WEAK LAWS MAKE ECSTASY DRUG OF CHOICE

PENALTIES FOR DEALING LESS THAN OTHER DRUGS

U.S. Customs officers were waiting for the three who arrived at O'Hare
International Airport on United Flight 953 from Dusseldorf, Germany.

Alerted by German authorities to watch for the two casually dressed women
and a man, the agents tracked every step as the three walked nervously
through the terminal, the man moving so clumsily a customs agent later
commented that he looked "like the Michelin man." A quick pat-down revealed
why.

Wrapped tightly around their legs were heavy bandages and the women's
hosiery were stuffed with thousands of tablets of the designer drug Ecstasy.
The man alone had 14,500 pills tucked in his pants, said Larry Dennelly,
resident agent in charge for the U.S. Customs office at the airport.

The October seizure was a sizable bust. But law enforcement and drug experts
have seen evidence mount in recent months that the three were only bit
players in a vast and spreading international drug network that has dumped
hundreds of thousands of European-produced Ecstasy pills into the Chicago
market and scattered millions more across the country.

Earlier this month, customs agents at O'Hare intercepted 31,000 tablets
secreted in the dummy suitcase of a Slovakian man, adding to a seizure total
now topping 150,000 pills in the last six months at O'Hare. Others have
packed the drug in hollowed-out books, shoes and ceramics, customs agents
say, and some couriers have begun swallowing packets to smuggle the
substance.

In all of 1997, U.S. Customs seized 400,000 Ecstasy tablets. The next year,
the number was 750,000, rising to 3.5 million in 1999. Already this year,
customs agents have intercepted 5.5 million of the tablets.

"It's just phenomenal," said Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd. "There is
increased demand here, but it's also because people in criminal elements are
realizing you can make a lot of money dealing in Ecstasy."

Numbers from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration's
Drug Abuse Warning Network are even more sobering: Emergency room cases in
which Ecstasy was identified rose to 1,142 in 1998, from 319 just two years
earlier.

The signs of a growing problem are clear on the streets as well. Two
Chicago-area teens recently died of apparent overdoses on a dangerous
hallucinogen disguised as Ecstasy. Police in many communities have issued
repeated warnings about out-of-control drug use at rave parties, a popular
Ecstasy outlet. And just last week, 11 people were arrested for allegedly
selling more than 200 Ecstasy pills to undercover police at a Palatine teen
club.

But why the rush to a drug that seemed to disappear after becoming the rage
on the college scene more than a decade ago?

Experts offer many theories, but most say it's textbook economics. European,
Israeli and Russian organized crime syndicates have taken over the trade and
streamlined distribution networks, authorities say, enabling supply to
finally catch up to the demand for a drug quickly reaching fad status among
teens who disregard its dangers.

In Chicago and the suburbs, the lure for dealers is simple: easy money and
little fear of serving serious jail time.

Penalties for dealing Ecstasy in Illinois are not as harsh as they are for
other drugs. For example, selling 15 hits of LSD -- about $50 worth -- will
earn a dealer an automatic sentence of 6 years in prison. It takes a $30,000
sale of 200 grams of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the active
ingredient in Ecstasy, to warrant the same penalty. The discrepancy has
Illinois and federal lawmakers calling for a rewrite of state and national
drug laws.

MDMA may have first been introduced in Germany as an appetite suppressant as
early as 1912, experts said. Tests on human subjects have been limited, and
authorities said the substance has no sanctioned medical uses.

Sold under street names such as "XTC," "Clarity" and "Adam," the drug is a
stimulant known for enhancing sensory perception and providing
hallucinogenic effects.

It also offers a soothing sense of well-being by boosting the levels of
dopamine and serotonin in the brain, researchers said. But studies have
shown that steady use can also damage neurotransmitters, affecting mood and
memory.

"No one wants to hear that it has a downside," said Dr. H. Westley Clark,
director of the Federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Washington.
"People say, `This bath of serotonin that I got is so wonderful, I don't
think there's anything wrong with it.'"

Federal authorities have uncovered a handful of labs in the United States,
but the industry remains firmly anchored in Europe, where the Netherlands
and Belgium take the lead in production and where the precursors of the drug
are more accessible.

