World: Europe supplies world’s ECSTASY – September 2002 Europe supplies world's ecstasy
By The Guardian - Sept 18 2002
Copyright: The Guardian
Europe has become one of the biggest drug-producing regions in the world, according to new ecstasy seizure statistics from the US.
The figures from the American Drugs Enforcement Administration reveal that more than 10 million ecstasy tablets were seized in the US last year, of which 80 per cent were manufactured in Europe. In 1999 the DEA seized three million tablets. In 1993 they seized 196.
The statistics reveal the boom in ecstasy production and export from Europe. In 2000, 27.5 million ecstasy tablets were among 10,000 kilos of drugs produced in Europe and seized overseas. In Europe 17m tablets were seized in 2000, 50 per cent more than in 1999.
The ecstasy smuggled from Europe to the US is worth more than £3 billion. Some comes from Britain or is trafficked by gangs with connections in the UK, according to European police sources.
The massive production of ecstasy in Europe, particularly in and around the Dutch city Maastricht, is causing tensions between transatlantic law enforcement officials and policymakers.
In recent months there have been seizures of European ecstasy in Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Mexico, Suriname and Brazil.
Earlier this year Europol, the European criminal intelligence service, launched a Europe-wide attempt to crack down on the export of ecstasy from Europe. Only 333,000 tablets were seized and 13 people arrested and American DEA agents told The Observer they would welcome further action. British police sources said that they were aware of American concerns.
Experts say they do not expect production to fall soon despite attempts by the Dutch government to find and destroy the labs. Ecstasy manufacturers are now moving into Eastern Europe where precursor chemicals are easily available. Labs have recently been found in Poland, Bulgaria and Russia. The profits can be huge. According to the DEA, the initial investment needed for an ecstasy production lab can be less than £30,000. Each tablet costs between 10 and 20p to produce and in America can be sold for £30, several times more than in the UK.
The trade is so lucrative that Colombian smuggling gangs have been asking for payment in ecstasy pills for cocaine delivered to European dealers. A kilo of cocaine is, according to DEA sources, exchanged for 13,000 ecstasy pills which are then taken to North and South America.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
UK: Row erupts over ECSTASY dangers – September 2002 Row erupts over ecstasy dangers
By BBC News - Sept 18 2002
Copyright: BBC News
Two British psychologists are at the centre of a row over the safety of ecstasy, claiming the drug may not be dangerous in the long-term. University of Liverpool scientists Dr John Cole and Harry Sumnall, working with an American psychologist, have criticised animal and human studies which say the drug causes long-term brain damage and mental problems.
But their comments have provoked outrage from anti-drugs charities groups and parents of children who have died from taking ecstasy.
Other scientists have insisted the harmful effects of the drug are undeniable.
Writing in the magazine The Psychologist, published by the British Psychological Society, the pair said reported adverse effects of ecstasy could even be imaginary - due to the widespread belief that the drug causes long-term harm.
They believe much of the existing research into ecstasy damage is flawed and that some experts are guilty of bias.
Ecstasy is said to affect cells in the brain which produce the nerve message transmitter serotonin, known to influence mood.
But the changes observed involved the degeneration of nerve fibres, which can be regrown, and not the cell bodies themselves, say Dr Cole and his colleagues - including Professor Charles Grob, Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in California.
'10% have tried drug'
Dr Cole and his team were highly critical of studies of the effects of ecstasy on young people, claiming many psychological problems begin in adolescence and could not be exclusively blamed on effects of the drug.
Other studies failed to find a definitive cause-and-effect relationship between ecstasy use and associated problems.
They even suggest the damaging effects of ecstasy may be all in the mind because "researchers and the media are discussing a hypothesised cause-and-effect relationship as if it were fact".
Paul Betts, whose 18-year-old daughter Leah died after taking the drug in 1995, described the article as "despicable" and said there was a hidden motive behind the article.
"Whenever someone tries to say a drug is not as bad as people think it is there's an ulterior motive, and, mark my words, the same is true even in this case.
"It has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that every single ecstasy tabled destroys parts of the brain. The main thing it destroys is serotonin, and depression follows on from serotonin depletion."
Surveys indicate that about 10% of young UK adults aged 15 to 29 have tried ecstasy.
That figure jumps to about 90% for young people regularly attending outdoor raves or nightclubs.
Between 1993 and 1997 there were 72 deaths in the UK attributed to ecstasy.
Dangers 'very real'
During the same period there were 158 deaths caused by amphetamine or "speed", another popular dance drug.
Roger Howard, chief executive of DrugScope said: "This underlines previous studies that have said much of the evidence around Ecstasy is not as reliable as it could be.
"This reinforces the need for the Home Secretary David Blunkett to refer the classification of Ecstasy to the experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, so that we can have an evidence based drugs policy that we can all trust."
But Dr Michael Morgan, senior lecturer in experimental psychology at the University of Sussex, said he had found "overwhelming evidence" that regular ecstasy use caused impulsive behaviour and impaired verbal memory.
