Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2007
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2007 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)

DRUG'S CHEMISTRY ALTERED JUST ENOUGH TO BEAT ILLEGAL DRUG POSSESSION RAP

Police have been forced to drop charges against a man caught with a 
cache of 28,000 pills because the drug -- which has the same effect 
as LSD and Ecstasy -- is not illegal.

RCMP and Canada Border Service Agency officers raided a Moncton home 
two months ago and seized a shipment of pills worth $1-million that 
they thought were LSD and Ecstasy.

But the people who made the pills altered the drugs' chemistry just 
enough to beat the law -- the drug they found no longer matches any 
on the list of restricted drugs under the Controlled Drug and 
Substances Act. So charges were dropped against a 41-year-old man for 
possession of illegal drugs.

The pills contain a "designer drug" is known as Piperazine, a 
chemical used to make industrial cleaners, made in clandestine labs 
in Europe by black-market chemists, police say.
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