Ecstacy latest drug threat in US
2000-08-11 16:31
Washington - Ecstasy is supplanting heroin and cocaine as the chief concern
facing authorities in the United States, and this time the source
is Europe, rather than Latin America, the traditional conduit for
illegal drugs into the US.
Up to 80% of ecstasy is imported from secret laboratories
in the Netherlands, with Belgium also supplying a considerable
amount.
US teenagers have taken to the pills - said to produce a feeling
of wellbeing and general euphoria - to such an extent that one
expert is talking about a "new front in the war against illegal
drugs".
Routine flights are being used to transport the illegal wares,
forcing drug enforcement officials and customs to focus their
attention on airports, where they have achieved some success.
Since the beginning of the year they have seized eight million
ecstasy tablets, 20 times the amount confiscated in 1998. At the
end of July, a new record was set in Los Angeles when 2.1 million
tablets were discovered in the hold of an Air France aircraft
arriving from the Netherlands.
The investigators know only a small proportion of the ecstasy
smuggled in is ever found and the rest finds its way onto the
streets and into the clubs of the bigger cities, like Los Angeles,
New York and Miami.
The Drug Enforcement Agency sounded the alarm recently, calling a
conference of experts to discuss strategies to deal with the new
threat, but even the government's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, was
forced to concede that no appropriate counter to it had been found.
"We have to change," Customs Service head Raymond Kelly said. Until
recently the focus had been on the southern borders of the US,
"but now we must concentrate increasingly on Europe", he added.
Drug enforcement and customs staff have been increased at airports
and sniffer dogs have been given intensive courses in detecting
ecstasy.
In addition there is to be a five-billion-dollar publicity campaign
to bring the dangers of the drug, which is dealt and used mainly at
large "rave" events, to the public's attention.
These were merely stopgap measures, particularly as the well
organised drug rings had now become involved in dealing in ecstasy,
whereas previously smaller dealers had predominated, Kelly said.
The bigger operators had been drawn to the business by the large
profit margins offered, and they had the funds, the network of
middlemen and the small-time dealers to take the drug beyond the
rave scene and into the small towns of the US, he added.
Young people pay up to $50 for a single pill at the raves, a
huge markup on the 50 cents the dealers pay for the drug at source.
The DEA believes the smuggling has to date been controlled by an
Israeli crime syndicate which hires "mules" to carry the drugs on
scheduled flights.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of US teenagers
experimenting with the drug or using it regularly, but the
authorities regard the quantities smuggled and the switch by the
big crime organisations from heroin and cocaine as an indication
that there is cause for alarm.
In a recent survey 2.5 per cent of school pupils between the ages
of 16 and 18 said they had taken the drug at least once in the
preceding month. A year ago the comparable figure was 1.5 per cent.
US authorities are particularly concerned that many who consume
the drug regard it as completely harmless.
Experts warn, however, that raised blood pressure, dehydration and
palpitations are not the only effects of ecstasy, which is
chemically related to mescalin and amphetamine. They fear its use
could result in lasting damage to parts of the brain.
- Sapa-DPA
- SAPA