U.S. drug czar John Walters recently warned that Canadian suppliers are shipping ecstasy pills laced with methamphetamine across the border to the U.S., the Windsor Star reported Jan. 4.

"Historic progress against ecstasy availability and use is in jeopardy of being rolled back by Canadian criminal organizations," said Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). "Desperate to develop their client base, they are dangerously altering a product for which demand by youth and young adults had plummeted and are exploiting vulnerabilities along our shared border. This is alarming for the youth of both Canada and the United States."

Another ONDCP official, who did not want to be identified, called the reported meth/ecstasy mix "a significant and large-scale problem and something we are very worried about."

ONDCP said that 55 percent of ecstasy samples seized in the U.S. last year contained methamphetamine. However, police in Windsor, Ontario -- one of the border communities cited by ONDCP -- said that they have not had a noticeable problem with combinations of ecstasy and meth.