"Drug Marketers," not "Drug Dealers"

The global ecstasy production, shipping and distribution business is much too sophisticated for the outdated word "dealer." These are sophisticated marketing operations, as evidenced by this story from The Toronto Star:

Kid-friendly drugs seized by police

Members of Toronto's drug squad have made a $6 million seizure of cartoon-themed ecstasy tablets - designed to appeal to young teens - spiked with highly addictive methamphetamine.

The designer drugs were mixed with caffeine extract from China, methamphetamine and food colouring and stamped with Batman and 7-Up logos. "It's downplaying the dangers," Insp. Bill Ellison said. "(The drug producers) did their homework. Why buy a white pill when you can buy something more colourful?"

Five people face drug charges and are in custody.

These criminals are deliberately going after our children, creating appealing little pills that look fun and safe, but are anything but! Here's some more troubling information from an accompanying article in the Star:

"They think they were buying straight MDMA (Ecstasy). In actual fact, they were ingesting a variety of unknown substances including methamphetamine," Ellison said.

The seized raw materials could have made more than 240,000 pills worth about $6 million, said Ellison, and included two kilos of raw methamphetamine, two kilos of Ecstasy powder, 26 kilos of caffeine extract, a pill press capable of making 1,000 pills an hour and other pill-making paraphernalia.

Police also seized 237 grams of crystal methamphetamine, known as "ice," 100 grams of ketamine, 16 grams of marijuana and $22,784 in Canadian and American cash.