Ecstasy Wars Stacey Dooley Investigates

This programme contains some strong language and some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

'All over the world, hundreds of thousands of people are fighting a hidden war.

'How it ends could affect us all. It's the war on drugs.

'Despite a recent crackdown,

'use of many drugs is continuing to spiral.

'So, I'm travelling across three continents

'to investigate the latest drugs to hit the market.

'I want to know who's really behind the narcotics trade.

'And what the authorities are doing to stamp it out.

'In South Africa,

'I uncover a new stronger strain of cannabis

'being smuggled to Britain.'

This is going to E16, East London.

But I know exactly where that is.

'I travel to Mexico

'where I discover brutal cartels

'making methamphetamine on an industrial scale.'

I mean, you see how tiny it is on that knife

and then you see how many huge bags we've got here.

Gives you an indication of how many people

would get very high off of this.

'Tonight, I investigate the changing face

'of the world's best selling dance drug - ecstasy.'

So, you can literally throw anything in,

and to the kids on the street, aw, it looks spot on.

Exactly. They have no idea what's in there.

'I meet those making big money selling E.'

-Seven to ten...thousand?

-Mm-hm.

'I join the police as they take down a back street lab.'

When they take over warehouses, they're big.

I meet those risking their lives taking new synthetic drugs.

'You've taken it? Yeah?'

'And on the streets, I see the effects

'as these deadly new cocktails take hold.'

-Do you know where he's taken?

-No-one knows.

-MAN GROANS

-That's crazy, it's like crazy.

This programme contains some strong language

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

My journey starts here, in the Cambodian jungle,

6,000 miles from the UK.

I'm following the global trade route

of the biggest-selling party drug in the world, ecstasy,

or to use its proper name, MDMA.

HELICOPTER BLADES SPIN

One of the key ingredients when manufacturing MDMA

is something called safrole oil,

and typically, this oil is found in particular trees

here in the Cambodian jungle,

so today, I'm going to spend some time with the national organisation

to find out more.

Whoo!

'The worldwide trade in ecstasy is huge.

'It's estimated there are half a million users in the UK alone,

'and it all starts down there.'

Yeah, just fly over that, and then up the river.

'These forests contain

'some of the most sought-after trees in the world.'

This is quite something.

Yeah, welcome to the Cardamoms.

'We're on the hunt for illegal loggers.

Hidden under cover,

teams of men are cutting down these trees

for the natural oil they contain.

The oil is mostly intense in the roots,

so they'll usually chop the whole tree down

and then dig out all the roots and the lower base of the stem.

'Toby Eastoe's job is to look for anything suspicious.'

Do you see any clearings here?

'Any sign of life could mean logging teams are in the area,

'harvesting this wood for its valuable oil.'

You're mainly looking on the rivers

for small clearings or any change,

just like below us there.

Oh, I can see there's a bit of clearance.

That might be an old factory just there.

Well, you're looking for little shacks

or, like, tarps, they'll have a tarp up.

-Where people will be temporarily living.

-Yeah, yeah.

But, er, if you see any human habitation, let me know.

-My gosh, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

-Yep.

'After an hour, I spot signs of life on the ground.'

There's a clearing down here, on the left.

Yeah, anything that's on the river like that is suspect.

'It looks like a new team logging for oil.'

-Yeah, there's a person there.

-I think there's someone there.

-They just came out.

-Yeah, I see him.

'It's too dangerous to land,

'so Toby takes the GPS coordinates

'and will send team in on the ground.'

It's unbelievable that we've just stumbled across that, isn't it?

Yeah, we've can at least get a group

to start going in there and flush those guys out.

I'd be really interested to know how many people who take MDMA

realise that this is where it all starts.

Yeah, I don't think they realise,

and it would be nice if they got the message

that taking MDMA, taking ecstasy,

you know, the root of it is cutting down forests.

I wanted to find out how successful the rangers are

at stopping the illegal loggers,

so I've travelled 100 miles deeper into the forest.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How do you do?

-Fine, thank you.

-Peng Lee?

-Peng Lee, yes.

-Very, very nice to meet you. Thank you for having me.

-OK, yes.

Show me what you find, what you've got here.

Er, this is our safrole oils.

-And...

-So this is the safrole oil?

-Yeah.

'The rangers here have just made one of their biggest ever busts.

'All of these drums of safrole oil

'were found buried in the jungle,

'destined for the international drugs market.'

Maybe thousands and thousands of litres here.

Um, about...

More than 2,000...kg.

More than two tonnes.

-You can see and smell it.

-So here, is it?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Strong smell?

-Like liquorice.

-Yes.

-Aniseed.

-Yeah.

And the people that are responsible for trying to smuggle this oil,

or they're producing it in the factories, who are they?

They are Cambodian,

but we don't know where they bring it to.

-You have no idea?

-No idea.

'This oil could have made millions of dollars of MDMA,

'and this wasn't all the rangers seized.'

And some weapons.

-Weapons?

-Yeah.

-Woo-hoo!

-To protect their team.

My gosh, this is unbelievable.

And these are all, what, machine guns here?

Yeah, machine guns.

AK.

-AK-47.

-Can I see?

-Yes.

Still, can use, can be used.

-It's still working, yeah?

-Still working.

Some people held it to protect their team or for hunting.

If they come against you, you are the enemy.

-They don't want to see the rangers.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Risky job for the ranger.

-Yeah.

-Not messing.

-Yeah.

Whoof!

Aladdin's cave.

