ARIZONA STATE PROFESSOR ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH ALLEGED ECSTASY RING

Arizona State University at Tempe placed a professor on paid leave Tuesday
following his arrest as a suspect in a three-state Ecstasy ring.

According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the professor, Ralph
A. Backhaus, ordered the chemicals and equipment used to manufacture the
drug through the university. Mr. Backhaus was arrested Tuesday after a
two-month investigation during which undercover officers bought the illegal
substance from the professor, who has been a faculty member in the biology
department since 1977.

A public-safety spokesman said that at least one student was involved in
the drug ring, and that Mr. Backhaus had distributed Ecstasy to students on
the campus. The professor was arrested following a search of his home and
university office. Neither Mr. Backhaus nor his lawyer could be reached for
comment.

In a statement, Arizona State officials said that the decision to place Mr.
Backhaus on paid leave pending an investigation was made by the
institution's president, Lattie F. Coor, and stemmed from an Arizona Board
of Regents policy. The policy states that a faculty member whose presence
"is likely to constitute a substantial interference" with university
functions should be placed on paid leave until an investigation can
"determine if there is just cause for dismissal or suspension without pay."
The leave, under this policy, is not considered a disciplinary action.

Mr. Backhaus's arrest surprised his colleagues. "He's quite well respected.
He's a good scientist," said Bruce A. Kimball, a scientist at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture who has written two papers with Mr. Backhaus. Mr.
Kimball praised Mr. Backhaus's "pioneering" work in pursuing genetic
research that would enable the domestic production of rubber plants.

According to the police officials, Mr. Backhaus used his scientific
expertise to create a sophisticated Ecstasy lab with trade connections that
reached to at least two other states, Idaho and California. "With the
equipment seized, he was capable of creating over $1-million worth of
Ecstasy in each processing period," said Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman. It
takes two to three days to produce Ecstasy, a synthetic drug that is both
hallucinogenic and a stimulant.

Aside from the volume of the alleged operation, Mr. Valenzuela noted that
the mere discovery of an Ecstasy operation is unusual. "In Arizona, we've
only discovered three other Ecstasy labs. It's not like [methamphetamines],
where we bust one every other day. Ecstasy is a lot more difficult to
produce. You're looking at people who have a basic knowledge of chemistry,
and these people are harder to find. They don't just run out into the
desert and set up a still."

Because Ecstasy production demands a scientific background, Mr. Valenzuela
said, there's a significant chance that the Ecstasy trade has infiltrated
academe elsewhere. Either a professor or an advanced student would have the
experience needed to set up an Ecstasy lab. "We'd like to think that this
is an isolated incident at ASU," he said. "But outside Arizona, it's
possible that there's someone like this out there doing the same type of thing."