DEA WANTS ECSTASY EXTERMINATION

Calling Ecstasy "the Y generation's cocaine," the head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration pledged to double the number of club-drug
investigations by federal authorities. The DEA - which employs the grim
reaper on the logo of its anti-Ecstasy campaign - says about 5 percent of
its major investigations involve club drugs. Asa Hutchinson, head of the
agency, said that would double under "Operation X-Out."

"The explosive use of Ecstasy and predatory drugs among our youth is fast
reaching epidemic levels," said Hutchinson, who detailed the initiative at
a Thursday night news conference.

He said the agency plans to focus new efforts on Internet trafficking and
in the Netherlands, where some 80 percent of the world's supply originates.
Domestically, the DEA will also step up enforcement in south Florida, the
main entry point for the drug, as well as enhance interdiction efforts at
major U.S. airports.

Hutchinson held up an evidence bag containing powdered Ecstasy that was
confiscated in a Wednesday night raid.

Six people were arrested on drug charges and eight pounds of high quality
Ecstasy were seized. The drug, with an estimated street value of $1.25
million, was found in powder form instead of the commonly seized pills
imported from Europe, adding to growing fears that Ecstasy is increasingly
being produced within the United States, Hutchinson said.

The DEA says 8.1 million Americans aged 12 and older tried Ecstasy in 2001,
up from 6.5 million the year before.

Nationwide, hospital emergency room cases involving Ecstasy rose to 5,542
last year, up from 637 in 1997, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network.

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a synthetic drug considered part
hallucinogen and part amphetamine that has been linked to brain, heart and
kidney damage. It became popular over the past decade at dance parties
known as raves for the energy and euphoria it gives users.

According to the DEA web site, its street names include "XTC, go, X, Adam,"
and "hug drug1." The agency uses the slogan "dancing with darkness" when
discussing its efforts against club drugs.

Hutchinson also said there was a rise in the use of so-called "date-rape"
drugs such as GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, and Rohypnol.

In September, as part of Operation Webslinger, authorities broke up four
Internet drug-trafficking rings operating in the United States and Canada,
making more than 100 arrests and seizing enough chemicals for 25 million
doses of GHB and similar substances.

Judi Clark, the mother of 15-year-old Samantha Reid, who died in 1999 from
an overdose of GHB slipped into her soda, said at the news conference that
teenagers underestimate the drug's power.

"Many kids across the United States who are experimenting with drugs,
slipping them into other people's drinks, are under the false impression
that you can put them in a corner and they'll wake up," she said, "Samantha
didn't wake up."