'I was really keen to see where the oil comes from.'

So, Peng Lee, the trees which we are interested in are nearby?

Yeah, yeah. You can see the tree from here,

the high tree.

'Just a few metres from the road, and close to the rangers station,

'there's a clear sign the criminal gangs are active here.'

So, this is it here,

the tree that holds the safrole oil

that everyone's so keen to get their hands on.

So it's just done with a chainsaw, is it?

So is there a specific time when the illegal loggers like to work?

'The wood is then cut up into small chips

'and boiled in huge vats to extract the valuable oil.'

-Wow, that smells incredibly strong.

-Yeah, strong.

It's exactly like liquorice.

As night falls, I've been invited to join the rangers

on a routine patrol.

The only way to catch the loggers is to go in on the ground.

So our guys are about to set off on night patrol.

My understanding is that they're wanting to set up this ambush.

So they're hoping to catch these loggers,

who often prefer to work at night, in action.

A couple of the guys are armed. I've no idea what to expect.

MOTORCYCLE ENGINES RUMBLE

Whoo!

So, you get nervous sometimes?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

'It's like a game of cat and mouse,

'but the rangers are small in numbers

'against the hundreds of illegal loggers

'working in these forests.'

Do you feel like tonight might be your night?

Yes.

I smell something fishy.

SHE LAUGHS

-You can feel something fishy around here?

-Yeah.

I know you were saying to me, on the bike,

it's very important to keep a low profile, we must be very quiet.

Yes.

So, I think the idea is that

they're going to make sure their bikes are tucked away nicely.

A couple of them will then make their way over to the roadside

and keep their eyes peeled

and if they see anything that looks suspicious,

they'll let everyone else know.

'The rangers plan to spend all night in their hunt for the loggers,

'who are notoriously hard to catch.'

So the rangers have set everything up

and that's them here for the night now.

It's really important that I don't jeopardise

the potential ambush.

So we've got to keep everything very quiet,

we can't really go into details.

I'm going to go and sit up the side road with Peng Lee

and see what happens.

Thank you.

'But despite waiting for hours, nothing.

'It seems the loggers have given us the slip.'

So, so far, no joy for the rangers.

I mean, I can tell you from first-hand experience,

it's not an easy gig they've got.

We have been sat on the side of the road

in pitch-black silence for hours,

and nothing.

But the others are still down there now

and they've agreed that they'll ring Peng Lee and I

if they find anything.

With millions of acres to patrol

and hundreds of routes out of the forest,

it's not surprising safrole oil is still slipping through.

I want to know where it ends up next,

so, for me, it's a 7,000-mile flight...

to Canada.

This is Vancouver, on Canada's west coast.

It's one of the safest and most affluent places on the planet.

I'm here to find out why this city has become

the world's capital for ecstasy production.

'Mike Hager is a Vancouver journalist

'who's spent years investigating why this unlikely city

'has become so central in the production of drugs.'

So this is it, this is the biggest port in Canada.

Well, this is Canada's gateway to the Pacific,

it's its biggest port.

More than 3,000 container ships each year come through here.

And where from mostly?

-Mostly East Asia...

-Southeast Asia.

-..South Asia.

Places like Cambodia, China, India.

And often carrying things that we need for the MDMA production.

That's correct, yeah.

I've heard from various sources in law enforcement

that 5% or less of the drugs coming though these containers

is actually seized by authorities.

A couple of years ago in BC's northern port, Prince Rupert,

they found 552 barrels coming from China labelled as glycerine.

Labelled as glycerine, but not glycerine?

Not glycerine, precursor.

The safrole that I saw in Cambodia

is the precursor or raw material needed to make MDMA.

And it's not just these smugglers

that are keeping Vancouver's cops busy.

I've hooked up with Sergeant Eric Boechler

of the city's drug unit

whose job it is to hunt down the many illegal labs popping up here.

So there's been another call from the drug squad,

and they've said that they've been called out this morning

to another lab.

So I'm heading there now and I'm going to see what we can get.

'Fire crews called to a routine alarm this morning

'stumbled across a new illegal drugs lab.'

We're not sure what this is, but, typically, in Richmond,

when they take over warehouses, they're big.

I think this is going to be a substantial find.

Yeah, it sounds it.

Do we have any idea who was operating this lab?

-No.

-No?

OK, so the guys on the ground now

are just waiting for a search warrant

so they're able to go into the lab and see what they're dealing with,

but the fire department have suggested

that there may be around eight heating vessels,

which I'm told is, you know, a reasonable-sized lab.

'They've said it's too dangerous for me to go in.

'The chemicals used in synthetic drug production

'are highly flammable and poisonous.'

Before the guys are allowed go into the lab,

they have to have their vitals checked.

So, their blood pressure, their temperature, things like that,

so if they feel a bit out of sort, a bit unwell when they come out,

then they've got something to compare it to.

'And chemicals aren't the only danger.'

So the guys that are in the grey overalls are from the police.

And I don't know whether or not you can see,

but they've still got their weapons on their thighs.

You know, there's every chance that

somebody who's involved within this operation

could still be in the lab.

'Sergeant Eric Boechler is often one of the first in.'

-Eric, you ready to go in there?

-Absolutely.

Not sure yet what it's manufacturing,

but we're going to go and take a look and get samples.

And the chemicals in there can be very hazardous.

Yes, and a lot of them aren't properly labelled,

so we really don't know what we are dealing with

until we get in there and have a better look.

We're going to be going in,

getting a bunch of evidence, looking to fingerprint things.

