Ecstasy- An Israeli New Millennium Gift To The World

Ecstasy - an Israeli New Millennium Gift to the world









Research By: Syed Haroon Haider Gilani

Preface Recently I saw ads on internet offering one of the best selling drug around the globe today, called Ecstasy in Pakistan which is so far safe from this Jewish product and chemical weapon to destroy entire generation. I have observed the use of this destroyer in UAE, Singapore and in Italy where this is the fashion symbol now in parties and pleasure consequently entitled as "the Party drug" or " The Love Drug". I am off the opinion that Pakistan is not a lucrative market for Ecstasy at all due to its high price and lower intoxication and tranquility as compared to Heroin, opium and Hashish etc. Besides my opinion that Pakistan is not an attractive market for Ecstasy, the main threat to its popularity is because of variety of reasons including that the masterminds behind Ecstasy Trade are Israeli Jews who are " innovative, industrious and entrepreneurers who always find ways to create and develop markets for their products. Secondly we always import our social trends and fashion from West where Ecstasy is now in the top line. For the case of Ecstasy, profits are enormous. It costs 15 to 25 cents to produce one Ecstasy tablet, which by the time a drug dealer sells it at a disco or on a college campus, it can fetch between $25 and $40. In Pakistan wide consumption can lead to enormous profits too due to the restively high drug addiction rate with numbers exceeding 7 million drug addicts in 2005, touching 10 million in 2009. According to the Director Anti-Narcotic Force Anwar Hafeez, Pakistan has the highest number of drug addicts in the world. Initiator Human Development Foundation, Initiator Human Development Foundation in 2008 claimed that only in Karachi over 2 million youth and children drug addicts while drug trafficking is prevailing in every part of the city. In Karachi and other major cities of Pakistan the main addiction is of Hashish, because this drug is easily available at every nook and corner of the city. Drug supply is available all around the city through those street children. Drug usage in education institutes, parties and ceremonies is now common and becoming a fashion rapidly in upper class and mode of mental relaxation for suppressed middle and lower classes. Smoking hashish (charas) has become popular among youngsters, especially girls, as it is easily available and has become a symbol of modernity. Earlier, primarily boys were smoking hashish but now girls are also using it frequently. A psychiatrist from Adil Hospital in Defense said that smoking drugs in cigarettes had been very common in the West but now this had penetrated our society as well. He said that teenagers claiming that they were able to concentrate better after smoking hashish were mistaken. He said that habitual smokers of hashish became moody and developed a volition syndrome, which made them less certain about their life. He added that a continuous use caused a personality change. In such scenario, all social, economical, educational and political circles, organizations and individuals with the realization of already drug polluted country must stand up to fight the threat which is not turning its face towards, Pakistan and education and awareness to be widely, properly and timely be spread across the nation before the trouble begins here.

Weapon of mass destruction, destruction Ecstasy Ecstasy ("E", "X", "XTC") ") is a term used to refer to a type of illicit street tablet or party drug containing one or more different psychoactive drugs sold on the black market and intended for recreational uses. Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; commonly called Ecstasy itself) is the primary active agent, though such tablets may contain other compounds as well; MDMA may be be entirely absent from an "Ecstasy" tablet. Apart from their differing chemical composition, tablets are differentiated by size, shape, color, and imprinted design. Tablets will typically be identified by street names such as "Blue Mitsubishi", and "Purple Buddha". Harms of Ecstasy A paper published in medical journal The Lancet ranked "Ecstasy" as the 18th most dangerous drug in the U.K. (based on potential for physical harm and risk of addiction). To put this into context, heroin was the most harmful, cocaine second, alcohol fifth and cannabis eleventh.

MDMA, known widely as Ecstasy, is used by young people to produce hallucinogenic and amphetamine-like like effects. New research has found that even a small amount of Ecstasy can be harmful to the brain even with first-time first users. Radiologists at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands conducted the first study of low dosages of the drug on first-time first time users. "We found a decrease in blood circulation in some areas of the the brain in young adults who just started to use ecstasy," said Maartje de Win, M.D., in a news release. "In addition, we found a relative decrease in verbal memory performance in ecstasy users compared to non-users." non users." In the U.S., it is estimated that 5.4 percent of all high school seniors have taken ecstasy at least once. People who use ecstasy for the

