ECSTASY - DRUG WORLD'S RISING STAR

From Winnipeg To The U.s., Police And Customs Officials Are Fighting An Expanding War

WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, the amount of the illegal drug Ecstasy entering the United States and Canada was worrisome, but not a major concern for federal law enforcement. With most attention focused on cocaine and heroin from South America, searching well-dressed travellers on flights from Paris and Amsterdam for aspirin-sized Ecstasy tablets wasn't a high priority.

Today, Ecstasy is the fastest-growing abused drug in North America. Although only about eight per cent of high school seniors reported having tried it in 1999, it is the only illegal drug for which significant usage increases were detected last year.

And, as is usually the case when it comes to drugs, the latest trend in recreational drug use in the U.S. eventually makes its way across the border to become the most sought after high in Canada as well.

Clandestine Drug Labs

Before 1998, Ecstasy was nearly unheard of as a drug.

Today, Canadian police forces are regularly arresting people for Ecstasy possession and raiding clandestine drug labs set up to produce the drug.

Earlier this month, Winnipeg police raided what they thought was a marijuana grow operation. It turned out the home on Boyd Avenue was a makeshift laboratory filled with toxic chemicals and equipment capable of making nearly $1 million worth of Ecstasy.

Last month in Toronto, police smashed one of that city's major production and distribution centres for designer drugs after they seized millions of dollars worth of drugs, chemicals and manufacturing equipment in a raid at an Ajax home. Authorities say they discovered 2,000 Ecstasy pills and 2.7 kilograms of pure Ecstasy worth nearly $16 million.

"There's no question it's been on a huge increase in the last two years," said Insp. Gary Walker of the Winnipeg Police Service vice division. "Ecstasy and methamphetamines have pushed aside drugs like cocaine and marijuana in popularity. They've become the drug of choice."

Walker said Winnipeg police have made 80 seizures of Ecstasy so far this year. Officers at Toronto's Pearson International Airport have seized more than 110,000 hits of the drug this year alone.

In the past seven months, nearly eight million pills of Ecstasy have been seized by the U.S. Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 times the number seized in all of 1998.

As seizures climb, two congressional hearings on Ecstasy have been held this summer, and bills have been introduced in both U.S. houses to increase penalties for trafficking and possession. The DEA had a three-day conference on Ecstasy here last week attended by more than 300 U.S. and international law enforcement officials and drug abuse prevention experts.

First developed in Germany in 1912, Ecstasy is different from other drugs in the ways it is produced, trafficked and used, challenging traditional notions of how to deal with smuggling and abuse.

'Change techniques'

"It's changed our institutional mind-set," said Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "We were kind of southern-focused, and now we've had to extend that focus to Europe." Customs has had to move personnel and change techniques, including new scrutiny of passengers on major European airlines.

Ecstasy, unlike cocaine and heroin, doesn't originate in remote jungles or highlands. Its components can't be grown in back yards or easily manufactured in basements. At least 80 per cent of all the Ecstasy in the world comes from clandestine urban laboratories in just one country, the Netherlands. Most of the chemicals used to make it are controlled under international law, but travel easily to Amsterdam and The Hague from Eastern Europe across the newly borderless European Union.

Most of the Ecstasy entering the United States is trafficked by what the DEA calls "Israeli Organized Crime," a nationality not previously associated with the drug underworld. Its chieftains are well-travelled, in their 20s, speak multiple languages and carry more than one passport. Much business is conducted via cell phones and computers so they can track shipments and distribution on a minute-by-minute basis.

Those caught bringing Ecstasy into the U.S. from Europe range from New York Hasidic Jews to Los Angeles strippers to middle-class Texas families.

Ecstasy is easy to hide and has an astronomical profit margin. A single pill purchased for 50 cents in Amsterdam can sell for as much as $50 at "rave" dance parties throughout the country, in the cavernous warehouses and clubs where thousands of young people gather for all-night dancing.

"It's not a very visible drug," said Inspector Cathy Lanier, who heads the Metropolitan Police's major narcotics branch in Washington. "It's concentrated down in the nightclubs, behind closed doors."

Walker said arresting Ecstasy users is difficult.

He said the drug has mainly been used at underground raves attended by young teenagers.

'Very Difficult'

"We're dealing with 15- and 16-year-olds," he said. "It's very difficult to get undercover officers in those places."

Police concentrate their efforts on intercepting large quantities of Ecstasy. Tens of thousands of pills have been seized this year at Dulles International Airport on flights from Europe; a bust on a train from New York last summer netted 10,000 tablets.

Known scientifically as 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, Ecstasy is a ubiquitous subject on the Internet. On sites where erratically scheduled raves are advertised, visitors chat about its availability and purity. Scientific articles are posted warning of its dangers or attempting to disprove them. The White House Drug Control Policy Office does almost all its anti-Ecstasy proselytizing on its www.freevibe.com site and a site devoted to parent education.

Called the "hug drug," Ecstasy triggers a chemical reaction in the brain that lowers inhibitions and engenders feelings of well-being and closeness to others. There are few reports of LSD-like bad trips, and virtually no violence associated with its use. So far, it's not considered addictive.

Ecstasy wasn't even illegal until 1985. A continuing problem for law enforcement is that many users believe it's harmless, and there was little scientific evidence to prove them wrong until recently.

Jaw-Clenching

Immediate side effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure, dehydration, overheating, teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching. Emergency room admissions associated with its use have more than doubled in the past two years, but only a relative handful of deaths have been attributed to Ecstasy.

But with major new funding for government and private research into its effects, there's now "pretty good evidence that it probably causes permanent damage to a portion" of the brain, said David M. McDowell, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and head of the Substance Treatment and Research Service at Columbia University.

Ecstasy impairs the function and long-term production of serotonin, a brain chemical that keeps people on an even emotional and cognitive keel and whose absence can lead to major psychological problems, McDowell said. Other recent studies have indicated possible long-term memory loss and cognitive impairment.

But Walker said the drug has flourished with young people who have been led to believe there are no negative side effects from its use.

"It's been well marketed to the younger crowd," he said. "It's a cheap high and everyone is telling them nothing bad can happen to them if they take it. They say it's safe and non-addictive and that's wrong."

In recent months, there have been signs that more traditional smuggling networks and routes are moving into the lucrative Ecstasy trade. But Israelis have been involved in virtually all the major busts so far, according to Customs and DEA. Among recent arrests:

Last Wednesday, federal authorities announced their largest-ever seizure of Ecstasy, approximately 2.1 million tablets produced in the Netherlands, on a flight from Paris at Los Angeles International Airport. But Israeli Tamer Adel Ibrahim, the man identified by Customs as head of the drug importation ring, remained at large.

Also Wednesday, two Israeli nationals, a French-Canadian and a native American were arrested and charged with bringing 100,000 pills into New York from Canada.

Last spring, New York yeshiva student Shimon Levita was sentenced to 30 months in federal boot camp for participating in an Ecstasy-smuggling ring allegedly run by Israeli Sean Erez, now awaiting extradition from the Netherlands.