And then, we'll do a follow up with

who owns or associates with that building.

'The team here in Vancouver are now taking down illegal labs

'two or three times every month.

'It's a slow, painstaking job.'

There's definitely a lot going on.

So, you can see these guys are in and out

and they're constantly bringing products, the apparatus,

things like that.

These guys on this table are taking samples of everything

that is found in the lab.

And then, we've got this gent here, and he's searching for fingerprints.

So, a guy's just brought a glass slab out,

and it looks like that's the synthetic drug.

'Dismantling an illegal operation this big can last many days.

'For Eric, it's another lab successfully busted.'

And given what you've seen and given how much stuff was in there,

do you reckon it was a fairly decent size?

Definitely a good-sized lab.

How many drugs do you think could have been produced from this spot?

Er, probably going to be able to, you know,

at least a couple of kilos of finished product a week, easily.

-So thousands of pills?

-Yep.

And any ideas who's behind this?

Not yet, but we should be able to find out fairly easy

with talking to neighbours and witnesses in the area.

Residential areas and neighbourhoods like these

provide the perfect location for a lab.

The first thing anyone living nearby knows about it

is when something goes wrong.

Yeah, it's been a mad busy day for these guys.

You know, we're 14 hours in

and they're just packing up now, they'll be back tomorrow.

But, the idea, you know,

that there were these people sat down in a Chinese restaurant...

when all the while, you know, ten metres upstairs,

there was this well-established, operating synthetic drugs lab

is just...mind blowing.

Eric wanted to show me one of the police's biggest successes.

A massive lab was taken down just a few months ago.

Actually, I've got footage here,

if you want to have a quick look, of our team going inside.

OK, so this is when it actually happened.

Looks like a movie, doesn't it?

That's the large reaction vessel, the big stainless steel unit.

-And is that where the MDMA is cooked?

-That's right.

And there's one of the other large reaction stirring units.

How many pills, typically, would something like this

be able to churn out a week?

Somewhere in the realm of about 50kg of finished product a week.

That would equate to about a half million pills.

-A week?

-That's right.

-Half a million pills a week...

-That's right.

-..could've come out a lab like this.

-Absolutely.

But it appears the war on drugs might be backfiring.

As the rangers in Cambodia

are slowing down the trade in safrole,

the cooks here in Canada are turning to other chemicals or precursors

to get to their finished product.

What we're now finding is

a lot of these cooks are looking for

other different synthesis routes and precursor chemicals,

as safrole's very tough to obtain.

So they're getting these different chemicals

that are easier to get and then to cook with those

and produce an MDA instead of the MDMA.

That's really interesting.

So, like you say, we all know that safrole

is one of the key ingredients when it comes to making pure MDMA.

-That's right.

-But it's so tricky to get hold of,

they're now looking for other alternatives.

Absolutely, so they're looking for different precursor chemicals

-that they can substitute in for that safrole.

-Ya-huh.

'I was really keen to see some of these alternatives to MDMA.

'This is the police's secret storage site.

'Everything seized from a drugs bust ends up here.'

It's crazy, isn't it?

Everything is...so well protected,

but you can still smell the chemicals in the air.

Absolutely, it's such a potent amount of chemicals.

There's various different, containers here that we keep

all of our precursor chemicals, the solvents,

everything that we seize

while it awaits that court-authorised destruction.

I mean, the thing that I find quite nuts

is, you know, I'm having to stand this far away

and the guys are completely kitted out...

yet, this is the stuff that the kids are buying voluntarily.

You know, they're desperate for this.

So, this is it right?

This is it here.

-This is MDA in solution.

-In solution.

So you can see at the top bit, it's just separating a bit now,

that's just the solvent layer

and then down below is the thicker MDA in solution.

'MDA is very similar to MDMA.

'In fact it's just a simple change in the molecular structure,

'which is why the drug dealers here

'have coined a new name for ecstasy, molly.

They're different chemical structure

used, made from a different chemical reaction or precursor chemical.

However, they're often sold as the same item.

-It'll be sold as MDMA.

-Or molly.

-That's right.

What are the risks of taking these new drugs?

I've come to the government's lab.

It's here that every new drug that hits the street is analysed.

Waft the fumes.

I know this smell.

Liquorice, it's safrole oil.

-That's...

-Safrole.

-This is safrole.

'I've come to meet Dr Richard Laing,

'a leading expert on the production of synthetic drugs.'

Because it's hard to get safrole,

now we find a lot of different means and methods

to try to divert other types of chemicals.

And those are all new and novel that are, essentially,

never been seen before in manufacturing drugs.

So, effectively, trying to replace the safrole oil.

Exactly.

Exactly. And some of these methods are compounds

that no-one knows anything about,

never seen them before until we discover them in a lab

and realise, "Hey, we can make drugs from them."

'And these drugs are simply thrown together in a machine like this.'

So, this is it, this is the pill presser in all its glory.

Sure is.

You can put anything in the pills you like.

You can put paint, you can go from white tablets to pink to blue...

That's the scary thing, you say it there though.

You can literally put anything, you can throw any old crap

in this pill presser

and they'll come out looking reasonably sophisticated.

to the kids on the street buying what they think's molly,

"Oh, it looks spot on."

Exactly.

They have no idea what's in there.

To tell you the truth, I don't even know what's in there right now.

'And if experts like Richard don't know,

'the health concerns are pretty obvious.'

You know, young people don't think about their future too much,

but when you get to be 60 years old

and all of a sudden, you have problems with kidneys and liver

and it's because, or...brain damage,

and it's all because of what you took when you were 15 or 16...

That's a pretty, pretty high toll to pay for...youth indulgence.

But the immediate effects of these new and unknown drugs

are also being felt now.

-Hello, Cathy.

-Hi.

-How do you do?

-I'm fine, thank you.

Lovely to see you, thank you for having me.

'I've come to meet Cathy McCormack,

'whose daughter Cheryl took MDMA for several years.'

This is her room.

-Nice and bright...

-Yeah.

-..just the way she left it.

-Yeah, like a typical 17-year-old's room, right?

-Mm-hm.

-Apart from, like, it's very clean.

-THEY LAUGH

Well, that's new. STACEY LAUGHS

That wasn't her doing?

That wasn't her doing, no, no.

-All her pictures of all of her pals from school.

-Mm-hm.

-Can I have a look?

-Yeah.

-So this is her in her rugby gear?

-That's her rugby, yeah.

That was one of her big passions.

She wasn't really overly athletic,

-but she did like her rugby.

-She was into rugby, yeah?

-Oh, wow. So this was when she was baby, baby.

-Mm-hm.

Isn't she lovely?

Yeah...

Silly girls...

..and stupid mistakes.

Yeah.

'On this night, Cheryl took what she believed was MDMA.

'It wasn't.

'The cook had switched from safrole to another oil,

'with deadly consequences.

'Within hours, Cheryl was fighting for her life.'

There was two days of not knowing if she was going to live or not live,

and they finally said, "She's not going to make it."

And she went.

So, and that was three days before Christmas

So, needless to say, that's not my favourite season any more.

But, er, yeah.

-So...

-My gosh.

-Yeah.

Do you know why your Cheryl died?

She got PMMA instead of MDMA.

-Right.

-And...

..she thought she was getting MDMA, but it wasn't...

And so that's... They didn't find that out

till after the fact, of course, that that's what it was.

But they knew at the hospital immediately

that they were not dealing with just MDMA in her system,

but they didn't know what it was,

didn't know how to treat it.

And me being naive I said, "You know, she has a cold,

"maybe she took some cold medicine,"

thinking that that might have reacted with it.

But, no, they knew they were dealing with something much, much...

more than that, they just didn't know what.

It's always incredibly difficult, isn't it?

Listening to Mum talk about how she's lost her 17-year-old.

But I think what it does is it highlights...

..how you never really know what it is that you're taking.

I want to understand exactly how two very similar drugs

can cause such different reactions.

-So...this one here, right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

'Drew was Cheryl's best friend.'

I try to do something, like, different every year,

like, in honour of her.

'She called the emergency services on the night Cheryl died.'

I have a copy of it.

-You have a copy of the actual call?

-Yeah, of me making the call.

TELEPHONE RECORDING: Sorry, it's a really big emergency.

I think my friend is having withdrawal

and she's, like, not responding any more.

-OPERATOR:

-Is there anything in her mouth?

-I can't get her mouth open.

-MAN:

-Her mouth is clenched.

-It's clenched shut.

-She's got it clenched?

-Yes.

So, we have no idea why she's acting like this?

-No, I know why.

-Why?

-Because she's overdosing.

-On what?

-MDMA. It's like...

-Ecstasy.

-..it's ecstasy.

I'm really scared right now.

My God.

So that's that.

It's hard listening to, just, for how scared I was, I guess.

And I just didn't really know what to do, so...

It was just freaky.

And I didn't think we'd be in that situation at all and...

It was just, it was tough.

'Cheryl and Drew had done MDMA many times before.

'They believed they were safe.'

When I started doing it, I did it so much.

Like, cos, it's like, after the first time, it's so fun.

And you're just like, "Yeah!" like, "I want to keep doing this."

And then, once Cheryl started doing it with me,

like, we did it all the time, like, at school, at sleepovers.

-At school?

-Yeah, we did it at school.

We did it all the time.

So what time did you end up taking the pills?

At 9.30.

How many had you taken each?

-Only one...at the beginning.

-Right, so everyone had taken one.

Yeah, we all had taken one.

But, then, after about an hour,

it wasn't really affecting us the way that it should have been,

so we were like, "OK, well, like, let's take one more,

"like, it's not that big of a deal."

And so we all took one more, but then at that time, Cheryl had taken two.

'While the drug looked like their normal MDMA,

'there was a deadly difference.

'It was, in fact, twice as strong,

'and crucially, took a longer time to take effect.

'By now, Cheryl had taken way more than her usual dosage.'

She looked at me and just started mumbling.

I couldn't even make out what she was saying.

It was so quick and so, er, it was so freaky.

And then I was like, "OK, we need to call 911 now,

"like, something's not right."

And she looked at me and she just said, like,

"You only need to call 911 if they become unresponsive."

and that was when she went unconscious.

So, that was the last thing she ever said to me.

'It's believed at least five young people died

'from this one batch of PMMA.

'The police found the lab and it was closed down.

'The cook was arrested.

'What had begun as a bit of teenage fun ended in tragedy.'

You know, they were a young crowd who just wanted to have fun.

And they'd done it so many times before.

You know, they thought they knew what they had to do,

what would happen.

It wasn't until it started going slightly differently

that alarm bells started ringing.

And I think it just really highlights the fact

that you can think you're on top of it,

you can think you know what you're taking.

But there's no real way of ever being truly certain.

You know, there's always going to be that element of risk and...