Terry Parham, chief spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Washington, said the region has developed significant expertise in
manufacturing MDMA. Moreover, the finished product can be delivered cheaply
to the United States, where the markup is so enormous that it is unnecessary
to localize production.

Recipes have become widely available on the Internet, but drug experts said
the manufacture of MDMA remains a delicate and complicated procedure, which
often begins with the distilling of sassafras or nutmeg oil to produce the
chemical extract safrole.

There are several ways to synthesize the drug from there, some of them
producing unstable compounds.

"For those with no knowledge of chemistry, the mixing of some of the
reagents together and/or improper use can result (in) the displacement of
your head from your shoulders," one Internet site on Ecstasy warns.

The Drug Consultation Bureau in Amsterdam is an information clearinghouse
that advises the Amsterdam City Council on drug matters. Herman Matser, a
12-year staffer at the center, said local production has become a study in
specialization.

Someone obtains the specialty chemicals, he said, someone else actually
synthesizes the drugs, and a third person, a "tableter," puts the finished
powder into pill form, stamping them with a trademark design.

The production takes place in the countryside, he said, where it is easier
to conceal, and the networks are loose. A person who winds up in MDMA
production typically is an "amateur chemist" who starts by producing
substances for friends, Matser said. Most are middle age, and a few have
regular jobs they work part time.

"Maybe you give sailing lessons for two months during the summer," he said.
"The rest of the year, well, you have 10 months left to do other things. The
type of people involved are those who say, `If I can get enough money, then
I will take the risk.'"

Major aviation hubs, such as Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and
Atlanta, are obvious dropping-off points after passengers pass through the
Dominican Republic, Suriname, and various European cities. But dealers are
also using more remote ports, places like Mobile, Ala., where smugglers used
Winnie the Pooh teddy bears to sneak the drug in.

Once the drug lands in the Chicago area, law enforcement officials said, the
trade of the substance mimics other drug-supply chains, insofar as the
narcotics are handed off to middlemen to distribute to lower-level dealers.
But unlike established drugs such as cocaine and heroin, whose sales are
strictly governed by street gangs, the dealers who cart Ecstasy into clubs
are not a tight-knit army.

The drug eventually moves out into suburban neighborhoods by teens who
frequent clubs and then bring MDMA home for their friends, said Mark Henry,
leader of the DuPage County Metropolitan Enforcement Group. It's clear, he
said, that Ecstasy and other club drugs have spread beyond the dance scene.

According to law enforcement officials, when 18-year-old Sara Aeschlimann of
Naperville overdosed on what she thought was Ecstasy earlier this month, she
was at a friend's house on a Sunday morning. Steve Lorenz, a 17-year-old
from McHenry, overdosed on a similar drug in an upstairs bedroom at his
father's home with a small group of friends, according to family members and
police.

Ecstasy itself holds real dangers, too. Aside from the long-term mental
effects, the drug can quickly push a user's body temperature and heart rate
to dangerous levels. Still, the drug's attraction is potent.

"The driving force behind most adolescent behavior is `I want to fit in and
I want to belong,'" said Peter Palanca, executive director of Hazelden
Chicago, a treatment facility. "Couple that with the availability of a drug
like Ecstasy, which makes them feel good and decreases inhibitions
dramatically, the answer is, `Why would I not take it?'"

And it's quite easy to dismiss the warnings, said Keith McBurnett, a child
psychologist at the University of Chicago.

"A lot of the kids feel most of the information from adults is either
outdated or wrong," he said. "They've tried a number of things that they
were supposed to drop dead from, or become immediately addicted to, and it
didn't happen."

As the problem spreads, the U.S. Customs Service and Interpol have launched
special teams to track the drug, and Customs has even begun retraining its
drug-sniffing dogs. Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd said 13 dogs who had
been trained to sniff out amphetamines were retrained and graduated in
March. A black Labrador named Cameron is in service at O'Hare and 15 more
are in training.

"We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of acute adverse
effects, like these deaths," Clark said. "The bottom line is Ecstasy is a
very hazardous way to have a good time."