MAJOR LSD BUST SHOWS TREND, FEDERAL DRUG OFFICIALS WARN

The arrest of two men on charges of selling 6,000 hits of LSD -- one of the
largest local acid busts in years -- shows the drug's popularity is peaking
again, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's top local official says.

"It's unfortunately kind of a benchmark case here," said Jack Riley, head
of the DEA office in Milwaukee.

Joshua C. Heyman, 22, and Paul M. Stephan, 21, both of Milwaukee, face drug
conspiracy and distribution charges.

They were arrested last month after authorities said Heyman sold a total of
6,000 hits for $7,500 to a DEA agent and a DEA confidential source. Stephan
is suspected of being Heyman's supplier.

The two kept a computer database of all of their customers, Riley said.

They appeared to do quite a bit of business with University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, though they were not students themselves.

"They were kind of shocked that we figured it out, so there's a bit of
arrogance," Riley said.

UWM police "did a great job" in aiding the investigation, he said.

LSD's popularity is cyclical, Riley said, and right now it is popular among
college-age students.

A lot of it is made in California by the people who used it a generation ago.

"The hippies now are 50, 60 years old," he said. "They're the people
marketing this and making it quite profitable."

They are not, however, the "peace and love" types they used to be, he said.
The LSD business is generally cash-and-carry without the "fronting" of
drugs in exchange for later payment that is seen with other illicit
narcotics, he said.

Some of the labs that have been busted were heavily armed, he said.

A hit of acid might wholesale for $1 and retail for $8 to $10, Riley said.

"You can see a 20-year-old kid who sells at the street level can turn 5,000
hits into $50,000 by the time they're done," he said.

LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, is hard to detect because it is
odorless -- drug dogs cannot sniff it out -- and is typically attached to
paper or stamps. Stephan "was mailing 500 hits at a time in birthday
cards," Riley said.

In addition, LSD can be absorbed through the skin, and an unsuspecting
person handling the drug may not end up "tripping," but still could have a
reaction to it, he said.

Law enforcement officers might be at special risk, he said.

"I would hate for a guy to do a car stop and grab a bunch of this stuff and
hold onto it on a warm summer evening -- look out," Riley said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski