FOR THE DUTCH, ECSTASY JUST THE LATEST FAD

AMSTERDAM - Jaro Renout is looking for drugs.

A bouncer at the dance club Milky Way, Renout nightly frisks patrons and
pulls plenty of drugs from their pockets, including Ecstasy, the feel-good
pill that's the rage in Europe and the USA. And then he gets out the club's
enforcement device: a jar of water. Dumping pills into water ruins them,
which serves other purposes: It keeps away dealers who might annoy
customers, and it proves the bouncers don't confiscate drugs for themselves.

It also, of course, makes it pointless to call police. But calling police
is not the Dutch way.

While the United States considers Ecstasy a scourge, it's just the latest
fad here. While America rushes to toughen penalties and police sweep
through rave clubs, the Dutch government sees a health issue. America
offers jail, while Amsterdam offers Ecstasy revelers chemical tests to make
sure their pills are free of dangerous impurities.

But the next few years will tell whether the Dutch can maintain that
permissive approach. The Ministry of Justice is struggling to control
illegal manufacturing and smuggling operations that have made the nation
the world's leading Ecstasy supplier.

In 1999, the last full year for which data are available, Dutch authorities
carried out 150 major operations, closed 36 Ecstasy labs and seized 3.6
million pills. Figures for 2000 and 2001 are expected to climb, and
seizures represent only a fraction of the Ecstasy trade.

"The unremitting efforts to tackle Ecstasy production and trafficking will
be sustained," said the Ministry of Justice in a statement announcing a
budget increase for 2001.

"The Dutch are extremely aggressive," says Dean Boyd, a spokesman on drug
interdiction for the U.S. Customs Service. Dutch authorities have
cooperated closely with the Customs Service, he says, but the huge profits
make it hard to stop the traffickers.

A pill costs only a few cents to make and often sells for $25 or more. And
demand is growing, especially in the USA. In the year ended Sept. 30, U.S.
Customs seized 9.3 million pills, up from 400,000 in 1997. About 80% of the
Ecstasy imported to the USA comes from or through the Netherlands.

Ecstasy is a synthetic stimulant and hallucinogen widely popular at
"raves," parties where people dance all night to techno and club music.
Also known by teens as "E," "X" and the "love drug," it causes feelings of
euphoria.

A U.S. government report shows use of Ecstasy among eighth-graders
increased to 3.1% in 2000 from 1.7% in 1999. Among 10th-graders, use rose
to 5.4% from 4.4%. And among 12th-graders, Ecstasy use rose to 8.2% from 5.6%.

While not considered addictive like other "hard" drugs such as cocaine or
heroin, Ecstasy use is a habit of many young people and can be dangerous.
Side effects include severe dehydration. Medical studies have shown that
heavy use can cause brain damage.

In the Netherlands, although Ecstasy sales are illegal, the permissive
policy means that individuals take the risk.

Former U.S. drug chief Barry McCaffrey, who made an official visit to
Amsterdam in 1998, called the policy an "unmitigated disaster." So-called
"coffee shops" feature menus of marijuana products and other herbal
concoctions. "Dutch tolerance of drug use has created a climate that drug
manufacturers and traffickers have seized upon," McCaffrey said. President
Bush has not yet appointed a new drug "czar," but the new administration is
expected to take a similar stance.

Holland is unyielding. "The policy on coffee shops will remain unchanged,"
the Ministry of Justice says.

Rien Maas, police chief in Oosterhout, a town south of Amsterdam, says the
policy is not a panacea. Despite the availability of treatment, there are
about 70,000 hard drug addicts in Holland and there's still drug-related
violence, especially between rival smugglers.

Still, he supports tolerance as the most practical approach, especially
compared to U.S. laws with mandatory minimum sentences. "It is impossible"
to have enough police to eliminate drug dealing and use ."

To crack down on dealers, Holland is looking to regulate sales of
pill-making machines and block import of the chemical ingredients for
Ecstasy. It also is working with neighbors to better track illegal drugs,
since border controls have disappeared largely with the advent of the
European Union.

While most of Europe has strict anti-drug policies similar to those in the
USA, a few are moving toward the Dutch approach. The governments in
neighboring Belgium and Switzerland have tentatively approved measures to
decriminalize marijuana this year. Portugal and Luxembourg are considering
similar action.

At Amsterdam's clubs, patrons say the Dutch policy works and the impact of
the crackdowns is not entirely positive. Ecstasy pills are more frequently
spiked with unwanted amphetamines and other substitutes, they say. "When I
came here for the first time, pills were a lot better," says Anke Bertems,
25, a sociology student at the University of Amsterdam. "Police began to
interfere a lot more with it, so the quality went down.

Officials say a wide variety of substances have been mixed into the pills.
Sometimes other stimulants are included, which can be dangerous especially
if the use of the pills is combined with alcohol or other drugs.

Bertems says her friends are careful about their drug use. And because
drugs are legally tolerated, she says they don't take drugs to rebel or
show off, only to feel good. "We're not judging each other," she says.

Nearby, at the club Paradiso, in an old church, powerful bass speakers
rumble and dancers shake where pews once stood. Marijuana smoke scents the
air. Though many are high, this is not a drug party. Almost everyone is
dancing.

Clubgoers who don't take drugs say they are comfortable dancing alongside
those who do. "I can see what it does to people, and I don't want it," says
Bo van Brommel, 20. But she says making drugs illegal is wrong. "We've got
a lot of education about it and you just make your own choice."

She also says Holland's liberal policies don't create an underworld of drug
criminals, and as a result "Amsterdam, it's quite safe," she says. The
murder rate in Holland is a fourth of that in the USA.

Tineke Edink, 22, says she's never tried drugs. She works one day a week at
a drug-treatment facility and she knows the downside. "But I have friends
who use drugs. They can handle it. They are not addicts at all," she says.
"Because it's legal here, I think more people use it like my friends
without problems. When things are illegal, for some people, it is more
exciting."

Even in the clubs, the Dutch say that tolerance is not the same as
"anything goes." The society expects people to be responsible, they say.
Renski Bronk, 22, who works at the van Gogh museum, disapproves of
Americans there who show up for work stoned.

"They can't use it in America, so they are using it here" to excess, she says.