US POLICE URGE BATTLE ON DRUGS AT LOCAL LEVEL

IRISH drug officers are concerned about a possible epidemic of crack
cocaine and meth-amphetamine, the poor man's cocaine, here.

Concerns arise about the devastation such drugs have caused in the United
States and their creeping invasion into Britain and Europe.

To date, nine illegal laboratories have been raided by British drug
officers who found organised criminals attempting to manufacture
meth-amphetamine for distribution in the UK. Six weeks ago Irish drug
officers discovered 40,000 tablets of that drug in Clontarf in what was
alarmingly the first ever major seizure of the drug here.

The head of the Garda National Drugs Unit, Assistant Commissioner Kevin
Carty, warned yesterday that cocaine, which used to be the preserve of the
wealthy, is now becoming much more available to the masses in Ireland and
that ecstasy and speed are available at "almost every cross-roads in the
country." There is a danger that crack cocaine will be the next new drug on
the Irish market, along with meth-amphetamine which is sometimes known as
crank.

In America crack caused incredible devastation on the East Coast, resulting
in whole parts of New York becoming no-go ghettos. Over on the West Coast
crank caused social chaos. Because it was cheap, readily available and
could induce highs that lasted over 20 times as long as a hit from cocaine.
Ten dollars could buy you one tenth of a gram and within seven seconds of
snorting it you would get an eight-hour high. Crank addicts have gone on
binges that allow them to go without sleep for 15 days, detectives describe
crank as the poor man's cocaine.

Easy to produce and giving a much stronger high, crack and crank are
attractive propositions for international drug dealers. The international
bible for drug production now is Alexander Shulgin's PIHKAL - A Chemical
Love Story. Shulgin's book contains formulas for making 179 different kinds
of Ecstasy. He has been described as the Delia Smith of the drugs world.

Les Fiander, a London Metropolitan Police officer with the National
Criminal Intelligence Service, warned Irish drug officers yesterday that
this book is been found in raids on illegal drug manufacturing plants all
over England. It is available on the Internet also and drug users are now
using this medium to consult with each other about manufacturing problems.

The worry now is that Irish criminal gangs will start to follow suit and
begin manufacturing crack and crank here using Shulgin's chemical recipes.

The only intelligence to date of a drug manufacturing culture here came
when the Garda's Operation Barbie discovered two Ecstasy manufacturing
laboratories in Dublin. Because Ecstasy can now be imported at #2 a tab
from Amsterdam, drug officers believe the market is too favourable now for
drug dealers to risk manufacturing E tabs themselves. However, tablets are
the coming thing, and the biggest buzz and profits come with crack and
crank.

Low cost production, coupled with massive profits, is an attractive
proposition for organised criminals but a cocktail which could have
unimaginable social consequences here.

NYPD Deputy Inspector, Tom Dale, warned yesterday: "You have cocaine here
so if they are able to transform cocaine into crack, you're going to have
trouble because it's extremely addictive and that's what caused New York to
burn down in the mid-80's. We are only recovering from that disaster now."

"Local communities have got to get involved. If you target it now you can
stop it before it comes," Inspector Dale said.

Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty agrees: "What we want to do is raise
awareness. We don't have a problem with crack or meth-ampethamine as yet,
but we want people to know that threat exists. Whole communities have been
devastated in the US, we have to learn from that. An ounce of prevention is
better than a pound of cure."