Professor Andy Parrot, an addiction expert from the University of East London who has also studied the effects of ecstasy, said: "The deficits are very real and cannot be explained away as artefacts."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
UK: ECSTASY not dangerous, say scientists – September 2002 Ecstasy not dangerous, say scientists
By The Guardian - Thursday September 5 2002
Copyright: The Guardian
The drug has been blamed for causing deaths and permanent brain damage, but the psychologists are strongly critical of animal and human studies into its effects, claiming that they are misleading and overestimate the harm ecstasy - scientifically known as MDMA - can cause.
Other scientists insisted that those who took ecstasy were undoubtedly risking their health and their life.
Two of the scientists challenging the established view are British and the third is American. Dr Jon Cole is a reader in addictive behaviour and Harry Sumnall is a postdoctoral researcher, both at Liverpool University. Professor Charles Grob is director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre in California.
Writing in the magazine the Psychologist, published by the British Psychological Society, they claim that many of the studies since 1995 have been flawed. They also accuse researchers of bias.
Ecstasy is said to affect cells in the brain which produce serotonin, the chemical known to influence mood. But the changes observed involved the degeneration of nerve fibres, which can be regrown, and not the cell bodies themselves, the psychologists say.
They accuse other scientists of minimising the impact of data suggesting that ecstasy exposure had no long-term effects. Although numerous tests were run on volunteers, only positive results were reported in detail, they say. "This suggests that hypotheses concerning the long-term effects of ecstasy are not being uniformly substantiated and lends support to the idea that ecstasy is not causing long-term effects associated with the loss of serotonin," write the authors.
The article is critical of the way studies involving young users have been conducted. They point out that many psychological problems start in adolescence anyway, ecstasy users invariably took other drugs as well, and some of the symptoms reported mirrored those caused by simply staying awake all night and dancing.
Most of the young people in the studies were volunteers from universities which raised questions about how representative they were of the population, the article says.
Most studies have failed to pinpoint ecstasy as the cause of problems, they say, and the animal studies were flawed and inconclusive.
They suggested that the long-term effects of the drug might be "iatrogenic", which is defined by the New Webster's dictionary as "caused by the mannerisms or treatment of a physician, an imaginary illness of the patient brought about by the physician".
Paul Betts, whose daughter, Leah, died after taking the drug in 1995, called the article "despicable".
Three other ecstasy experts writing in the Psychologist dismissed the notion that symptoms of long-term ecstasy use were all in the mind.
Dr Rodney Croft, a research fellow at the Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Australia, said: "There is strong evidence that ecstasy does cause impairment... although conclusions drawn from such evidence cannot be infallible, I believe the strength of this evidence makes 'danger' the most reasonable message for the researchers to be broadcasting."
About two million ecstasy tablets are believed to be taken by clubbers in the UK every weekend. Deaths linked to the drug have risen in the past decade. Between 1993 and 1997, there were 72. In 2000, there were 27, although 19 had other drugs in their system.
The exact cause of death cannot always be established, but where it has been, it was often dehydration.
http://www.theguardian.co.uk/
World: Thai forces kill ECSTASY smugglers at the border – September 2002 Thai forces kill smugglers at the border
By The Star Online - Thursday September 5 2002
Copyright: The Star Online
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP): Thai security forces shot and killed at least six suspected drug traffickers from Myanmar near the border between the two countries Thursday and seized about 900,000 amphetamine tablets, police said.
A Thai border patrol police official said the dead men were believed to be members of the United Wa State Army -- a powerful ethnic army allied to Myanmar's military regime.
Thai army and border police fought a 30-minute gunbattle with about 20 suspected drug traffickers in a forest in the Maetaeng district of Chiang Mai province, about 580 kilometers (360 miles) north of Bangkok, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Afterward, police found six bullet-riddled bodies and about 900,000 amphetamine pills the traffickers were carrying in backpacks. The other members of the group escaped, the official said.
Thailand blames the Wa army for producing huge quantities of amphetamine pills and smuggling them to Southeast Asia and beyond through Thailand. The Wa army, which reached a cease-fire with the Myanmar regime in 1989, enjoys virtual autonomy in Myanmar's Shan state.
The United Nations drug control agency says that the Myanmar government's progress in controlling the production of opium, the raw material of heroin, has been offset by a boom in amphetamines.
According to the Thai government, more than 600 million amphetamine tablets have been smuggled into Thailand from neighboring nations -- principally Myanmar and Laos -- during the past eight months.
http://thestar.com.my/
UK: ECSTASY – Is the party over? – August 2002 Ecstasy: Is the party over?
By BBC News - Monday, July 29, 2002
Copyright: BBC News
Ecstasy has been one of the most dominant drugs in the UK club scene since rave culture took off in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But there are signs that the trends in its use are changing.
Earlier this week it emerged that the average price of the drug has fallen to a record low of £3-a-pill.