..unfortunately, for these girls, you know,

they've learnt that the hard way.

The problem of illegal drugs

containing unknown and possibly dangerous chemicals

goes much wider than ecstasy...

..as I was to discover when I visited East Hastings in Vancouver

that's known as the heroin capital of Canada.

Suddenly, there's an emergency.

'A user on the street has overdosed.

'He's still alive...just.'

-Somebody's called

-911? Yes.

'The team from a nearby clinic,

'fearing this is more than just heroin,

'leap into action.'

-Do you know what he's taken.

-No-one knows.

Definitely heroin, but maybe mixed with something else.

MAN GROANS

There we go. You've had an overdose.

Yeah, yeah. Welcome back, buddy.

Just keep taking breaths, OK?

No, keep that on, suck some air.

I was having a chat with someone and somebody ran through

and said, "Someone's OD'ing outside, someone's OD'ing outside."

So, I just followed this guy.

He brought the gas, he brought this box which is full of equipment.

And I'm speaking to this lady here

and she saying if they hadn't come at the time they did,

there's every chance that he could have died.

A perfect example of how huge a problem this is.

They don't know what he's taken.

It's crazy, it's, like, crazy.

'After 15 minutes of treatment

'and receiving specialist anti-overdose medication,

'the man is stable enough to be taken to hospital.

'Darwin Fisher runs Insite, a nearby clinic for heroin users.'

-You think he will be OK?

-Yeah, he's going to be OK.

-I mean...

-Later, brother.

..you've just saved that guy's life.

Well, group effort and street awareness too.

You know, most people on the streets know that there's a risk there,

so they're getting help, right?

-Getting help.

-I can't believe what just happened.

Like, it's quite overwhelming, isn't it?

Yeah, it looks a little different when you actually see it happening.

-It's not a dry statistic all of a sudden.

-Right.

-Yeah.

So come on in, let's have a look.

'Insite was set up to provide a safe place for addicts.

'Anyone who overdoses here receives instant medical attention.

'At least users who don't necessarily know what they're taking

'do know, if it does go wrong, they'll get help.'

I've got filter, cooker, water... There we go.

-Then I go to this booth here.

-OK.

So you come in with the heroin...

-Yep, we buy it on the streets.

-And then you collect...

And then we collect the gear...

'I've come to meet Trevor.

'He's been using heroin since the '90s.'

..and we sit down here.

And we do this here

because we got nurses and everything here that help us out.

I can tell you, it's probably the safest place I've been.

I've dropped, I've overdosed twice.

Right, like, I've flatlined twice

and these people have brought me back.

Talk me through what happened then.

OK, I come in and...

I was using... Let me think here.

No, it was fentanyl.

-Fentanyl, which is a...

-Tell me that again.

-Fentanyl...

-Fentanyl, I've heard of this.

Yes, it's a...morphine-based product,

and it's very powerful,

it's like ten times more powerful than morphine.

I did the hit and as soon as I took the needle out,

I knew, I knew, it was like, "Uh-oh!"

And then, I come to and I've got the oxygen mask on

and they're waking me up.

'It's 10am and it's time for Trevor's first hit of the day.'

You've got your heroin. Where's your heroin?

It's right here. It goes in the cooker like this.

'Nowadays, he's so worried about what could be in his gear

'he always injects here at Insite.'

Fair warning, I'm a jug shooter.

Most people shoot up in their arms or legs.

-Does that mean you inject in your neck?

-Yes.

OK. You've always injected in your neck?

No, it's just the easiest vein for me to me find now.

I've worn out my veins.

Now I just come in here...

That's it.

That's that done, yeah?

That's it.

They usually ask me if I'm even using dope, I'm so quick sometimes.

Now, I just wait for it to kick in,

and there we go.

Unfortunately, that's what I have to do to get better.

I describe that as Mum's hug.

One of the best feelings in the world

but it's the worst thing to have to do.

In order for me to be able to function

or be able walk around during the day,

I have to have first hit

or I can't do nothing. I'm a wreck, right?

Last year, 23 people died in this part of Canada

after taking heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl.

Dealers cut this stronger drug with the heroin

to give users a quicker and stronger high,

often with devastating results.

Let's go up to Onsite.

-So this is Onsite?

-Yep.

-Just upstairs from Insite.

-Just upstairs.

It makes sense to have it called...

'Upstairs in the rehab unit,

'I find another addict who's taken fentanyl by accident

'on many occasions.'

-I'm Stacey.

-Stacey, I'm Daniel.

Really nice to meet you.

I've been dead six times.

No way, flatlined six times.

Flatlined, you know, heart stopped six times.

So, what were you injecting?

Um, well...my drug of choice has been heroin,

but...often the heroin isn't heroin.

You might be getting fentanyl

or oxycontin with a benzodiazepine mix.

I'm hearing more and more about this fentanyl.

Yeah, very, very powerful.

And, with me, like, I do it,

I feel that euphoria for about 30 seconds

and then I wake up in a hospital.

And..to find out that my heart had been stopped.

And the sad part is, for me, there's no fear in it

because I don't know what's going on.

I'll wake up and everybody else around me is freaked out

and, like, "Wow, you were blue, you were dead."

And, I'm like, you know, it's like I just woke up from a sleep.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

The uncertainty about what could be in street and party drugs

is starting to change the way people behave.

I've come Toronto to find out more.

Oh, hello, it's Stacey.

-Hello, how are you? I'm Stacey.

-Peter.

Really lovely to meet you, Peter.

