DRUG NEVER OUTLAWED, DEFENSE LAWYER ARGUES

Ecstasy - It's the hottest illicit drug in the country.

It's a dangerous euphoria in a $20 pill.

It's ... legal in Connecticut?

That's the surprising claim one defense attorney is making on behalf
of clients charged with Ecstasy-related offenses. Attorney Brian
Woolf's hyper-technical argument boils down to this: State officials
never properly outlawed Ecstasy.

Woolf has argued that claim, unsuccessfully, on behalf of one of the
men whose arrests were announced Thursday as authorities raided and
shut down three Hartford rave clubs. He also represents Eric Corey,
owner of Vibe, one of the clubs that was targeted. Corey has not been
arrested.

The East Hartford attorney, a former state banking commissioner, has
yet to persuade any judge to dismiss charges against his clients. His
motions have been denied in Waterbury and Hartford, but are pending
or will soon be filed in New London, Litchfield, New Britain and
elsewhere.

Regardless, Woolf remains convinced of his claim and says he will
appeal until he proves it.

"If I'm right, and the state Supreme Court finds that I'm right,
anyone who's incarcerated has to be released and anyone who has been
arrested would have to go free," Woolf said.

Though quick to say he does not condone the use of Ecstasy, Woolf
maintains the complex procedures established for adopting law were
not followed in this case.

In papers filed at courthouses across the state, Woolf argues that
the state neglected procedures that require the consumer protection
commissioner to designate a substance as controlled only after an
investigation by the state Commission of Pharmacy.

Neither, he argues, did the state conform to the alternative
procedure for adopting federal regulations as state law.

"If you're going to pass a law, pass it properly, otherwise it cannot
be a law," he said.

Superior Court Judge Bradford Ward last month rejected the argument
and upheld charges against Mark Freitas, one of the men whose arrest
was announced Thursday.

The supervisor of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, Lt. Dale
Hourigan, said his officers would continue to make Ecstasy arrests
until they are told otherwise.

"I'm not going to get into the legal bickering," Hourigan said.
"That's what we have courts for."