ECSTASY ON RISE IN HAMPTON ROADS

The drug Ecstasy is gaining popularity in South Hampton Roads as more
people get caught with the M&M-sized pills and dealers hoard bigger
stashes of the substance that police weren't seeing a few years ago.

While arrest numbers aren't exploding, some local officials are
reporting increases. Chesapeake made its first five Ecstasy-related
arrests this year. Portsmouth's narcotics agents counted four in 2000
and 10 so far this year.

In Virginia Beach, one of every 10 or 15 drug-related cases deals
with the hallucinogenic stimulant, said Deputy Commonwealth's
Attorney David Laird. And, in Norfolk, prosecutors say officers have
made at least a dozen Ecstasy arrests this year.

Within the past month, police have charged a 19-year-old Virginia
Beach motorist with carrying 2,100 pills worth $73,500 on the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Also, in a quiet Chesapeake
neighborhood, they've uncovered a suspected Ecstasy lab, the first of
its kind in South Hampton Roads.

Local authorities this year have seen more than a fourfold increase
in the number of ``rave'' clubs -- from about six to more than two
dozen - that hold dances associated with the use of the drug.

``To say we're seeing a rise would be correct, but not to the point
where it is an epidemic,'' said Virginia Beach Sgt. Tony Elder, who
added that marijuana and cocaine remain the drugs of choice. ``It's
something we see now and then.''

But it has become enough of a concern that law enforcement agents,
including school resource officers, are being trained to spot Ecstasy.

The pills, which can cost $25 to $35 apiece and last up to six hours,
are said to produce positive feelings, empathy and relaxation, while
enabling users to go long periods without sleep. The drug also can
cause faintness, panic attacks and death from heart failure and
extreme heatstroke.

Nationally, the number of Ecstasy tablets seized by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency has increased from about 13,000 in 1996 to close
to a million in 2000, according to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse.

DEA officials said Ecstasy is often taken at rave parties, which
feature bass-heavy DJ music generally known as techno. Most local
clubs that play such music are in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, they
said. Officials say many of the clubs have had no problems. But the
state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control is investigating at least
three Norfolk clubs and five Virginia Beach ones -- some of which
don't hold raves -- where Ecstasy is known to have been present, ABC
agent C.R. Evans said. He declined to name the clubs.

A couple of places have faced sanctions.

In Norfolk, an American Legion post in the 3500 block of Cheshire
Ave. lost its alcohol license for six months this year after
investigators found that an ``illegal rave party'' was held there the
previous fall.

Authorities found 11 Ecstasy tablets, and one person was arrested,
accused of trying to distribute the drug, said ABC agent M.C. Layman.

The owner of another club, formerly known as Club Kaos on York
Street, is appealing a hearing officer's recommendation to take its
alcohol license after agents said they bought Ecstasy in or around
the club on 17 different occasions from December 1999 to January of
this year, Evans said.

In all, at least 12 people -- a majority of them military personnel
- -- have been charged in connection with alleged drug activity around
the club, now known as Ground Zero, Evans said.

Attorney SuAnne Bryant, who represents the corporate owner, Famous
Fifties Inc., said her client halted rave parties last winter after
learning of the suspected drug problems, and has had no problems
since then.

Jim Mock, a former California police officer who runs a touring
school that teaches cops how to detect Ecstasy and other drugs, said
the throbbing music and lights at rave parties help accentuate the
drug's effects.

``If you want to understand Ecstasy, think senses,'' Mock said.

The club atmosphere seems a world apart from Vince Williams' quiet
Great Bridge neighborhood, surrounded by well-kept homes and the
shouts of young children.

That's why Williams, 55, was surprised to learn that his next-door
neighbors, former Navy SEAL Gregory Fowler and his girlfriend, Sommer
Washburn, were charged late last month on suspicion of constructing a
drug lab.

Federal drug agents raided the two-story home Oct. 26 and seized an
unspecified amount of needles, beakers, scales and chemicals
typically used to make Ecstasy, according to a criminal complaint.

The chemical ingredients found, which include palladium chloride,
p-benzoquinone and isopropyl alcohol, can be so caustic and volatile
that state environmental officials needed to grant a hazardous waste
permit to have them removed.

``During Halloween, every kid in the neighborhood stopped in front of
the house and said: `That's the drug house,' '' Williams said. ``It
doesn't do much for the neighborhood.''

Federal officials said they don't know how much, if any, Ecstasy was
made at the home in the 500 block of Foxgate Quarter.

It's too early to conclude that the suspected drug lab is a sign of a
budding Ecstasy-manufacturing trade in Hampton Roads, said Dennis
Bolum, the resident agent in charge of the DEA's Norfolk office.

Finding a lab ``is really an exception in this area,'' said Bolum,
who couldn't recall any DEA cases involving Ecstasy in previous
years. ``But we are starting to see people arrested with larger
quantities.''

Two Florida men, Matthew Mickelson, 27, and Christian Allen Lamb, 24,
were convicted this year of conspiracy to distribute Ecstasy after
federal investigators found they shipped several thousands of pills
through a Virginia Beach post office box and had them distributed in
the area, according to court documents.

Lamb, a former SEAL at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, left the
Navy for Florida late last year after a friend-turned-informant
agreed to collect and distribute the shipments, according to court
papers.

Another man, William Om, 29, of Virginia Beach, faces a minimum of 10
years in prison after pleading guilty in September to conspiracy to
distribute Ecstasy and other drugs.

He said he sold about 300 tablets a month.

Then there was Robert Brandon Willis, the Virginia Beach man arrested
Oct. 22 on the Bay Bridge-Tunnel with 2,100 pills.

If convicted, he will spend a minimum of five years in prison under a
new federal law that lowered the threshold for mandatory jail time,
said Portsmouth Detective Ken Gavin, a member of the DEA's regional
task force, which investigates the area's larger drug cases.

Military officials also are paying more attention to drugs such as
Ecstasy in light of a 24

percent increase in illegal drug use by the Navy's newest sailors
from 1996 to 2000.

The efforts are working, Navy officials said.

In the past fiscal year, random drug screenings have shown the
percentage of sailors testing positive for Ecstasy has leveled off,
said Bill Flannery, branch head of the Navy's drug detection and
deterrence program.

Beginning in January, the Navy will use a more sensitive screening
process to catch sailors using Ecstasy. Right now, sailors must be
tested no more than 72 hours after they've taken the drug for it to
be detected. The new test can add a day or two to that window.

Meanwhile, police officers are spotting more Ecstasy because they
know what to look for, Gavin said.

Like pacifiers, which Ecstasy users use to control involuntary teeth
gnashing. Or Pez dispensers that hold pill supplies. Or resealed M&M
bags.

This year, Gavin said, he's trained at least 2,000 street and school
resource officers.

Officers seem surprised to see what is being used as Ecstasy
paraphernalia, Gavin said.

``Some officers will say to me, `I saw that, but I didn't know what it was.' ''