-Hello, love, how are you?

-Meg.

-I'm Stacey.

How's it going? I'm Shaun.

Hi, I can come with you tonight?

Yes, you sure can.

Perfect, let me follow you in, thank you.

You look lovely, I like your shorts.

Meg, talk me through the feeling of MDMA.

Well...it's a nice build up.

It's slow, it's progressive, it works with you.

Um...

But what I look for in it is the peak.

And, like, the peak is so euphoric and it makes you, just, so happy.

And you never get nervous, you never get frightened?

Every time before I go to the club, I get nervous...every time.

But...not about rolling, cos I test my things.

I'm a firm believer in testing, I know where I get my stuff...

Talk to me about that, you say you always test your thing.

-Erm, this is the capsule.

-So that's your MDMA?

-Yeah.

It comes in brown or white.

So, what I do is I open the capsule.

'Meg tests every drug she buys

'and is convinced this has kept her safe.'

So, the chemical.

I like to shake it.

It comes out purple.

Oh, it is, yeah, it's purply.

So, I know, tonight, I'm taking MDMA.

'In three years of testing her drugs,

'Meg has found some truly shocking ingredients.'

I've had everything, like, pretty much on the chart show up before.

Oh, really?

I've had methylone, yeah, that's normal.

Heroin, yes, meth, yes,

aspirin, sugar, Ritalin.

That's a perfect example, isn't it?

Of...how many dodge...drugs are floating about.

Yeah, you can throw flour in a pill, salt and pepper in a pill.

-You can throw anything in a pill.

-Wow.

'Of course, testing is only a guide,

'but it does seems to me better to have some idea

'of what you're about to put in your body.'

The guys are just getting ready.

But I do find the whole thing utterly fascinating.

You know, the idea that Meg seems to have really...researched...

..all of these things.

And, you know, she's adamant that she's going to take them,

so she wants to make sure she's as safe as she can be.

You know, no drug is...100% safe.

'Meg's confident she knows what she's taking tonight,

'but I'm going to tag along to see if she's right.

'In recent years, more than 25 people have died

'and many more hospitalised in Canada

'after taking what they believed was MDMA.

'After a hard day at work and long nights dancing ahead,

'Meg decides it's time to drop her pre-tested pill.'

You've taken it? Yeah?

So Meg's just dropped her pill.

She said to me she feels really confident,

she feels completely calm,

she's up for it

and her fella Shaun said

that it normally takes her about half an hour

to really come up,

so you'll really see a different side to her.

But already I can see she's got the bottle,

a cold bottle of booze,

and she's putting it all over her body cos she's so hot.

She's saying "I'm hot, I'm hot."

Quite full-on.

'Over the next four hours,

'I watch Meg dance and party nonstop.

'It seems like this time her pill is safe.'

So, Meg, how are you feeling?

-Really good, I'm really happy right now.

-Yeah?

Yeah, I'm feeling good.

Talk me through what's going on inside your mind.

Nothing, I'm here with you, it's just...I'm happy.

And I want to dance and I have energy.

I don't feel like I worked all day

or that I was drained when I got here.

Yeah? So you're having a brilliant night?

Oh, yeah, of course.

OK, and what time will you go on till tonight?

-What time is it now?

-Nearly two.

Er...probably four, when the club closes,

and then I'll probably just go home,

walk the dogs, wind down...

..and carry on with life.

'Meg does appear fine and continues to party until the early hours.

'The law enforcement here is also changing its approach.

'Now they go out to try and actively disrupt the drug dealers.

'The police's gang unit have adopted a zero tolerance approach

'to anyone connected with the city's drug trade.

'I've been invited to spend a night on the front line.'

-Every officer will have one of these?

-Yeah.

HE COCKS GUN

But they're necessary when you're dealing with people

affiliated with gangs?

-They can be.

-And I guess they're all armed?

Yeah, many of them are. SIREN RINGS

We're going to... one of our units has stopped a vehicle

and they have a guy who's armed and dangerous.

So, right now, the guys have got an alert on their laptop,

telling them that one of their officers

has pulled a vehicle to one side

and the guy inside that car has been known in the past

to be armed and dangerous, is that right?

To carry guns or other dangerous weapons.

Right, so we're just heading there now.

'The police check all car licence plates.

'Any owned by guys with links to the drugs gangs are pulled over.'

They're searching the vehicle for drugs and guns.

A lot of these vehicles will have hidden compartments put into them.

They'll have a switch in the dashboard somewhere

where you click it or turn the turn signal twice

and this thing'll pop open

-and then you'll be a loaded handgun there.

-Really?

Oh, yeah, yeah, it's very common.

'Fed up with the violence based around the drug business,

'the public have forced the police to take the war on drugs

'right back to the gangs.'

A lot of the citizens were saying,

"Look, we can't go downtown and have a good time.

"We can't go to a restaurant and have a meal

"without having possibly armed gangsters having meals beside us."

And so that's what the public were calling, er,

and that's what the enforcement team here does.

Is to make sure that it's uncomfortable

for gangsters to come down here.

'Back on the road

'and it's only minutes before

'another suspected gang member is pulled over.'

My understanding is that they did a quick check on this car,

they were following the car, and then the car darted off

and it looked like he was trying to lose the police.

So they've brought him back round

and he's said "Oh, no, I was just picking a pal up."

So they're just trying to figure things out now.

'The driver says he's just picked up some takeaway food.'

My partner here wants to talk to you for a second.

'But he's on the on the police database

'and that's enough for his car to be searched.'

