UNITED NATIONS — Asian and "traditional" biker gangs have dramatically stepped up production of illegal "party" drugs in Canada, turning the country into a significant exporter, the United Nations said Wednesday.
In a global survey of illegal drug production and trafficking, Canada is identified as a "primary" world source of ecstasy, and likely the biggest supplier of methamphetamine "uppers" to Australia and Japan.
"Canada has become a major trafficking hub for meth and ecstasy," says World Drug Report 2009 by Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
"By 2006, law-enforcement intelligence noted that Asian organized crime and traditional outlaw motorcycle gangs operating in Canada had increased the amount of methamphetamine they manufactured and exported, primarily into the United States, but also to Oceania and East and South-East Asia."
Most of the ecstasy produced in Canada was "thought to be" destined for the United States, Australia and Japan, adds the 306-page report.
"In 2007, it was estimated that 50 per cent of domestically produced ecstasy was trafficked outside of Canada," it said.
Antonio Maria Costa, the UN's anti-drug czar, said Canada's rise as a trafficker results from a "perfect storm" of events involving law-enforcement levels and ease of access to ingredients known as "precursor chemicals."
While a "robust" clampdown in the Netherlands rolled back ecstasy production in that country, the U.S. banned over-the-counter sales of certain precursor chemicals, he said. In Canada, meanwhile, Asian gangs used their contacts in China and elsewhere to import precursors and to develop trafficking routes throughout Asia and beyond.
"So Canada is being attacked from both the West and the East, as well as from the South," Costa said.
He described gang members as primarily young and, therefore, most likely Canadian-born.
"But they have roots back home, and that is where the origin of the problem is," Costa said.
According to the report, ecstasy laboratories in Canada were, by 2007, "large-capacity facilities primarily controlled by Asian organized-crime groups, utilizing precursor chemicals trafficked from China in sea containers."
It shows Canada is fourth among countries ranked for seizures of ecstasy-group substances. It is fifth in ranking for seizures of amphetamine-group substances.
Justice Minister Doug Nicholson said the expansion of illegal-drug production in Canada could be reversed through tougher trafficking penalties — but added Liberal party members in the Senate were holding up a bill providing for that.
"The report comes as no surprise, because law-enforcement agencies have been telling us this for the last couple of years," he said.
"But we're at our second attempt, as a minority government, to get our anti-drug bill through Parliament. So if any good comes out of this UN report, it's that it may push the Liberals to give us a hand to get the bill passed."
Nicholson said Health Canada could "look at" the idea of banning sales of over-the-counter precursor chemicals that may still be available in Canada. But he returned to the idea that legislating mandatory minimum sentences for producers would "send the message that Canada is no place to do (this type of) business."
Mark Holland, Liberal party public safety and national security critic, said it was "preposterous" for the government to expect the Senate to act on the bill without debate.
"We're 100 per cent partners in trying to ensure there are tough sentences but, if that were the answer, the streets of Houston and Dallas would be the safest in North America," he said. "They are not."
He charged the government had "completely failed to address the root causes of crimes," citing funding cuts to various crime-prevention programs.
Costa said he backs tough penalties for traffickers, but urges governments to not jail addicts, saying they should be given treatment to kick their habits.
The report argues against legalizing illicit drugs as a way to undercut illegal production, and Costa said any move to do so would be a "historic mistake."
"A free market for drugs would unleash an epidemic, while a regulated one would create a parallel black market," he said. "Legalization is not a magic wand that would suppress mafias and drug abuse. Societies should not have to choose between protecting public health and public security."
The stance prompted a reaction from Washington-based Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which comprises police, prosecutors and judges who've served on the front lines of the "war on drugs."
"The world's drug czar . . . would have you believe that the legalization movement is calling for the abolition of drug control," said Jack Cole, LEAP executive director and a retired undercover narcotics detective. "But we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who produces them and who they can be sold to."
Costa said illegal drugs exported from Canada often pass through many countries before they reach their respective destinations, as traffickers seek the "route of least resistance" to avoid detection.
In 2007, Japan identified Canada as the single biggest source for seized ecstasy tablets, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, the report says.
Australia identified Canada as the source of 83 per cent of the illegal methamphetamine Australian authorities seized by weight. The figure for Japan was 62 per cent.
Although only five per cent of Canadian-manufactured methamphetamine was exported in 2006, by 2007, that figure was 20 per cent, the report said.
