CALLS FOR LOOKALIKE ECSTASY DRUG TO BE BANNED

Gardai have called for a drug being sold as ecstasy to be added to the list
of controlled substances following the seizure of 30,000 tablets earlier
this month.

Forensic experts have analysed the tablets as pure ketamine, a
hallucinogenic substance originally developed as an animal anaesthetic.

Because ketamine is not on the list of controlled substances in the 1984
Act, it is believed that the Director of Public Prosecutions will not
recommend a charge against the Dublin man caught with the drugs in a car in
Swords over two weeks ago.

The increasing use of the drug has resulted in a number of users
experiencing "horrors" or disturbing hallucinations, instead of the expected
effects of ecstasy.

The man arrested with the drugs is believed to be working for a northside
criminal, and thought the tablets were MDMA or ecstasy. Officers from the
Garda National Drugs Unit have spoken to Government officials about adding
ketamine to the list of illegal drugs, according to a senior source.

Some of the seized tablets contained a mix of ketamine and caffeine. But
none contained ephedrine, a controlled substance normally found in ketamine
tablets being sold as ecstasy.

The drug, known as Special K on the street, can be snorted, injected or
eaten. Users can suffer a lack of feeling in or lose the use of their limbs
and experience "out-of-body" sensations.

Dr Jim Donovan, director of the Garda Forensic Science Laboratory, said the
effects of the drug could be frightening to people who believed they had
taken ecstasy. The white tablets seized were slightly smaller than ecstasy
tablets with an ordinary score line on one side rather than the trademark
symbols associated with ecstasy.

The drug could cause "quite a severe mental reaction", Dr Donovan said. "The
experience would be particularly disturbing for ecstasy users who expect to
experience the normal effect from ecstasy. Clubs would be the worst possible
atmosphere with loud noise, heat and flashing lights."

Dealers can buy them in Britain and Europe for around 50p each and are
selling them for 10 pounds, the price of an ecstasy tablet, according to a
senior Garda source. Ketamine has become a more profitable drug than MDMA or
ecstasy which can cost more than one pound to the supplier.

The drug was first marketed as a general anaesthetic, under the name
Ketalar. Doctors stopped using the drug when patients woke up experiencing
hallucinations and delirium. It is now only used on humans in conjunction
with a Valium-like drug to minimise the side-effects.

Checked-by: Don Beck