ECSTASY KNOCKOFF BLAMED IN 9 DEATHS IN ILLINOIS, FLORIDA

A dangerous knockoff of the club drug Ecstasy is popping up in suburbs
of major U.S. cities, where it has been blamed in the recent deaths of
nine young adults and teenagers.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs are warning that
dealers are passing off the amphetamine PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine)
as Ecstasy, a less potent stimulant and hallucinogen that is popular
at clubs, rave parties and college campuses.

A DEA intelligence briefing issued Thursday predicted more overdoses
and deaths as club drugs become more widespread and more users
unknowingly take PMA.

''The problem is, you can't tell the difference looking at them,'' DEA
intelligence chief Steven Casteel says. ''Kids don't know what they're
taking. And now it's spread to Middle America.''

PMA, developed in the 1970s as a synthetic ''designer drug,'' was
declared a controlled substance by the federal government in 1973. By
the next year, it had fallen out of vogue among youths after two
people died while using it.

Since then, no deaths had been attributed to PMA until May, when three
suburban Chicago youths died after taking the drug.

''Clearly, this is even more harmful than Ecstasy,'' Customs spokesman
Dean Boyd says.

Ecstasy, a stimulant that also is potentially fatal, has become
popular among some high school and college students in recent years.
Now, batches of PMA are sneaking into the mix.

Steve Lorenz, 17, died May 7 in McHenry, Ill., after taking PMA, which
he thought was Ecstasy. A week later, Sara Aeschlimann, 18, of
Naperville, Ill., overdosed after taking several PMA pills while
watching movies with a friend. On May 27, Jason Burnett, 20, of Lisle,
Ill., died after taking the drug along with cocaine and heroin,
investigators have said.

Since July, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has attributed
six deaths to PMA. Five of those occurred in suburbs of Orlando.

The DEA has tracked PMA in Michigan, Virginia and Canada. Authorities
in Germany, one of the countries known as a source for club drugs,
recently shut down two labs that produced PMA, Customs officials say.

''It appears to be the same people who are putting out Ecstasy,''
Casteel says. DEA investigations have led to other labs in central
Europe, he says.

PMA is known on the street as ''Death'' or ''Mitsubishi
Double-Stack,'' because it bears a three-diamond logo similar to that
of Mitsubishi, although it has no connection to the electronics and
auto corporation. A 50-mg PMA pill induces a high similar to that of
Ecstasy. It increases the pulse rate and blood pressure and gives the
user a feeling of well-being.

Larger doses can cause irregular heartbeats, heart attacks, breathing
difficulty, kidney failure, convulsions, coma and death. Death
generally occurs when body temperatures rise so high that the central
nervous system shuts down, Casteel says.

''Kids and parents should know that Ecstasy and these designer drugs
are designed to make money,'' Casteel says. ''There is no quality
control in this business. They are not safe. They are not feel-good
drugs. Unfortunately, there are (nine) people buried today because of
this drug.''