It's starting to become apparent

that this isn't as clear cut as they first thought.

So, the guy that was driving...

They've just found a knife in the car.

The guy that was driving, they recognised him,

he said, like, five years ago, he was a nightmare,

he said he was a massive shithead, whatever that means.

I don't know if he was, like, deep into the gangs.

And the passenger, there was a knife found on his side,

But we'll know more when the officers...

have finished searching the vehicle and chatting to the guys.

'All cars are searched for drugs and weapons.

'They find a box of ammo.

'It turns out the driver does have a licence to carry a gun,

'but everyone with a record is treated with suspicion.'

-These are legal?

-Oh, yeah, they're legal.

These are legal, right?

Why do you feel like you need to carry them?

Just in case you need one,

you've got a handcuff key here in the trunk.

I have no idea...

That's not illegal either...

-It's just odd, it's just odd...

-Yeah, it is really odd.

It is really odd.

You're saying you were a nightmare five years ago,

-but now you've completely changed your life?

-Yeah.

-You're legitimate?

-Yeah.

I always was, I was just hanging around with the wrong crowd.

Yeah? What, like the drug dealers round here?

Just people that are idiots,

people who like to get in trouble, fight, think that they're tough.

Yeah. Have you been to prison?

Er...I've been to jail.

Yeah?

-How many times?

-Once.

'No illegal weapons or drugs were found in their car.

'The men were free to go on their way.'

-Yeah. Thanks for not shooting.

-Bye.

I still want to understand

why Canada has become this massive drugs producer.

The whole population of this vast country

is just over half that of the UK.

So, we're making our way to an unmanned part of the border.

Zero Avenue.

It goes all the way up from there and it ends at Zero Avenue.

'Before I leave, I meet up again with local journalist Mike Hager.'

This is definitely it?

This is it - America, Canada.

Stop it.

So that road, this road.

So we're in Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada...

The States?

America, yeah, that's right.

This is insane.

I have literally, I have been so many borders all around the world

and I've never ever...experienced anything quite like this.

5,000 plus kilometres that way to the Atlantic Ocean.

There's a lot of rugged terrain, totally unmanned.

This is a smugglers' paradise.

'The ecstasy, or molly, trade

'is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

'And for this business to flourish,

'the cooks and the dealers need access to the biggest market,

'and it's right here on their doorstep.'

Well, cops on this side have told us

that two SUVs can pull up,

one on the Canadian side, one on the American side

and someone can jump out into another vehicle

or they can toss a bag

and then they're off.

You know, by the time they've hit the highway on either side,

very difficult for law enforcement to catch them.

How much of the MDMA that's being produced here in Canada

is ending up in the States?

Well, we've been told from people on both sides of the industry

that about 90% goes down to the American market.

There's 300 million people versus Canada's just 30 million.

Such a huge appetite down there.

Supply and demand, you know? First rule of economics.

AEROPLANE ENGINE ROARS

For the final leg of my journey,

I've come to America, and Atlanta.

Molly is now a big deal here.

Doctors have seen the number of cases involving the drug

soar by 50% in the past two years.

In one bust alone, police here seized molly

with a street value 3 million.

# I'm fresh up out the railway Been a long day...#

I've come to meet one of Atlanta's leading rappers, Reese.

# Stressin' about this money That's a long day

# I turned up at your function... #

# Pull up to the club, VIP, that's where you find me...#

Nice, I like it.

-Thank you.

-I like it.

Want me to do another one? One more?

He released this track, titled Molly, in 2012.

I made it because, at the time,

molly was getting very big in the streets of Atlanta.

A lot of people were talking about it.

So I was like, "Hey, we should make a song

"that's kind of like an anthem for the molly takers."

# I been working all day

# Posted in the trap I been trapping all day...#

Molly's everywhere.

It's in the suburbs, in the hood,

in...school, it's everywhere.

Everybody takes molly.

I find it so interesting

how, like, the younger crowd, the younger generation

are just so influenced by, you know,

what their favourite rappers are rapping about, like, so much so,

like, you know, Jay-Z was rapping about molly

and then the whole crowd were like taking molly straight away,

even when they hadn't heard of it.

If you're an influential person and you talking about molly,

everybody's going be like, "Man, this is a cool guy."

Goes from one person to another and then it just affects the world.

-Yeah, it's nuts.

-It's like a virus.

'These guys may rap about molly,

'but they're a lot less keen in actually taking it.'

And you boys, you take molly?

I don't, I have before...

I'm cool on it, and then I said, "Nope..."

-Come downs aren't worth it?

-Uh-uh, I'm straight.

# Party... #

It seems almost everyone I meet

has had some bad experiences with this drug.

It kind of scared me.

You know, a lot of the side effects people don't talk about.

Cos, you know, people will say, like, molly's a sexual drug.

Yeah, the party drug, the love drug.

But, honestly, like, molly's going give you a soft dick,

you're going to have the lockjaw so you have some gum

cos you're going to fucking grind your teeth.

You're going do all kind of weird shit...

Molly be making some people fucking shoot people, kill folks.

I know a couple of dudes who drop a molly

and they'd be having pistols

and they'd be like "Bro..." offering to shoot somebody.

'Here, in Atlanta,

'molly is becoming as popular as crack and methamphetamine.

'I want to meet those at the heart of this business, the dealers.

'Tracking down guys like this anywhere is tough,

'but I've been the told the men I'm about to see

'are serious players.'