And figures suggest there were at least 40 deaths related to the drug in England and Wales in 2001 - more than double than the whole of 2000.
But while the average ecstasy-user is getting younger, clubbers are increasingly turning to other drugs like cocaine as the e-inspired club culture of a decade ago undergoes a slow metamorphosis.
Hugh Garry, a DJ and a club promoter for Garlands in Liverpool which burnt down earlier this month, said the public's clubbing and drug tastes had changed.
"People are looking for other ways of entertaining themselves such as bars with late licenses that have their own DJs and cocaine use is on the up," he said.
Mr Garry, producer of Radio 1 Online's dance section, said: "In the old days, people used to spend their hard earned cash on some ecstasy as their weekend treat. Now, coke is more affordable and people choose to take that.
"Club culture has been up and down over the years. In 1998. Mixmag said clubland was dead but in that year Radio 1's roadshow in Ibiza was its most successful ever.
"Tastes change and dance music has changed but it's still popular. Ecstasy just isn't such an integral part of it anymore."
Only last week, Liverpool's famous dance night Cream announced it was to close its doors for the summer.
It is to hold a 30-day review to assess its future prompted by the shift in dance culture from clubbing nights to festivals and arena tours.
One organisation which has some claim to have its finger on the drugs and club pulse is Scotland's Crew 2000 - a drugs information project which goes out to clubbers and festivals-goers on their own territory.
'Cleaner drug'
Spokesman Mike Cadger said as far as Scotland was concerned ecstasy use had plateaued.
"Ten years ago people started taking ecstasy at the age of about 17, 18 and 19.
"These days ecstasy is being accessed much younger - 15 or 16. The price has declined due to saturation in the market."
Mr Cadger said the mid-teens were buying ecstasy until they could afford to buy other class A drugs such as cocaine which were perceived as being more sophisticated.
He said: "Four years ago in Edinburgh a gram of coke would cost £100, now it's £35. It's affordable."
Mr Cadger said recreational drug users were turning to cocaine because it was considered "cleaner" and the recovery period was much quicker.
He said: ¿There are also very few cocaine fatalities and when you think an estimated 500,000 ecstasy tablets are taken every weekend, 56 deaths a year is very low.
"More people die from peanut allergies."
'Ecstasy use stable'
St George's Hospital in London, blames the rise in ecstasy deaths on the increasing strength of many tablets taken by clubbers.
"The rise comes at the same time as ecstasy becomes cheaper and is used more recreationally in the dance culture by people who wouldn't normally take it," added a spokesman.
DrugScope's Cara MacDowall is not sure the answer is quiet so simple.
"As the record low price of ecstasy shows, the numerous seizures and ecstasy's current grading as a class A drug have had a minimal impact on availability and price.
"As ecstasy use is relatively stable, it is obvious that levels of use are affected by more than price or legal classification.
"It may also be that people are choosing to use cocaine rather than ecstasy as research shows that cocaine use has risen over recent years."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Lawmakers Targeting the ECSTASY of Raves Lawmakers Targeting the Ecstasy of Raves
Dawn was approaching when the underground wizard stepped center stage at the State Palace Theatre to survey his electronic wonderland. Laser lights strafed the grand old chandeliers overhead, and deafening machine music rattled the opera boxes. The floor was packed with young, sweaty dancers.
"Great crowd," J. Donnie Estopinal said. And then, with a boyish smile, he added: "I wonder which ones are the cops."
The gangly 32-year-old hefted a chugging smoke machine and aimed it toward the audience of more than 3,300. If there were any undercover drug agents in the Canal Street theater--and there almost certainly were--Estopinal was suddenly gone before their eyes, vanished in a billowing white cloud. It was a rare moment of low visibility for the promoter whose parties have been ground zero for a federal excursion into the rave world.
The newest front in that campaign is a U.S. Senate bill that has wide support on Capitol Hill. The legislation has a catchy name--the RAVE Act, which stands for "Reducing America's Vulnerability to Ecstasy."
Yahoo!
World: Israeli ECSTASY smugglers caught – August 2002 Two Israelis extradited to U.S. on ecstasy smuggling charges
By reuters - Monday, July 29, 2002
Copyright: reuters
MIAMI - Two Israelis described as major smugglers of the party drug ecstasy have been extradited by Israel to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Meir Ben David and Josef Levi were indicted in October 2000 on charges of possession and conspiracy to import MDMA, or ecstasy, into the United States. U.S. officials said it was the first time Israeli citizens had been extradited to the United States to face drug charges.
Officials said the two were part of an Israeli-organized crime syndicate that used couriers to smuggle large quantities of ecstasy from Europe to the United States from early 1998 until mid-1999.
U.S. agents seized about 200,000 ecstasy tablets and $400,000 in cash during the investigation in which 40 people were indicted, officials said.
"Ben David and Levi are textbook examples of the type of major international drug traffickers the DEA targets worldwide," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Thomas Raffanello said in a written statement.
