NEW DRUG IN U.S. HAS MIDEAST ROOTS

As dawn breaks over Yemen, farmers in rugged mountains 6,000 feet above the
desert plain begin to cut their hillside harvest by hand.

Crop bundles are carted in pickup trucks over dusty roads to the cities. A
day later, suitcases and overnight parcels packed with those bundles arrive
at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Just last year, U.S. Customs inspectors seized more than 17,000 pounds of
bundled khat leaves at Newark airport. Nationwide, seizures have nearly
doubled over the past three years.

"Where we're seeing most of it is at international airports," said Will
Glaspie, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in
Washington.

Although illegal in the United States, khat is lawful in many parts of the
world. Prized for its mild stimulant properties, leaves from the green khat
shrub have been chewed like tobacco for a millennium by millions across the
Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

Immigrants from Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia are quietly fueling a
growing demand for the drug in the United States, authorities say. Users
pay more than $50 for bundles the size of small flower bouquets, consuming
it at social gatherings.

Authorities do not view khat as a top priority in the drug war. And there
are few officially documented cases of adverse health consequences from
khat use in the United States.

But one aspect of the drug's trade greatly worries authorities: the profits.

Recently, law enforcement authorities have intercepted shipments of cash
mailed to Yemen from the East Coast. It has heightened concerns about who
may have a piece of the country's khat business.

"I think it would be wise to at least consider following the money back to
determine where it is going and whether it is maybe going to terrorism
organizations," said a federal law enforcement official who is monitoring
the issue.

Toward that end, DEA agents are conducting an intelligence study on where
the money trail leads after khat is sold in America. Privately, American
law enforcement officials say they still know little about the khat trade.
It appears to those investigating that the smuggling businesses are run by
tightly-knit immigrant groups with old-world ties, making their
infiltration by federal agents in the United States extremely difficult.

Following a money trail into Yemen poses an entirely new set of challenges.

An impoverished, mountainous desert nation stretching across the tip of the
Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has vast swaths of arid landscape beyond
government control, and regions plagued by kidnappings and lawlessness.

It has recently attracted the increased attention of the Bush
administration amid worries that al-Qaeda terrorists have a significant
presence there. Officials in Washington, who believe al-Qaeda was behind
the October 2000 port attack there on the USS Cole, recently sent U.S.
Special Forces troops to train Yemeni soldiers.

Khat plays a central role in daily and economic life in Yemen, experts say.
It is the nation's biggest cash crop, and its production absorbs about a
quarter of the agricultural workforce. Its use also consumes 10 percent of
household income, according to a World Bank report published in May.

In 2001, khat contributed 4.2 percent of Yemen's gross domestic product,
the report said. Brice Harris, a professor of Middle East history at
Occidental College in California, studied the khat industry in Yemen two
summers ago. He said he doubts that the shrub's cultivation is subsidizing
terrorist organizations.

"It's basically the farmer who is getting the money, and the merchant who
is transporting it to town," Brice said.

In Yemen, khat leaves are picked early in the day at terraced mountainside
plantations, and transported quickly to open-air markets in lowland town in
time for midday shopping. The leaves - which produce a bitter, not entirely
pleasant taste - provide users a mild "buzz" at afternoon gatherings.

"It's a social event," said Harris, who has observed such get-togethers.
"They'll sit around, often in a special room on sofas, and chew the fresh
leaves from the khat tree that they purchased that morning. Sometimes
they'll have coffee with it. They talk about politics. They talk about
religion. They talk about anything."

Speed is of the essence in the khat industry - creating yet another problem
for drug fighters on this side of the Atlantic.

Cathinone, the substance that produces euphoric effects similar to
amphetamines, begins to degrade 48 hours after the khat leaves are cut,
according to a DEA study released in June.

This is why virtually all of the khat brought into America comes on
international flights, U.S. authorities say.

"JFK and Newark airports are definitely leading entry points by far," said
one knowledgeable official.

Khat's short life span also makes prosecuting its smugglers difficult in
the United States, authorities say. By the time it is analyzed by a
government forensic laboratory, it often no longer meets the legal standard
required under federal law to demonstrate that the leaves are illegal drugs.

"You have to be able to prove that cathinone is still an active ingredient
in the plant at the time it was distributed, so it has to be analyzed very
quickly," said Glaspie, the DEA spokesman.

"Khat's not the biggest thing on our radar screen," he explained. "We have
some khat cases that are ongoing, but not a significant number. With
cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and Ecstasy out there, they take priority
over khat."

U.S. public health officials say they do not have much information about
khat's effects on its users.

Between 1994-2001, only one emergency room visit in the nation involving
the mention of khat has been officially documented, said Leah Young, a
spokeswoman for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service
Administration in Rockville, Md.

However, several studies of khat-chewing conducted by the United Nations
Office For Drug Control and Crime Prevention has concluded that it is
habit-forming, saps productivity, and causes gastrointestinal, cardiac, and
other serious health problems.

"Khat chewing is an insidious habit that affects many aspects of life,"
says a report on several studies commissioned by the United Nations. "With
its adverse social, economic, and medical consequences, it has become a
problem of grave national concern."