They've agreed to talk to me on the understanding that

we don't show their identity and we don't reveal their location

so the camera's got to go off now.

So, we're about five minutes away, right?

-Wow, look at you three.

-Hey, how you doing?

Nice to meet you. How's things?

Thank you so much for allowing me to come to your...trap house?

Is that where we are?

Yeah this is a... Trap, trap, trap...

Trap, trap, trap? What's a trap house? Tell me.

Trap house is just like,

you know what I'm saying, your neighbourhood pharmacy.

That's what a trap house is.

So tell me what your job is, what do you deal with?

My job is to supply the users with any drug they want

because this is a one-stop shop.

And what do people want the most?

They want their molly, man. That's what they want the most.

-Molly, yeah?

-Yeah.

Why is molly so popular here? Tell me.

In my opinion, molly is so popular because...

they looking for molly for, basically, you know, it's like

a party thing and...

you know what I'm saying, it's the sex drug,

you know, you can take it in pill form.

So, can I, I'm sorry to interrupt, can I ask you?

So this is pretty standard, right?

-This is one of your customers?

-Yeah.

-Hello.

-Hey.

-How are you?

-I'm doing fine.

What have you come for today?

Some gas.

What's gas?

This right here, weed.

Just weed, yeah, to smoke?

-It ain't just weed.

-It's high-grade weed.

-It's high grade?

-High grade.

-High grade.

'The dealers told me they've been selling everything

'from crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis for more than a decade.

'But the demand for molly has really taken off in the past two years.'

So, how much money do you make off of molly, would you say, a week?

We're talking seven, ten.

-Seven to ten...thousand?

-Mm-hm.

'And then one of the dealers, to show me the gear was good,

'took a large amount of powdered molly.'

-Wow.

-He has to taste it, yeah?

'Like so people involved in the drug business,

'dealers like these guys often rely on the threat of violence

'to protect their business.'

-And what, this is yours, is it? This is your gun?

-Mm-hm.

And that's yours, yeah?

Where do you get your guns from?

-Off the streets, man.

-Off the streets, yeah?

How many times have you had to use this gun?

See this right here?

-So that's recent, is it?

-Yeah.

-Who did you shoot at?

-Somebody.

-What did they do?

-Money, family, anything.

-But this particular situation.

-This situation right here was money.

-Money? He owed you money?

-Mm-hm.

-How much?

-A thousand.

A thousand, yeah?

-Where did you shoot him?

-In the leg.

-And did he live?

-Yeah, he lived.

Murder would bring a lot of heat, you see what I'm saying?

That's not good for business.

'The drug was clearly beginning to take effect.'

You having a little dance?

Yeah, have a little tune in my head.

Yeah?

HE RAPS

I'm good.

'And then two young girls who were no more than 18 or 19

'who had watched all of our filming

'wanted to join in the party.

'After witnessing drug taking and with two loaded guns on the side,

'this seemed like a good time to leave.'

Yeah, now, that was quite full-on. Erm...

I think, probably, the main thing I took

from having a chat from those lads

was the idea that molly seems to have flooded into America now.

You know, it does seems to be everywhere.

And initially, I always associated it with being on the party scene,

you know, it was a party drug.

But they're saying it's very much a street drug now.

And like every other street drug,

the guys who are in charge are serious guys.

You know, they're not mucking around.

'Atlanta is a city troubled by guns, gangs and violence,

'and much of this crime has its roots in the drug business,

'and increasingly, that means molly.

'Just a few miles away from the trap house,

'I come across a scene only too familiar.'

We've just driven past.

And there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight police cars.

I've had a chat with one of the officers,

he said someone's been shot.

I want to have a chat with a couple of the people floating about

and see if it's drug-related.

Hi.

We just wondered if there were any eye witnesses

that might like to talk.

-Might be up there.

-Up that way? OK, thank you.

'This is the Bluff,

'one of Atlanta's poorest neighbourhoods.

'Police are a regular sight here.

'I wanted to know if anyone had seen or heard anything.'

-So two guys were arguing...

-Yeah.

-And he went back into that house...

-And got his pistol.

-..got his gun

-and shot the other guy three times?

-Three times.

-And you saw this?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-So the guy is in hospital now?

-No, he's dead.

-He's dead?

-Yeah, he died.

-Did you know him?

-Yeah, I knew him.

I've known him since he was a baby.

Speaking to the eyewitness, the guy who lives here,

he said that, you know, it's very normal,

it's very usual for kids who sell dope to be carrying pistols.

They were his exact words.

They don't even hide them, you know, they openly carry them.

They're not scared of anyone, they have no fear.

Our eyewitness, you know, he knows the boy's father.

Um...

But he said he hears gunshots every single night of the week.

You know, it's not uncommon.

It's not clear if this shooting is connected to the molly trade,

but one thing is obvious,

in places like this, ecstasy has joined meth and crack

as a street drug controlled by violent gangs.

When I began this film,

I thought MDMA was one of the less dangerous party drugs.

But this is a drug that's changing.

The cooks making molly are replacing MDMA

with a whole range of chemicals,

some of which can have devastating effects.

The authorities may have slowed down

the trade in safrole oil from Cambodia,

but the alternatives could be even worse.

'Next time, I travel to Africa.'

This is Johannesburg.

Everyone's got a gun expect me...

and we're door-stepping drug dealers.

'I find out about a new potent strain of skunk.'

This smells so strong.

'And I discover a highly addictive new cannabis mix.'

I smoke until I die.

I get crazy if I don't get this thing.