BRITISH ECSTASY USE GOES MAINSTREAM

Increased Demand Sees Prices Plummet Cocaine Now Drug Of Choice In Clubs

LONDON—In a dank nightclub in Brixton, a south London neighbourhood with a
rep for crime and a lively music scene, a man sporting a parka and toque
scans the dance floor. He shifts his eyes every few seconds, looking for a
sale.

"You want pills?" he asks above the din. "Two for ?5 (about $12.50 Canadian)."

We chat briefly. Exuding a savoir-faire for drug dealing, he says if I'm
interested in a larger order he can hook me up with 50 hits of ecstasy for
?50 — a pound a pill.

Britain's love affair with the drug dates back to the 1980s, when a hit of
E cost, on average, ?25. Fast-forward to today, where the designer drug is
now anything but. One can purchase pills for less than bottled water,
luring first-timers and encouraging regular users to up the dose.

Matthew Atha, director of the U.K.'s Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, says
reduced prices have made it easier for heavy users — those dropping
multiple times in a night — aiming for an extended high to last an entire
weekend.

"It's possible to buy in bulk for less than a pound a tablet," he says.

So why have prices plummeted? The basic law of economics — supply and
demand. Police busts of drug labs in 1998 and 1999 reduced the purity and
availability of E in the short-term, but since then more labs have popped
up, and an influx of dodgy druggists and dealers have hit the streets,
pushing costs dangerously low. That is amplified by the flood of E arriving
at U.K. ports from the Netherlands, Europe's hotbed of E production.

Costs are so low that inexperienced users are exposing themselves to
unscrupulous peddlers selling chalk, laundry detergent and brick dust,
allowing for the dirt cheap prices.

"There's quite a lot of pills that are not particularly good quality.
They're cheaply made," says Harry Shapiro, spokesperson for Drug Scope, a
London-based drug expertise organization. According to the group's Web
site, testing of some pills found them to be aquarium cleaner.

False or authentic, E is simple to make. With a pill-pressing machine, an
industrial food mixer and the right, or in some cases wrong, chemicals, a
cowboy pharmacist can produce a million hits weekly.

Official estimates peg the number of pills popped per week in Britain at
half a million, but a classified intelligence study leaked a year ago bumps
that figure to 2 million. It also showed there were 430,000 users who spend
?300 million ($757 million Canadian) annually on the drug, some of whom
take up to15 pills nightly. In contrast, that same report revealed only 6
per cent of the estimated amount of E used in 1999 was seized.

Over the past 15 years, there have been more than 90 deaths in the U.K.
related to E use. The high peaked to 27 in 2000 in England and Wales alone.
Studies have contradicted each other on the long-term effects of prolonged
E intake. Nonetheless, the proliferation of users and usage increases the
likelihood of accidental overdoses and causes concern for Atha.

"Some will go up to 10 tablets in one night," he says. "That is really
worrying."

A societal acceptance of E has grown in recent years. In early December, a
Labour MP called for a softening of sentences for E possession and dealing
on the basis it was not as harmful as harder drugs like heroin, and
youngsters often dabbled in it. Two weeks earlier, a university professor
also called for relaxed legislation related to E use. As it stands, the
maximum penalty for E possession is seven years imprisonment. Distribution
can carry a life sentence.

The social setting for dosing has changed, too. It's always been used by a
upper-level scholars, young professionals and university-educated
30-somethings. But it's now taken as a quick pick me-up, or in the comfort
of home, watching a flick with friends. Or when the kids are away.

"Over the course of a weekend, tens of thousands are taking the drug .. not
just at raves," Shapiro says.

Enter cocaine. As E use has shifted to the living room, the bathrooms of
central London's nightclubs have been snowed due to a price drop in coke as
well. It is estimated 2 million Britons are regular users of the stimulant.
With coke regaining popularity as a club drug and E selling for a quarter
of the nation's minimum wage, Shapiro says the dynamic of Britain's entire
drug culture is changing.

"You're getting a new generation coming u