Ecstasy is an amphetamine that has stimulant and hallucinogenic effects and is popular with teen-agers and young adults at dance clubs, parties and rock concerts.
Officials alleged Ben David coordinated shipments of ecstasy from Europe to the United States, and Levi helped distribute the drug at nightclubs in south Florida.
The two, who were arrested in Israel last August, were expected to arrive in Florida this weekend and appear in a federal court in Miami on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/
US: ECSTASY Bill Given Approval US Ecstasy bill given approval
Saturday, June 1, 2002
A Southern California legislator is carrying a bill to make the party drug Ecstasy a controlled substance under California law.
AB 2300 by Assemblywoman Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Nigel, cleared the Assembly this week and is on its way to the Senate.
"Unfortunately, it has taken the deaths of two young women - one in Northern California and one in Southern California - to heighten the danger of this drug," said Trent Smith, Bates' chief of staff.
Yuba City High School student Nicole Crowder died April 27. Cathy Isford, a Santa Ana high school student, died last month after her senior prom.
The deaths "provided a little momentum" for the bill, Smith said, "but we still have a pretty uphill battle."
Bates initially wanted Ecstasy listed as a Schedule I controlled substance, but had to settle for a Schedule II listing to get the bill out of an Assembly committee, Smith said.
There's no difference in criminal penalties: up to three years in prison for unlawful possession or possession for sale, or up to four years in prison for sale.
A Schedule I drug under California law has a "high potential for abuse" with no medically approved use.
A Schedule II drug also has the high potential for abuse but may have an accepted medical use.
Ecstasy, formally known as 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, has been on the federal controlled substances list since 1988.
"Given ongoing interest in pursuing clinical trials to determine if there is an acceptable medical usage, placing MDMA on Schedule I may discourage potential medical application," according to a bill analysis prepared for the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The drug was patented in 1914 and was intended as a weight-loss aid. It was never marketed due to its side effects, which include overheating, cardiac arrest and brain damage.
It's now a popular drug in "rave" or "techno" parties.
"Many suburban communities are also experiencing an increased use of MDMA within smaller party environments," the bill analysis said. "It has become increasingly available through high school drug networks."
Designating Ecstasy a Schedule II drug "sends a signal to young people that it's a dangerous drug," Smith said.
More importantly, listing Ecstasy as a controlled substance under state law would make it easier for district attorneys to prosecute cases, Smith said.
"Right now, a DA or prosecutor, the first part of their case would have to be explaining the chemistry and prove it has a link to a drug that is scheduled," Smith said. "It usually involves some chemistry discussion and sometimes it gets confusing with juries and courts."
The California District Attorneys Association supported AB 2300 when it proposed a Schedule I listing for Ecstasy, but took a neutral stand when Bates amended the bill to give Ecstasy a Schedule II listing, Smith said.
"We were in a very difficult position," he said. "We wanted to keep the bill moving and live to fight another day."
In the Senate Public Safety Committee, the bill faces a "big hurdle," Smith said. Legislation making Ecstasy a Schedule I drug died in the committee last year.
Homepage : Appeal-Democrat
ECSTASY: The Health Dangers Ecstasy: The health dangers
MPs have recommended that ecstasy should be downgraded to rank it alongside amphetamines and barbiturates rather than heroin and cocaine.
The Home Affairs Committee claims that for many people the drug is no more than a passing phase, that rarely results in any long term harm.
However, the drug can damage health, and, for the unlucky few, it can kill. BBC News Online presents the evidence.
The case of Lorna Spinks, a sociology undergraduate at Anglia Polytechnic University, who collapsed and died after taking ecstasy pills graphically illustrates the dangers of taking the drug.
It is clear that the drug has the potential to kill.
Most deaths have been caused by dehydration. Ecstasy affects body temperature, and when combined with dancing for long periods in a hot place there is a risk of dangerous over-heating.
However, the medical profession is still unclear as to the exact danger that the drug poses to health.
Part of the problem is that many tablets sold as ecstasy are not what purchasers think they are.
The amount of ecstasy in a tablet can vary greatly.
Tablets have been analysed and some contained no ecstasy but other drugs such as amphetamine or ketamine.
Others have been found to contain some ecstasy but mixed with other drugs or a range of adulterants. Some tablets have even been found to be fish tank cleaners or dog worming tablets.
Stimulant
Ecstasy is a stimulant and increases brain activity.
It is often taken by clubbers, who say that it induces a sense of euphoria, followed by a feeling of calm.
They claim it makes them feel more sociable and increases their awareness of their surroundings.
However, large doses of the drug can cause anxiety, panic and confusion.
Evidence is also mounting that regular use of the drug may cause long-term brain changes which may be linked to an increased risk of mental health problems, including chronic depression.
Studies have already suggested that the drug is toxic to the neurones in the brain, and that it may kill cells which produce a vital mood chemical called seratonin.
