NEW DRUG PERIL MAY BE ON THE WAY

TOMS RIVER -- Cocaine came. Heroin came. Ecstasy came.

Is PMA the next big drug on the Jersey Shore horizon?

First Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Terrence P. Farley says
authorities here have not yet detected the presence of
paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, but he adds, "It may only be a matter
of time" before the deadly drug, masquerading as Ecstasy, shows up
here.

PMA, a synthetic stimulant and hallucinogen, is the subject of a
recent alert from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which on Oct.
23 released its intelligence report on the drug and called it an
emerging "cause for concern."

The DEA titled its report "Dancing with Death," because PMA is being
surreptitiously marketed to young people in dance clubs and at raves.
Fatal PMA overdoses were reported this summer at raves and and
nightclubs in Orlando, Fla., and Chicago. The drug also has been
detected in Virginia and Michigan, according to the DEA.

The victims, according to federal authorities, mistakenly believed
they were consuming Ecstasy, which is rarely lethal, although
researchers say it causes other long-term problems for users.

The Middle Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement
Network also is warning drug investigators to watch for the pills
known by one street name as "Death."

If the demand for Ecstasy continues to rise, the risk of accidental
PMA ingestion would likely follow, Farley said. As always with drugs,
money is a big issue with dealers, Farley said.

Economic incentives abound to create counterfeit Ecstasy, even if the
fake product - PMA - doesn't produce many return customers, Farley
said. There is no safe dose of PMA, he said, and no legitimate reason
to consume it.

But as legislators have made it harder and more dangerous to possess
the chemicals necessary to produce Ecstasy, clandestine drug
operators are scrounging around for cheaper, more accessible
materials. PMA was briefly popular in the 1970s but lost its cachet
because the high it produced was lackluster, and the downside -- the
drug's extreme toxicity -- was not worth the risk of consuming it,
authorities said.

"Initially, the dose is milder than Ecstasy, and when they don't get
the high, the euphoria, they double up," Farley said. And even though
they think they may be getting just "weak" Ecstasy, they could be
getting much more than they bargained for.

"This is a danger, in and of itself," Farley said. "The effects are
of short duration, so they take more. This is much more toxic than
Ecstasy."

DanceSafe, a national nonprofit group trying to reduce drug deaths
and injuries at raves and in clubs, has analyzed Ecstasy tablets. The
organization found the drug is often cut or replaced entirely by
substances such as PCP, Valium, caffeine, detromethorphan -- an
ingredient used in cough suppressants -- and Ketamine, an animal
tranquilizer and sometimes human date-rape drug.

DanceSafe says PMA is cheaper and safer to make. It is not a
recreational drug with its own demand.

"People don't go out trying to score PMA," said Farley. "They are
being ripped off " by illicit drug manufacturers who know the
chemicals that go into PMA are easier to obtain than those needed to
manufacture Ecstasy.

Even the dealers who are generally being the offered cheaper product
may not be told what they are really selling, Farley said. Dealers
buy it at the same price, or at a slowly lower price, "and they think
they are getting a good deal," Farley said.

The PMA that has surfaced in this country has been imprinted with the
Mitsubishi logo: white capsules with three diamonds. Although there
is no connection to the Japanese car company, the drug also has come
to be known as "Stacked Mitsubishi" or "Double-Stacked Mitsubishi."

"This is coming from a Mitsubishi pill press," said Farley noting
that Mitsubishi also is a popular "brand" of Ecstasy. "The people who
are selling it are selling it as Ecstasy and they are disguising the
product to look exactly like it."

PMA also has appeared in tablet, capsule and powder form and is
white, pink or yellow.

"From 1974 to early 2000, no deaths attributed to PMA abuse were
reported in Canada or the United States," according to the DEA. Since
May, three young people died in Illinois and seven in central
Florida, authorities said.

Medical treatment does not appear to reverse the damage to the body,
Farley said. With Ecstasy, he said, "it reverses very quickly," once
the body employs its own warning system and the user stops, cools
down or drinks water, Farley said.

With Ecstasy, the body's internal regulators kick in once the body
temperature reaches 100 degrees and the user realizes something is
not right, he said.

There is no such "signal" with PMA. The body temperature meanwhile
continues to rise without any internal signal that alerts the
individual to cool down. PMA patients have entered comas at
temperature of 104 to 105, and even then, the body's temperature will
continue to increase, federal authorities warn.

"You're literally cooking from the inside out," said Farley.

In two Chicago cases in May, the body temperatures of two victims
remained at 108 degrees hours after their deaths. The deaths were
preceded by convulsions, intracranial hemorrhages and other
uncontrolled bleeding, Farley said.

"The problem with a rapidly increasing body temperature is that you
don't necessarily have the ability to tell someone you need help,"
Farley said. "The toxic effects become irreversible, but the first
time your friends notice is when you start flopping around on the
floor like a fish."

Authorities say there is no difference in size, shape, texture or
weight between Ecstasy and PMA tablets.

According to the London Toxicology Group, PMA and another synthetic
compound, parameth-oxymethylamphetamine, or PMMA, are responsible for
several deaths in Canada, Australia and Denmark. The drugs also have
been detected in Spain, Sweden and in Austria, where a 17-year-old
male died in July after using PMA. His death lead to the seizure of
4,478 tablets, according to the international drug information
monitoring system.

Farley said that he fears PMA will find its way here because the
drugs that come to Ocean County come from Philadelphia or New York,
which is the route drugs from Florida generally take.

"While we are not looking to scare anyone -- and we have absolutely
not seen it here yet -- we want to alert people," he said. "There are
a lot of kids who use this stuff and this stuff can be fatal. People
should be brought up to date on the potential danger of this."