THAI DRUG HITTING CALIFORNIA CLUB SCENE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The newest drug to hit California's underground
club scene is sweet, colorful - and deadly. The drug, a form of
methamphetamine called ya ba, a Thai name meaning "crazy drug," has made
its way into raves and is said to be significantly more powerful and
dangerous than the current club drug of choice, Ecstasy.

"The scary thing about these is that they are adding color to them and
adding flavor, which could give the perception that these drugs are less
dangerous than they really are," says Will Glaspy, a spokesman for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

The pills, which cost $10 to $20 apiece, are sometimes passed off as
Ecstasy to unwitting users, Glaspy said. Packing a potent mix of highly
addictive methamphetamine and caffeine, ya ba can keep users awake for days
and has hallucinogenic effects, sometimes causing users to believe they
have bugs crawling under their skin. The drug can be fatal, and common side
effects include increased heart rate, dehydration, paranoia and depression.

In August, federal agents in Sacramento made the largest bust of ya ba
smugglers since the drug first appeared in the United States three years
ago. The arrests of 10 people in Sacramento for allegedly smuggling 75,000
pills from Thailand and Laos came after U.S. Customs seized 46 shipments of
ya ba in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu, which were
destined for Sacramento addresses.

So far, ya ba has appeared mainly in Southeast Asian communities around
California. Law enforcement's efforts have been hampered because "we're
talking about a pretty closed community, so it's pretty hard to get
information," said Daniel Lane, the lead U.S. Customs official in Sacramento.

Officials fear the drug will spread from its niche into the mainstream,
much as the painkiller Oxycontin did. The prescription drug, which also has
shown up on the underground club scene, first gained a following in poor,
rural areas, garnering the nickname "hillbilly heroin."

Methamphetamine abuse is not a new problem in the United States, where
about 1 million people reported using meth in the last year in 2000.

Drug Enforcement Agency chief Asa Hutchinson has called methamphetamines
"the No. 1 drug problem in rural America." In urban areas, he says, club
drugs are the top problem. Ya ba, then, may be a terrifying combination.

Ya ba has become a vague label for any type of methamphetamine in pill
form, although it specifically refers to the brand produced in Southeast
Asia. Meth more commonly comes in powder form, allowing users to snort it
through their nostrils or inhale its fumes when heated.

In Thailand, addiction to ya ba has reached nearly epidemic proportions,
with the Thai Health Ministry estimating 3 million people are addicted to
amphetamines.

Ya ba was at first sold legally in Thailand, where truckers used the pills
to stay awake. The government declared ya ba illegal in 1970, but the drug
has since managed to enter all segments of Thai society, with reports of
widespread drug use by manual laborers, college students and even
five-year-old schoolchildren.

The drug is now produced mainly in Burma by the United Wa State Army, a
group of ethnic tribespeople allied with the country's ruling junta and
known to be one of the world's largest and most well-armed drug-dealing
organizations, law enforcement officials said.

Ya ba already has spread outside Southeast Asia, and has reportedly shown
up on the underground club scene throughout Europe and Australia.

In the United States, ya ba has shown up only in California, which is
already the nation's main meth maker. Mexican criminal groups still
dominate meth production, according to the DEA, although the Southeast
Asian variety has been gaining ground.

The arrests in Sacramento stemmed from four different investigations, three
involving attempts to mail boxes of ya ba into the country and one
involving an attempt to smuggle both opium and ya ba in a shipment of
furniture.

But smugglers have gotten much more creative than that, Lane said. He's
seen ya ba stuffed into CD cases, chopsticks and even dead insects.

The 10 arrested, who are originally from Laos, are currently awaiting trial.