An autopsy of a 26-year-old long-term heavy user of Ecstasy revealed that he had up to 80% less serotonin in his brain than normal.
Research from University College London has also shown that that former ecstasy users may suffer memory impairment - even a year or more after giving up the drug.
Serotonin carries messages between nerves and is thought to play a role in regulating sleep patterns in humans as well as their mood, memory, perception of pain, appetite and libido.
Liver damage
Research on long-time users suggests it may cause liver and kidney problems in later life.
People with problems such as epilepsy, high blood pressure and depression are thought to be more likely to suffer side effects from ecstasy use.
Ecstasy is not thought to lead to addiction and there are no specific withdrawal symptoms.
However, immediate side effects can include nausea, a dry mouth, raised blood pressure and depression.
Dispute
A recent article published in New Scientist magazine claimed that scientific research showing that ecstasy damages the brain is fundamentally flawed.
Experts told the magazine that there were serious question marks over the validity of brain scans which researchers have said show that ecstasy damages production of a vital brain chemical called serotonin.
The scans purportedly provided evidence that the drug destroyed nerve cells that specialise in serotonin production.
But two independent experts told New Scientist there was a key flaw - the way brains reacted to this kind of scan, known as PET, varied enormously with or without ecstasy.
BBC NEWS | News Front Page
UK: Happy clubbers care little for MPs’ call to downgrade ECSTASY – May 2002 Happy clubbers care little for MPs' call to downgrade ecstasy
By The Independent - 25 May 2002
Copyright: The Independent
More than a decade after MDMA became commonplace, official thinking still lags behind the realities of its recreational use.
The music is so loud that your organs vibrate. As your eyes become used to the lasers and dry ice, the impression is of slow motion. Everyone seems to be walking on the moon, they seem tactile ... happy.
It is a brewery's nightmare: a London club where almost everyone is on methylenedioxy- metamphetamine – MDMA, ecstasy or E; the drug that a Home Affairs Select Committee last week recommended downgrading from a class A to a class B controlled substance.
A reduction from A to B means little in practice – the maximum penalty for possession is simply reduced from seven years to five. But the message sent out by the mostly white, middle-aged and middle-class MPs is being seen by some as groundbreaking. Was this a signal that, contrary to the tabloids' view, ecstasy was not such a corrupter of our children?
As an exercise in canvassing opinion, the people in this London club hardly represented a paradigm for empirical research. Those questioned were invariably, in their own words, "off their heads". Yes, they said, ecstasy should be legalised. It's wonderful. And, by the way, you're a really lovely man.
This is how ecstasy-users talk. Patented in 1913 by the drug company Merck as a dieting aid that was never marketed, MDMA gives feelings of empathy, warmth and euphoria. Violence is almost unheard of in a venue where ecstasy is the drug of choice.
MDMA comes as powder, which can be snorted, or more usually as a pill. The pills, costing as little now as £5 or less each, usually carry a logo. The current favourite is the Mitsubishi car company badge, but in the past there have been doves, dollar signs, Mercedes, Rolling Stones lips and many others.
A pill takes about 40 minutes to work and can last for one to four hours. It raises the temperature, increases the heart rate and dilates pupils. It suppresses the appetite, wards off tiredness and, paradoxically, makes users want either to dance or sit quietly in, they say, ecstasy.
"You simply can't explain to people just what it's like," said Luke, 30, a smiling computer analyst who is massaging his girlfriend's back. "You feel wonderful, everyone is your friend, all your social inhibitions drop and you find yourself talking to – and really befriending – complete strangers. For a while, the world is how it should be."
These clubbers are not impressed with reclassifying ecstasy. They took a risk when the penalty for possession was seven years. And they will take the same risk now that it is five.
"I doubt if anyone gave the news a second thought," said Luke's girlfriend, Anna, 24. "Ecstasy is everywhere and it has been for more than a decade. The police know it, but people on E cause them no trouble at all, particularly compared with people on alcohol. I don't know anyone who's had a bad time on it but I know lots of people who have been sick, got hurt or made a fool of themselves on drink. As long as you're caught only carrying enough for yourself, you're more likely to get just a caution these days."
Commander Brian Paddick, whose relaxed drugs policy in Brixton, south London, caused a political storm, said in his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee: "If I felt that my officers were going into nightclubs looking for people who were in possession of ecstasy then I would say to them, and I would say publicly, that they are wasting valuable police resources ... I would say there are far more important things which cause real harm to the community."
The people who really need to worry are the dealers, but they show no sign of concern in this club. You can spot them in huddles, selling to eager clubbers. Pills? they ask, unsolicited. If you can see them, so can the club's security. But a club without E is like a wake. On sale here are Mitsubishis at £5 from one dealer, and tablets with a logo like an elliptical triangle at £7 from another.
"These guys perform a service because they take a risk," said Andy, a 27-year-old mechanic with wildly dilated pupils. "This stuff should be legal but they have to take a risk to get it to people who want it. And we all want it."
Professor John Henry, a clinical toxicologist at St Mary's Hospital, London, told the select committee: "I personally think that ecstasy is relatively safe in the short term. The long-term risk is to my mind unknown at present, although as each year goes by I get relatively more sanguine about the risk rather than less. I accept there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the long-term effects on the brain. In terms of addictiveness, it is very low."
Half a million people take ecstasy each weekend but death is rare. In 2000, 27 people died out of an estimated 55 million pills taken. This was just 2.2 per cent of drug-related deaths. In 1999, 754 people died taking heroin, 87 from cocaine, and hundreds of thousands from using alcohol and tobacco.
Release, a drugs charity, is not impressed with reclassification of MDMA. Kevin Flemen, its deputy director, said: "Reducing it to class B does nothing for either prevention or damage control. We would like to see it legalised and regulated. It should be sold in a pharmaceutically safe form at chemists – once users had to queue up for it with people waiting for their pile cream, it would soon look a lot less glamorous."
So, does reclassification represent a veiled acceptance? Chris Mullin, the committee chairman, says it does not. Instead, the intention was to put some distance between it, and heroin and cocaine, a distinction intended to help educate young people against drugs.
"This is clearly not as harmful as heroin or crack," he said. "But it can still be a dangerous drug and it is not one that we would like to see legalised."
http://www.independent.co.uk/
UK: Happy clubbers care little for MPs’ call to downgrade ECSTASY – May 2002 Happy clubbers care little for MPs' call to downgrade ecstasy
By The Independent - 25 May 2002
Copyright: The Independent
More than a decade after MDMA became commonplace, official thinking still lags behind the realities of its recreational use.
The music is so loud that your organs vibrate. As your eyes become used to the lasers and dry ice, the impression is of slow motion. Everyone seems to be walking on the moon, they seem tactile ... happy.
It is a brewery's nightmare: a London club where almost everyone is on methylenedioxy- metamphetamine – MDMA, ecstasy or E; the drug that a Home Affairs Select Committee last week recommended downgrading from a class A to a class B controlled substance.
A reduction from A to B means little in practice – the maximum penalty for possession is simply reduced from seven years to five. But the message sent out by the mostly white, middle-aged and middle-class MPs is being seen by some as groundbreaking. Was this a signal that, contrary to the tabloids' view, ecstasy was not such a corrupter of our children?
As an exercise in canvassing opinion, the people in this London club hardly represented a paradigm for empirical research. Those questioned were invariably, in their own words, "off their heads". Yes, they said, ecstasy should be legalised. It's wonderful. And, by the way, you're a really lovely man.
This is how ecstasy-users talk. Patented in 1913 by the drug company Merck as a dieting aid that was never marketed, MDMA gives feelings of empathy, warmth and euphoria. Violence is almost unheard of in a venue where ecstasy is the drug of choice.
MDMA comes as powder, which can be snorted, or more usually as a pill. The pills, costing as little now as £5 or less each, usually carry a logo. The current favourite is the Mitsubishi car company badge, but in the past there have been doves, dollar signs, Mercedes, Rolling Stones lips and many others.
A pill takes about 40 minutes to work and can last for one to four hours. It raises the temperature, increases the heart rate and dilates pupils. It suppresses the appetite, wards off tiredness and, paradoxically, makes users want either to dance or sit quietly in, they say, ecstasy.
"You simply can't explain to people just what it's like," said Luke, 30, a smiling computer analyst who is massaging his girlfriend's back. "You feel wonderful, everyone is your friend, all your social inhibitions drop and you find yourself talking to – and really befriending – complete strangers. For a while, the world is how it should be."
These clubbers are not impressed with reclassifying ecstasy. They took a risk when the penalty for possession was seven years. And they will take the same risk now that it is five.
"I doubt if anyone gave the news a second thought," said Luke's girlfriend, Anna, 24. "Ecstasy is everywhere and it has been for more than a decade. The police know it, but people on E cause them no trouble at all, particularly compared with people on alcohol. I don't know anyone who's had a bad time on it but I know lots of people who have been sick, got hurt or made a fool of themselves on drink. As long as you're caught only carrying enough for yourself, you're more likely to get just a caution these days."
Commander Brian Paddick, whose relaxed drugs policy in Brixton, south London, caused a political storm, said in his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee: "If I felt that my officers were going into nightclubs looking for people who were in possession of ecstasy then I would say to them, and I would say publicly, that they are wasting valuable police resources ... I would say there are far more important things which cause real harm to the community."
The people who really need to worry are the dealers, but they show no sign of concern in this club. You can spot them in huddles, selling to eager clubbers. Pills? they ask, unsolicited. If you can see them, so can the club's security. But a club without E is like a wake. On sale here are Mitsubishis at £5 from one dealer, and tablets with a logo like an elliptical triangle at £7 from another.
