Pubdate: Sun, 06 Aug 2000
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
Contact:  P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
Feedback: http://extranet.globe.com/LettersEditor/default.asp
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Author: Karen Deyoung, Washington Post
Cited: www.freevibe.com

DRUG FOCUS SHIFTS TO BUTTONED-DOWN ECSTASY SET

WASHINGTON - Two years ago, quantities of the illegal drug Ecstasy
entering the United States were not a major concern for federal law
enforcement. With attention focused on cocaine and heroin from South
America, searching well-dressed travelers on flights from Paris and
Amsterdam for Ecstasy tablets was not a high priority.

Today, Ecstasy is the fastest-growing abused drug in the United
States. Although only about 8 percent of high school seniors reported
having tried it in 1999, it is the only illegal drug for which
significant usage increases were detected last year.

In the past seven months, almost 8 million pills have been seized by
the US Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration, 20
times the number seized in all of 1998.

Two congressional hearings on Ecstacy have been held this summer, and
bills have been introduced in both houses to increase penalties for
trafficking and possession. Last week, the DEA held a conference on
Ecstasy here that was attended by more than 300 US and international
law enforcement officials and drug-abuse prevention
specialists.

First developed in Germany in 1912, Ecstasy is different from other
drugs in the ways it is produced, trafficked, and used, challenging
traditional notions of how to deal with smuggling and abuse.

"It's changed our institutional mindset," said the Customs
commissioner, Raymond Kelly. "We were kind of southern-focused, and
now we've had to extend that focus to Europe." Customs has had to move
personnel and change techniques, including scrutiny of passengers on
European airlines.

Ecstacy, unlike cocaine and heroin, does not originate in remote
jungles or highlands. At least 80 percent of Ecstasy comes from
clandestine urban laboratories in just one country, the Netherlands.
Most of the chemicals used to make it are controlled under
international law, but they travel easily to Amsterdam and The Hague
across the newly borderless European Union.

Most of the Ecstasy entering the United States is trafficked by what
the DEA calls "Israeli Organized Crime," referring to a nationality
not previously associated with the drug underworld. Its chieftains are
well-traveled, in their 20s, speak multiple languages, and carry more
than one passport. Much business is conducted via cell phones and
computers so they can track shipments minute by minute.

Those caught bringing Ecstasy into this country from Europe range from
New York Hasidic Jews to Los Angeles strippers to middle-class Texas
families.

Local police concentrate their efforts on interdicting large
quantities of Ecstasy reaching the area. Tens of thousands of pills
have been seized this year at Dulles International Airport on flights
from Europe; an arrest on a New York-Washington train last summer
netted 10,000 tablets.

In April, federal and local investigators arrested two Israeli men
when they arrived at Boston and Brookline hotels to collect packages
that arrived from Paris with $4 million of Ecstasy.

Late last month, federal authorities announced their largest-ever
seizure of Ecstasy, about 2.1 million tablets produced in the
Netherlands, on a flight from Paris at Los Angeles International
Airport. But Israeli Tamer Adel Ibrahim, the man identified by Customs
as the head of the drug importation ring, remained at large.

Ecstasy is easy to hide and has an astronomical profit margin. A
single pill purchased for 50 cents in Amsterdam can sell for as much
as $50 at "rave" dance parties throughout the country, in the
cavernous warehouses and clubs where thousands of young people gather
for all-night dancing.

"It's not a very visible drug," said Inspector Cathy Lanier, who heads
the Metropolitan Police's major narcotics branch in Washington. "It's
concentrated down in the nightclubs, behind closed doors."

Known scientifically as 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, Ecstasy is
a ubiquitous subject on the Internet. On sites where erratically
scheduled raves are advertised, visitors chat about its availability
and purity. Scientific articles are posted warning of its dangers or
attempting to disprove them. The White House Drug Control Policy
Office does almost all its anti-Ecstasy postings on its
www.freevibe.com site and a site devoted to parent education.

Called the "hug drug," Ecstasy triggers a chemical reaction in the
brain that lowers inhibitions and engenders feelings of well-being and
closeness to others. There are few reports of LSD-like bad trips, and
almost no violence associated with its use. It is not considered addictive.

Ecstasy was not illegal until 1985. A continuing problem for law
enforcement is that many users believe it's harmless, and there was
little scientific evidence to prove them wrong until recently.

Immediate side effects include increased heart rate and blood
pressure, dehydration, overheating, teeth-grinding, and jaw-clenching.
Emergency room admissions associated with its use have more than
doubled in the past two years, but only a handful of deaths have been
attributed to Ecstasy.

But with funding for government and private research into its effects,
there is now "pretty good evidence that it probably causes permanent
damage to a portion" of the brain, said David M. McDowell, an
assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and head of the Substance
Treatment and Research Service at Columbia University.

Ecstasy impairs the function and long-term production of serotonin, a
brain chemical that regulates emotional and cognitive functions and
whose absence can lead to major psychological problems, McDowell said.
Other recent studies have indicated possible long-term memory loss and
cognitive impairment.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens