TOUGHER 'CLUB DRUG' PENALTIES PROPOSED

Police and prosecutors handling the investigation into the overdose death of
an 18-year-old Naperville woman last week said the case has provided a
wake-up call beyond the tragic demonstration that "club drugs" such as
Ecstasy and its more potent cousins can kill.

DuPage County prosecutors and Naperville police said the case of Sara
Aeschlimann, who authorities say overdosed May 14 on the Ecstasy-lookalike
PMA, points out the limitations of Illinois drug laws.

Officials believe they know the identity of the person who provided the
pills to a friend of Aeschlimann's, who eventually passed the drugs on to
the Naperville Central High School senior. But as state statutes now stand,
the supplier might face a relatively low-grade charge for distributing,
which in some instances can result in only probation for the offender.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said it takes the sale of more
than 200 grams of the active ingredient in Ecstasy,
methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), to elevate the crime to the status of
a Class X felony. At that level, it carries the penalty of a mandatory
prison sentence of at least 6 years. The limit is the same for PMA, or
paramethoxymethamphetamine, the much more powerful hallucinogen that often
can't be distinguished from Ecstasy on the street.

With both substances, prosecutors said, it takes the sale of 50 grams to
charge a supplier with drug-induced homicide should his customer die.
Investigators have said Aeschlimann thought she was taking the popular
stimulant Ecstasy, but she instead swallowed a fatal dose of PMA.
Prosecutors said they believe much less than 50 grams of PMA changed hands
in the Aeschlimann case.

Birkett and his Kendall County counterpart, Tim McCann, said they will
propose to state lawmakers that the Class X thresholds for Ecstasy and PMA
be the sale of 15 doses or "hits"--the same limit in place for LSD. They
also will propose that prosecutors be allowed the option of bringing the
charge of drug-induced homicide when the sale of any amount of an illegal
drug leads to a fatal overdose.

The proposals appear to have the early support of key leaders in the General
Assembly. "It's going to be pretty hard not to support this, so we are
anticipating that it will receive very serious consideration," said state
Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego), who promised to work with House Republican Leader
Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst) to craft the legislation. "We need to send a
message to the people who are selling this stuff that they are going to run
the same risk associated with selling drugs like heroin and cocaine, and
communicate again to kids to stay away from these substances."

Birkett said the 200-gram cutoff making the sale of the club drugs a Class X
felony is an amount equal to hundreds of pills, with a value well above
$30,000.

By comparison, prosecutors said, the 15 doses of LSD that put sales of that
substance into Class X range would carry a street value of less than $50.

"These guys know that their exposure is much less with [Ecstasy and PMA],"
said Joe Ruggiero, supervisor of the narcotics unit in the DuPage County
state's attorney's office. "You're talking about dealing in large sums of
money, and you could still be looking at probation. We need to eliminate the
profit incentive."

McCann said he became alarmed recently when he realized the sale of moderate
amounts of the club drugs is designated a Class 3 felony under Illinois law,
punishable by as few as 2 years in prison. And offenders can receive
probation, McCann said, which often comes into play with younger sellers who
lack a prior criminal record.

"It's less serious to sell MDMA than it is to commit a burglary," said
McCann, who is working with Cross to put a package together for lawmakers.
"If we are going to treat these like serious drugs--and they are serious
drugs--then we're going to have to have the laws standing behind us.

"The people who are selling this aren't selling thousands of dollars of it
at a time," he said.

Birkett plans to meet next week with Daniels to discuss the effort. Staffers
in the offices of Daniels and state Senate President James "Pate" Philip
(R-Wood Dale) confirmed that the proposals are in the works and that both
leaders are supportive of them.

Cross said he would defer to Republican leaders, but he would sponsor the
packages. He said he would anticipate support from leaders in both parties
for the tougher limits, particularly in the wake of Aeschlimann's death and
the fatal overdose of a McHenry County teen just a week earlier.

Under the current 50-gram guideline for a drug-induced homicide charge,
Ruggiero said it becomes impossible in most cases to hold drug dealers
responsible for the deaths attributable to use of Ecstasy and PMA.

"With 50 grams, you're talking about 200 to 250 pills," said Ruggiero, who
called the amount consistent with what a distributor might sell to a street
pusher. "The only way you're going to see that charge is if [a distributor
sells to] a drug dealer who overdoses on his own stuff."

Police have said Aeschlimann died after taking several white tablets with
the street name "Double-stack White Mitsubishi." The pills are slightly
larger than a standard aspirin, police said, and are stamped with three
diamonds in a pattern similar to the Japanese company Mitsubishi's logo.

Police in McHenry County said 17-year-old Steve Lorenz took the same pills a
week earlier. He died May 7, and investigators are awaiting test results
that could link the two cases.

Drug experts last week warned that PMA may be gaining a foothold in the
Chicago area. The substance has Ecstasy's stimulant qualities, authorities
said, but raises the body's temperature and heart rate much faster.

PMA is particularly dangerous, experts said, when it is passed off as
Ecstasy. A typical dose of Ecstasy that is actually PMA can be lethal.

Birkett said he hopes the changes in state law being proposed will send a
clear signal that club drugs have entered the big time when it comes to
prosecution.