NEW CLUB DRUG REACHES HAWAII

HONOLULU (AP) -- A new club drug gaining popularity on the Mainland has reached
the islands, and authorities are hoping to stop its spread before it becomes a
big problem.

Federal authorities say the arrest this week of a Pearl Harbor sailor on
suspicion of distributing AMT -- alpha-methyltryptamine -- is the first such
arrest in the state.

''This is a new drug on the island, and we are still collecting intelligence
about this drug culture,'' said Larry Burnett, director of the High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area, a partnership of federal, state and county law
enforcement agencies that participated in the investigation.

''The goal that all of Hawaii's law-enforcement agencies share is to stop the
distribution of AMT before it becomes a major problem.''

The drug is a hallucinogen available over the Internet and was labeled a
Schedule I drug by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under an emergency
order in April.

The 24-year-old petty officer arrested Tuesday is being held in pretrial
confinement at Pearl Harbor. He will be prosecuted through military courts,
said Paul Ciccarelli, special agent in charge of Naval Criminal Investigative
Service Hawaii.

Four other Navy personnel were interviewed as part of the investigation. Some
were arrested Wednesday, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell.

AMT, which has been a problem in Europe since the 1990s, is considered a
psychedelic drug like Ecstacy, said Briane M. Grey, assistant special agent in
charge of the DEA's Honolulu office.

It increases blood pressure and body temperature, makes a user feel nervous,
irritable and restless and also may make him or her hallucinate and experience
altered moods, Grey said. AMT's symptoms may linger in a user's system for up
to two days.

The drug first caught the attention of federal drug agents in the 1990s and has
been blamed for several deaths, he said.

On Oahu, military investigators were the first to notice the drug, Burnett
said.

The sailor arrested Tuesday learned about AMT on the Internet, where it was
being marketed as a ''legal'' alternative drug, and told Navy investigators
that he didn't realize it was illegal to buy or sell the drug, Burnett said.