TOURISTS OVERDOSE ON DRUGS, FUN IN GOA

GOA, India -- The peaceful, fun-loving and tourist-friendly image of
India's western beach state of Goa has suffered a major blow after a
new police report pointed to at least 59 "mysterious deaths" of
foreign tourists in the past 15 months.

Twenty-five of the visitors died in a three-month period -- the peak
tourist season between December 2003 and February 2004 -- and many
suspect most of the deaths were caused by drug overdoses.

"Up to 10 foreign tourists had died here almost every year, and it
hardly made any news. But this time the toll was sensationally high,"
said David Lobo who runs a restaurant at Calangute, a beach popular
among foreign tourists.

Although police linked only five deaths to drugs last year, activists
campaigning for a "clean and drug free Goa" believe that overdoses of
heroin and a killer cocktail of other drugs openly available at local
pharmacists caused the "mysterious deaths" of 59 foreign tourists.

A Goa Medical College forensic medicine specialist, who asked not to
be named, said that because of "inordinate delay" by police in
collecting the viscera from bodies of dead tourists, traces of
ketamine were going undetected.

Since the "plasma half-life of ketamine is just 2 to 4 hours, the
viscera [in cases of suspected ketamine deaths] should be collected
soon -- if possible within 24 hours of death. But in as many as 90
percent of cases, this [doesn't happen] ... making detection of traces
of heavily decomposed ketamine in the viscera difficult.

"In quite a few cases, tourists admit in their dying statements to
have taken ketamine. But later, forensic experts fail to find any of
the drug in the viscera after death, obviously because of a delay in
collecting the viscera. ... In such cases police cannot link the death
to ketamine."

Ketamine hydrochloride, or ketamine, was originally used as an
anaesthetic for American soldiers in the Vietnam War. It resurfaced as
"Special K" in the 1990s, and became popular at rave parties, used
with cannabis, heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy.

"Under the influence of ketamine, which gives its users an 'out of
body' or 'near death' feeling, some tourists dived into the sea
without knowing how to swim, and died. Later, police registered them
as ordinary drowning deaths," said Joel De Souza, a restaurant owner
in Anjuna, another popular beach in Goa.

Of the 59 foreigners who died, the largest number, 28, came from
Britain. Ian Hughes, the British deputy high commissioner in Bombay,
visited Goa recently to meet with police officials, members of
narcotic squads and doctors at Goa Medical College to discuss the deaths.

About 20,000 British backpackers visit Goa every year, far
outnumbering tourists from other countries. It could be one reason why
nearly half the drug fatalities in Goa are from Britain.

An officer at police headquarters in Panaji said: "Some professional
British drug traffickers have probably started operating on this
circuit, smuggling ketamine and other drugs to the UK and other
European destinations. Only a few 'small fries' have been caught, but
it is only the tip of the iceberg."

A federal Narcotics Control Bureau official from New Delhi said:
"Because of the well-publicized crackdown on drug cartels in Thailand
last year, the price of heroin and other drugs shot up there. So, in
recent months an increasing number of foreign drug users have switched
to Goa and Manali, where they find a variety of drugs easily available
in the underground market."

Manali is a hill station in the northern Indian state of Himachal
Pradesh, the gateway to the Himalayas.

In the last three months, Goa's Food and Drugs Administration seized
ketamine and methamphetamine worth about U.S. $10,200 from four
unauthorized pharmacists around Goa's popular beaches.

When Nicholas Thiery Sabrice Borjnat, 30, a French citizen, was found
dead in his hotel room off Anjuna beach on Jan. 25 this year, police
found an empty vial of ketamine.

In the room of British tourist Nicholas Roy Beckett, 37, who died Dec.
9, 2003, police found empty vials of ketamine and methamphetamine.
Later, the postmortem report confirmed that he died of acute pulmonary
and brain edema caused by a drug overdose.

A 37-year-old British jeweler and his French companion died in
December, also at Anjuna beach, after the two overdosed on ultra-pure
heroin bought from a local trafficker.

