NARCS ON ALERT FOR FAKE OPIUM

The substance is reddish, hard, easily shattered or crumbled and forms
a slightly sticky, red powder when it's crushed.

Users think it's opium.

But it's not.

It's nearly identical to red opium. In fact, it's called "Red Rock
Opium." But the substance contains no opiates.

It's incense.

"The substance looks like opium, but it's fake," said Mary Vaira,
spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration here, who checked
with a DEA laboratory that has analyzed red-rock opium. "It's the same
texture, it's red and it smells like incense."

The fake opium has been sold on the Internet for $3 per ounce. The
taste is "reminiscent of flowers, very mildly 'perfumey,' and is not
particularly harsh on the throat and lungs," according to one Internet
description.

The buzz is mild, but some users say they get a "floaty," "codeine-
like" relaxed feeling.

Drug officials here are on the alert for either real opium or the fake
opium.

"If we thought we were field-testing opium and came up with a negative
repeatedly, we would know something is wrong," said Chief Inspector
Raymond Rooney of the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit. He said he's
seen neither the real nor fake red opium.

Drug officials worldwide are on the alert for an increase in opium
produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The deposed Taliban rulers in
Afghanistan, one of the world's biggest opium-producing countries,
have sold opium stockpiles and farmers there have now replanted poppy
crops.