. 17 ). "People ask me, 'Are there bad drugs out there?' The answer is that they're all bad."

The apparent drug overdose occurred last Thursday ( Nov. 12 ). Police responded to a call at a Whistler home at approximately 11 a.m., RCMP Sgt. Steve Wright said in a statement.

A 20-year-old male had been found unconscious by friends. When police arrived, Whistler Fire Rescue Service and Emergency Health Services personnel were performing CPR, but failed to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead a short time later at the Whistler Health Care Centre, Wright said.

They were not the first Canadians to run afoul of Colombian cocaine or Mexican guns, and it's a fair bet they won't be the last.

But the recent deaths of Gordon Kendall and Jeffery Ivans are another sign that what began as a Colombian disease and then morphed into a Mexican malady is now on its way to becoming something of a Canadian condition, too.

Around midnight on Sept. 27, Kendall and Ivans were relaxing in or near the condo they shared not far from the Plaza las Glorias in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, a tourist haunt made famous when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton conducted a very public romance there while filming The Night of the Iguana in 1963.

Half an hour later, both men were dead - the most recent Canadian casualties in a bloody conflict that has bedevilled the Mexican Republic since late 2006 at least.

That was when the country's new president, Felipe Calderon, declared war on the cocaine cartels that are now doing to his land what their South American counterparts have long inflicted upon Colombia - killing its people, sapping its spirit, and crippling its institutions in an orgy of payola and blood.

Upwards of 15,000 Mexicans have lost their lives in drug-related violence since early 2007, a spiralling death toll that eclipses most of the world's other civil conflicts.

BITTER PILL: Erin Spanevello was 21, full of life, and after taking the drug ecstasy, died. RCMP are launching a program to educate about the dangers of ecstasy.

It may be called ecstasy, but consequences of using the illegal party drug can be anything but ecstatic.

“The prevalence of ecstasy is now being seen in all communities across BC, including Powell River,” said RCMP Constable Kerri Chard. “Just months ago, Powell River RCMP were notified that a suspicious bag of pills was found in a public location. Police seized the pills, which are suspected to be ecstasy.”

These particular tablets were bright orange, decorated with a logo that may be attractive to some young people, featuring a picture of a firearm.

The 21-year-old Spanevello was a part-time model who had been admitted to college - she would have started this month - to train in graphic design and marketing. She was a straight A student with a big smile and a big heart who had many friends.

Her parents say she was excited about her future.

At a party last May in Vancouver Spanevello, who grew up in a small town, was offered a drug called ecstasy, one the RCMP corporal said is readily available and that many people mistakenly believe is a harmless, recreational drug.

Spanevello made a terrible choice and took the drug and a few hours later she was dead.

It's a choice some Bowen kids, De Jong reports, are having to make on island, and he and Erin's parents are using her story on a national ecstasy awareness campaign to educate people on why saying no is the only choice.

Methamphetamine is commonly referred to as crystal meth. It arrived in Ontario about five years ago, city police staff Sgt. John Lyons said. If first appeared in the Stratford area, when a methamphetamine maker from California moved to the area.

Lyons said the man was considered to be a “guru” among methamphetamine makers, and Stratford found itself in the midst of a growing drug problem.

Methamphetamine has begun migrating east, Lyons said. “There are indications that crack that’s being used has meth mixed into it,” he said.

City council is looking at a Controlled Substance Property Remediation bylaw that would authorize certain city officials right of entry and inspection, and forward the charge of the drug cleanup to the owners.

Local RCMP Inspector Eric Stubbs and Const. Tim Russell explained the reasoning behind setting up the bylaw at a city council meeting Aug. 10.

Stubbs said the bylaw would deal with health risks the properties pose to the community in manufacturing the controlled substances, and eliminate the cleanup cost to taxpayers.

He highlighted the meth lab bust in the basement of a residence on the 4700 block of Scott Ave. last year as an example.

"Dismantling these types of operations pose a number of risks to both the occupiers of those residences, as well as their neighbours, as well as...those enforcing search warrants," he said.

Methamphetamines have yet to make a strong presence in the region, but law enforcement officials are keeping a sharp lookout for the highly addictive drug.

The RCMP issued a press release on May 7, warning high school and university students in the Fredericton area to be aware of drug dealers selling meth as other drugs, particularly ecstasy.