Among the 59 foreign tourists who died mysteriously in the past 15
months, most were between 20 and 45 years old. Twenty-two were from
European countries other than Britain -- Germany, Italy, Portugal,
France, Sweden, Spain, Finland, Norway, Austria and the Netherlands --
and nine were from Israel, Japan, Russia, Bahrain, Canada and Kenya.

Devika Sequiera, a reporter for the Deccan Herald who has been
tracking the story, agreed that most of the deaths could be linked to
overdoses. "It is strange that the authorities do not admit the
connection of drugs to these deaths," she said. "Often, all the signs
- -- like pulmonary and brain edema -- are present, indicating that the
deaths were due to a drug overdose."

In India, ketamine is mostly used as an anaesthetic in walk-in
surgery. Although it is listed prescription-only, it can be bought
freely at pharmacies in Goa. The beach shacks -- restaurants and bars
operating on the beaches during the peak tourist season from October
to April -- are known to supply ketamine illegally.

The beach shacks, and nearby hotels, bars and restaurants, often
organize "rave" parties where heroin, ketamine and other drugs are
served surreptitiously to foreign guests, along with food and alcohol
sold openly.

S.N. Tripathi, director of Goa's Food and Drugs Administration, said:
"It's apparent that abuse [of ketamine] is greater than its genuine
medical use. Rules prescribe it must be sold only on a doctor's
prescription. Medical stores are within their rights to stock it. But
it appears that unaccounted bulk sales are taking place."

Western backpackers discovered the golden beaches of Goa in the 1960s,
when hippies fell in love with the tranquillity and the cheap
marijuana. Four decades later, Goa is still a favorite haunt for those
who come to India seeking cheap and easy drugs.

Some European tourists have reportedly taken to trafficking ketamine
and other drugs to fund their trips to India. British, Portuguese,
Spanish and Italian traffickers apparently operate on a "triangular
circuit" -- arriving to spend the summer and buy cannabis in Manali in
the foothills of the Himalayas. Then they travel to Goa to sell the
cannabis to backpackers in the winter. Finally, the sale proceeds are
used in Goa to buy ketamine, methamphetamine and other drugs to be
trafficked to Europe.

In Goa, one liter of ketamine (1.06 quart) costs about U.S. $450.
After being smuggled to Europe in bottles of rose water, its street
value soars to U.S. $6,000 or more.

Last year, Food and Drugs Administration and customs officials seized
about 150 liters of ketamine from unauthorized suppliers and European
tourists. In most cases, ketamine seized from the European passengers
flying out of Goa's Dabolim airport was discovered disguised as rose
water.

Although the passengers could not be detained since ketamine is not a
listed narcotic drug, the bottles were confiscated in all cases
because the passengers could not produce the mandatory medical
prescriptions.

In April last year, a judge in London sentenced a Briton and his two
Portuguese and Italian accomplices to jail terms for smuggling
ketamine from Goa into Britain.

Ketamine and methamphetamine are not listed narcotics in India, so the
authorities find it difficult to impose stiff penalties on
traffickers. However, customs officials in Goa said they had recently
requested that federal authorities in New Delhi include ketamine,
methamphetamine and some other pharmaceuticals in the schedule under
India's Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

According to local sources, drug traffickers from the Himalayan states
of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have also started smuggling
high-grade heroin into Goa. Some foreigners accustomed to taking
low-grade heroin in large doses used the same quantities of the
high-grade heroin, with fatal results.

Some 2 million tourists visit Goa every year, about 10 percent of them
foreigners. Many Goans have complained that local authorities turn a
blind eye to drugs in Goa to protect the tourist trade.

Bruno Almeida, a native Goan, said: "If there is a crackdown on drugs,
tourism will be hit badly and it will affect the local economy, which
is tourism-oriented. So the ruling party does not support any action
against the drug sellers and drug users."

Elma Figueiredo, a college teacher from Panaji said: "Now, many local
young people are being sucked into the world of new drugs like
ketamine and falling sick. Dropout rates in the schools are soaring.
It is already a big problem for Goan society as well."