"These guys perform a service because they take a risk," said Andy, a 27-year-old mechanic with wildly dilated pupils. "This stuff should be legal but they have to take a risk to get it to people who want it. And we all want it."
Professor John Henry, a clinical toxicologist at St Mary's Hospital, London, told the select committee: "I personally think that ecstasy is relatively safe in the short term. The long-term risk is to my mind unknown at present, although as each year goes by I get relatively more sanguine about the risk rather than less. I accept there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the long-term effects on the brain. In terms of addictiveness, it is very low."
Half a million people take ecstasy each weekend but death is rare. In 2000, 27 people died out of an estimated 55 million pills taken. This was just 2.2 per cent of drug-related deaths. In 1999, 754 people died taking heroin, 87 from cocaine, and hundreds of thousands from using alcohol and tobacco.
Release, a drugs charity, is not impressed with reclassification of MDMA. Kevin Flemen, its deputy director, said: "Reducing it to class B does nothing for either prevention or damage control. We would like to see it legalised and regulated. It should be sold in a pharmaceutically safe form at chemists – once users had to queue up for it with people waiting for their pile cream, it would soon look a lot less glamorous."
So, does reclassification represent a veiled acceptance? Chris Mullin, the committee chairman, says it does not. Instead, the intention was to put some distance between it, and heroin and cocaine, a distinction intended to help educate young people against drugs.
"This is clearly not as harmful as heroin or crack," he said. "But it can still be a dangerous drug and it is not one that we would like to see legalised."
http://www.independent.co.uk/
World: Research linking ECSTASY to brain damage ‘flawed’ – April 2002 Research linking ecstasy to brain damage 'flawed'
By Annanova
Copyright: Annanova
Scientific evidence that ecstasy damages the brain is fundamentally flawed and has misled politicians and the public, a report claims.
An inquiry by New Scientist magazine concluded that many of the findings published in respected journals cannot be trusted.
Similar uncertainty surrounds evidence that ecstasy impairs mental performance, according to New Scientist. In the majority of tests of mental agility, ecstasy users performed as well as non-users.
Marc Laruelle, an expert on brain scanning at Columbia University, New York City, said: "All the papers have very significant scientific limitations that make me uneasy."
He pointed out that the chemical probes used in ecstasy brain scans do not always stick solely to serotonin transporters.
Psychologist Andrew Parrott, of the University of East London, found ecstasy users outperformed non-users in tests requiring them to rotate complex shapes in their mind's eye.
Ecstasy users did perform worse when learning new verbal information. But according to Mr Parrott their performance still lay well within the range of what counts as normal.
At the centre of the controversy are scans which allegedly show that ecstasy destroys nerve cells involved in the production and transport of serotonin, a vital brain chemical.
Serotonin allows neurons to communicate with each other across nerve connections called synapses. It is involved in a wide range of functions including memory, sleep, sex, appetite, and primarily, mood.
In an editorial, the magazine said: "Our investigation suggests the experiments are so irretrievably flawed that the scientific community risks haemorrhaging credibility if it continues to let them inform public policy."
New Scientist says it is an open secret that some researchers who failed to find impairment in ecstasy users had trouble getting their findings published. The Lancet medical journal has declined to comment on the report.
http://www.ananova.com/
World: ECSTASY link to long-term brain damage – March 2002 Ecstasy link to long-term brain damage
By The University of Adelaide - Monday, March 4 2002
Copyright: The University of Adelaide
DISTURBING evidence is emerging that the increasingly popular drug ecstasy can be linked to users suffering long-term brain damage.
University of Adelaide researchers have found that ecstasy taken on a few occasions could cause severe damage to brain cells, with the potential to cause future memory loss or psychological problems.
Dr Rod Irvine, an internationally regarded ecstasy expert from the University's Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, says with 7% of 17-year-olds reporting use of ecstasy, major health problems could be expected in the future.
"For many years it has been known from animal experiments that small doses of ecstasy-even if only taken on only a few occasions-can cause severe damage to certain brain cells," he says. "More recently, evidence has started to accumulate suggesting that this damage may also occur in humans. Brain scans and psychological assessment of ecstasy users has been used to obtain this information.
"If our suspicions are proved correct, it will mean many of our young people will have memory loss or psychological problems in the future."
Dr Irvine's research on brain damage caused by ecstasy shows that the drug seems to work mainly through its effects on one type of brain cell, and even through one molecule in those cells. It also seems likely that the way the body reacts chemically to ecstasy is important in producing adverse effects, as is the surrounding temperature, which can lead to users overheating.
Adelaide's reputation as having the highest per capita death rate from ecstasy in Australia-and perhaps even the world-forms another component of Dr Irvine's research.
Dr Irvine is looking at the shorter-term consequences of ecstasy "overdoses", and has established that the high rate of death is due to a different strain of ecstasy appearing on the Adelaide market in the mid1990s.
