U.S. SEIZURES OF NARCOTIC SHRUB ON THE RISE

Khat, a narcotic leaf that has long been popular in East Africa and on the
Arabian Peninsula, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the USA, largely
because of an influx of immigrants from nations such as Somalia and Yemen,
U.S. officials say.

In 2001, U.S. Customs officials seized an unprecedented 82,000 pounds, more
than double the amount seized five years earlier.

Khat seizures still don't compare with those of far more popular drugs such
as marijuana. Customs officials seized about 1.5 million pounds of
marijuana in 2001.

For the most part, the use of khat (pronounced COT) is limited to East
African immigrant communities, but Internet chat sites used by teens and
young adults indicate that interest in the leaf is spreading.

Those who chew the khat shrub's leaves and twigs typically become chatty
and euphoric. When the drug wears off, they feel mildly depressed. The
leaves contain cathine and cathinone, which mimic the effects of
amphetamines. A synthetic version of the drug, called methcathinone, is
produced in clandestine U.S. labs and is sold as an alternative to
methamphetamine. It's made from ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, a chemical
found in decongestants.

Khat is legal in much of Europe and East Africa and on the Arabian
Peninsula. In the United States, however, it is classified as a highly
controlled "Schedule 1" drug, as is heroin.

Khat branches, sold in bundles, cost $15 to $60 and are sold discretely in
some stores and restaurants in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los
Angeles, Dallas and elsewhere that cater to people from East Africa and the
Middle East. The bundles also are sold through informal distribution
networks among Somali, Kenyan and Yemeni immigrants.

The shrub is most potent right after it is harvested. Smugglers try to keep
khat fresh by wrapping it in bundles of banana leaves. Khat generally is
smuggled in luggage on aircraft and in overnight express mail packages, or
it is hidden in vegetable crates and shipped in air cargo.

Most of the bundles are shipped Thursdays and Fridays so they arrive in the
USA for weekend socializing, authorities say.

Customs officials say khat's rise in popularity in the USA has tracked
increases in immigration from war-torn Somalia and Yemen.

Khat is being seized in record amounts at airports in New York, New Jersey,
Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit and Dallas. Customs officials made 300
seizures in 2001 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
alone, Customs spokesman Dean Boyd says.

Local police departments also have made several khat busts recently.

In July, police in Concord, N.C., seized 169 bundles of khat twigs and
leaves -- about 65 pounds -- that had been shipped from Great Britain to a
FedEx office in Concord. The package had been sent to a Charlotte address,
police said. Police arrested two men.

Minneapolis police seized 180 pounds of khat and arrested four people in a
raid on an apartment and a Somali restaurant in March.

"I think it's staying within (the Somali) community," says Minneapolis
police Lt. Dan Grout, head of the department's narcotics unit. Minneapolis
has a large Somali community. "They are protective of it. We don't see them
on the corner like a crack dealer."

The Drug Enforcement Administration is studying khat use in the USA and the
problems it's causing, DEA spokesman Will Glaspy says. In June, a DEA
report concluded that khat is "readily available" in immigrant communities
but not marketed to outsiders.

But Ravesafe.org, a Web site aimed at protecting people who attend
all-night dance parties called raves, reports that khat "has found its way
into the dance scene in a synthetic powder form."

"Right now, it's not as popular or as big a problem as some of the other
drugs," Glaspy says. "But there is always concern."