DEA OFFICIAL DECRIES RISE IN ECSTASY USE

WASHINGTON — A top government official said Monday that the growing
popularity of the hallucinogen Ecstasy was the most frightening trend he had
seen in his 30 years of law enforcement.

Speaking at a national conference on "club drugs," Drug Enforcement
Administration head Donnie Marshall said Ecstasy and similar drugs were
being brought into the United States in record amounts.

"The problem of club drugs among our youth has become pervasive, extending
from larger to midsize cities throughout the United States," said Marshall,
the DEA's administrator.

Marshall spoke less than a week after federal agents in Los Angeles
intercepted 2.1 million tablets of Ecstasy, also known as
methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Valued at $40 million, officials said it was
the biggest Ecstasy haul ever.

Seizures of Ecstasy in the United States have increased dramatically over
the past year. The Customs Service seized nearly 8 million tablets over the
last 10 months compared to 3.5 million tablets in all of 1999.

The conference was held to help U.S. and international law enforcement
officials and drug prevention experts share ideas on combating Ecstasy and
club drugs like Ketamine hydrochloride, an anesthetic known as special K,
and methamphetamine, a stimulant known as speed.

Marshall said a sophisticated global network had sprung up to sell club
drugs.

"Organized crime syndicates have forged relationships with the Western
European traffickers and are flooding our cities with synthetic drugs," he
said in his speech.

Marshall said that it cost from 50 cents to one dollar to produce one dose.
Once smuggled into the United States, it sold for $35 to $40 a dose.