"Normal" ecstasy contains the pharmacological ingredient known as MDMA as its main ingredient, but the Adelaide strain often contained no MDMA but rather a more potent chemical known as PMA.
"PMA hasn't been around since the early 1970s when it was responsible for the deaths of several people in Ontario, Canada, and now it's reappeared here in Adelaide," Dr Irvine says. "We don't know where the PMA came from, but we do know that it has been prevalent in Adelaide since the mid 1990s."
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/
UK: Cover-up Over the Rise in Ecstasy Use – January 2002 Cover-up claimed as ecstasy use 'soars to 2 million pills a week'
by The Observer
Copyright: The Observer
Two million ecstasy pills a week are taken in Britain, four times more than the Government has admitted publicly, warns a confidential intelligence report seen by The Observer.
Official estimates maintain that only half a million tablets of the controversial dance drug are taken every week in pubs and clubs.
A classified study by Customs and Excise, dramatically raising the figure, is revealed as police are asking the Government to downgrade ecstasy, giving it the same legal status as cannabis.
There are already rising fears that the drug may have harmful long-term effects to users' health. It was connected to a record number of deaths last year.
MPs and drug experts were gravely concerned by the Customs and Excise findings this weekend. They cited them as an example of government secrecy on drug policy.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard is struggling to explain a massive rise in seizures of Class A drugs. Figures from forensic laboratories delivered to senior officers last week show that seizures of large shipments of cocaine have trebled and those of heroin have doubled in the past year.
'We're still trying to work out why this has happened,' said a senior Met source.
These figures and the new estimate of ecstasy use will fuel claims that drug availability and consumption have spun wildly out of control.
'Any suspicion that the Government is withholding information such as this must be condemned,' said Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary. 'If we are to formulate rational policies to reduce drug dependence, it is essential the Govern-ment gives us accurate statistics.'
The intelligence report, prepared last year for a police service that cannot be named for legal reasons, says: 'A Customs and Excise study has suggested that two million ecstasy pills are consumed each week. Seizure figures, meanwhile, were around 6.3 million 100mg doses in 1999' - 6 per cent of the estimated amount of the drug used.
The report says there are 430,000 users, who spend a total of UKP300m a year on ecstasy, perhaps taking between 10 and 15 pills a night.
John Ramsey, head of toxicology at St George's Hospital in London, said: 'I cannot believe that there is anything more than a linear relationship between the number of deaths and the number of users. If traffic doubled, road deaths probably would.'
He said 27 people died in the UK as a result of taking ecstasy last year, a rise of two-thirds in 12 months.
Campaigners said the huge level of consumption must be tackled by greater understanding, not criminalisation. Roger Howard, head of Drugscope, a government-backed charity, said: 'If these new figures are valid, the ecstasy problem seems considerably larger than the Government has estimated.
'It is essential that all the information the Government has on the scale of the problem is made public.'
A spokeswoman for Customs and Excise denied it was responsible for the report, attributed to it by police intelligence sources. 'We do not recognise the figure you are referring to,' she added.
A Home Office official also denied the Customs estimate existed, and stuck to the old figure of 'half a million tablets a week'.
http://www.observer.co.uk/
UK: Police officers are ‘regularly taking ECSTASY and CANNABIS’ – July 2001 Police officers are 'regularly taking ecstasy and cannabis'
The Independent - 17 July 2001
Copyright: The Independent
A subculture of drug use permeates sections of the British police force, according to new research by a criminologist and a former chief superintendent. The researchers found that some young officers, up to the rank of inspector, were regularly taking ecstasy and cannabis. Several officers also held "seminars" with their dealers, telling them what to say if they were arrested and where to stash their supply if raided.
Reports of the drug abuse among members of the British police service come at a time when there have been renewed calls for the decriminalisation of cannabis. David Wilson, Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Central England, Birmingham, spent two years gaining the trust of officers from several forces.
He said: "It was a startling result. From talking to a variety of police officers from a variety of forces I found that there was a very strong subculture of drug taking." But he argued: "When you consider how many 20-year-olds take drugs it is not surprisingly that some of the people who join the police are also drug users. What was surprising was the willingness of some police officers to give their suppliers mini-seminars about how to avoid detection and what to do when arrested."
Professor Wilson added that some officers also arranged weekends to Amsterdam to consume drugs and were heavily involved in the rave scene while off duty. The findings are contained in a forthcoming book, called What Everyone In Britain Should Know About the Police, which has been co-written with Douglas Sharp, course director of the Criminal Justice and Policing degree at UCE, who is a former chief superintendent of West Midlands Police.
The authors believe that police are "doomed to failure" if they concentrate on rebranding themselves as crime-fighters and "mini Robo Cops". Professor Wilson said: "They need to actively engage in gaining the support of the public within the communities they serve." Fred Broughton, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, disputed the new research. "It is our experience that police officers in England and Wales are law-abiding professionals intent on tackling the drugs menace, not adding to it," he said.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.YesNoPrivacy policy
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.Revoke cookies
