TOUGHER PENALTIES AWAIT ECSTASY DEALERS

Dealers selling the "love drug" at $20 a pop may soon face the same prison
sentences as traffickers in cocaine and LSD.

With Ecstasy streaming into the country and worries about its harmful
effects on the rise, the Whitman administration plans in the next two weeks
to push for stiffer penalties for selling the mood-enhancing tablets.

The new sentencing guidelines would treat Ecstasy dealers the same as
cocaine or LSD traffickers. The biggest dealers would face first-or
second-degree charges under the proposal, sources in the Attorney General's
office said.

Currently, dealing in Ecstasy is a third-degree offense whether a person is
caught with one pill or 1,000. While they could get three to five years,
first-time offenders rarely go to prison today.

Under the regulations to be proposed, selling five ounces or more would be a
first-degree crime, with a possible 10-to 20-year sentence. For a half-ounce
to five ounces, it would be a second-degree crime with a 5- to 10-year
sentence. Less than that would remain a third-degree offense. An ounce is
equal to about 100 pills.

The proposal from the Attorney General's office will be released in the next
two weeks, said Peter McDonough, the Governor's spokesman.

"It is as dangerous, clearly, as any of those other drugs are," said Terry
Farley, Ocean County's first assistant prosecutor and author of law
enforcement guides about "designer drugs."

"Ecstasy is readily accessible, it can be relatively inexpensive, it has the
effect of a 'hug drug,” the euphoria kids are looking for."

Ecstasy popular among teens and college students - is pouring into the
United States, authorities say.

The U.S. Customs Service has seized 6 million pills since Oct. 1, a haul
worth upwards of $120 million. That is almost double the number of
confiscations in the previous fiscal year, according to spokesman Dean Boyd.

The mood-enhancing drug is known for prompting hours of euphoria and
reducing inhibitions, but authorities say there is a down side: Some Ecstasy
users have died from overheating and exhaustion. Some studies suggest that
users are in danger of memory loss, depression and brain damage.

Sen. Peter Inverso (R-Mercer) has also introduced a bill to increase Ecstasy
penalties, but it has not yet been considered by committee.

Congress, too, is acting. Under a Senate bill, a person selling 100 pills
would be prosecuted as a dealer; the current threshold is 300,000 pills.

David Kinney covers state government. He can be reached at (609) 989-0273 or
dkinney@starledger.com