first time could suffer impaired memory and harm to their brains, a new study of the dance drug's effects reveals. Even low doses can cause changes to the brain, According to James Randerson, science correspondent, The Guardian, in his article about this study, on Tuesday 28 November 2006 says, "The drug's effects are thought to come from disruption of the regulation of serotonin, a brain chemical believed to play a role in mood and memory." Dr de Win's team selected 77 men and 111 women who had never used the drug before. The group's average age at the start of the study was 21. The researchers performed brain scans to measure blood flow in different parts of the brain and subjected the volunteers to various psychological tests. Eighteen months later, the team looked at 59 of the original study group who admitted to subsequently trying the drug and 56 who had stayed off it. The users had taken a total of six pills on average. By repeating the tests, the team found subtle changes to cell architecture and decreased blood flow in some brain regions. They also found the ecstasy users performed worse than the nonusers on memory tests. There was no indication that the drug affected the users' mood or had an effect on serotonin-producing neurons. Previous research has shown that long-term or heavy ecstasy use can damage serotonin-dependent neurons and cause depression, anxiety, confusion, difficulty sleeping and decrease in memory. But this is the first study to look at the effects of low doses of the drug on first-time users. Physical Harms In a recent report (a review of its harms and classification under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971) to the Home Secretary of United Kingdom, by Professor David Nutt FmedSci, The Chairman of The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the harms of Ecstasy are detailed as: - There have been more than 200 reported ecstasy-related deaths in the UK over the last 15 years, with 43 in 2001 in England and Wales alone. - MDMA has undoubted harms, causing direct toxicity especially when taken in high doses. However, many of the other physical harms of MDMA are associated with behaviours in which the users subsequently engage, such as energetic dancing for long periods. - Published literature provides a heterogeneous picture, with case reports detailing acute complications including death occurring after limited exposure (including consumption of a single tablet) (Rogers et al., 2009). Presentations to accident and emergency departments after taking MDMA are usually associated with poly-substance use (80% with alcohol, 24% cocaine and 21% ketamine) (Dargan, 2008). - Admission data from Newcastle (Dargan, 2008) show that the number of admissions due to MDMA between 2000 and 2007 varies between 22 and 35 per year. This is compared with around 15 per year for amphetamines and, following a recent increase, over 30 per year for cocaine. Data from presentations to St Thomas’ Hospital, London (2005 to 2008) show that, for those agents classed as recreational drugs, MDMA was the third most common drug behind cocaine and GHB, being involved in a total of 382 presentations (Dargan, 2008). However, of these MDMA presentations, only 52 were as sole drug; 85% involved co‑ingestants, of which alcohol, GHB and ketamine were the most common. - The total number of admissions to hospital due to MDMA (alone or in combination) is not known. But, if the data provided by St Thomas’ and Newcastle hospitals are considered

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indicative, it is likely to be of the order of several thousand per year. By way of comparison, there were over 57,000 recorded hospital admissions in 2006/07 with a primary diagnosis of alcohol poisoning and 846 with a primary diagnosis of cannabis poisoning (Department of Health/National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, 2008). Estimates for all hospital admissions to which alcohol contributes are over 800,000 per year with over 200,000 admissions with alcohol-specific conditions. Data obtained from the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) show that among Class A drugs MDMA, historically, has been the most common drug of misuse where information has been accessed (National Poisons Information Service, 2008). However, the proportion of telephone enquiries related to MDMA acute toxicity fell sharply between 2004/05 and 2006/07. In contrast, the proportion of those enquiries relating to cocaine has increased over the same period and is currently a more common drug for enquiry than MDMA (National Poisons Information Service, 2008). The NPIS data, however, are limited in providing any indication of the true incidence of toxicity cases. MDMA overdose has a profile of toxicity similar to, but with somewhat less severe outcomes than that seen with amphetamines and cocaine (Dargan, 2008). Cardiovascular effects (elevated blood pressure and heart rate) are prominent and consistent with the amphetamine-like nature of MDMA; epileptic seizures are sometimes seen. Cocaine has a similar toxicity profile, but has a higher rate of cardiac problems associated, especially myocardial infarction, particularly when taken with alcohol (Devlin and Henry, 2008). On rare occasions, use of amphetamines, cocaine and MDMA can lead to intracerebral and subarachnoid haemorrhage (Gledhill et al., 1993; McEvoy et al., 2000) and it would appear that, in the majority of reported cases, the haemorrhage appeared to be related to an underlying vascular malformation. MDMA is often taken in night/dance clubs and settings where the temperature may already be high and the individual is engaged in prolonged dancing. These factors, coupled with MDMA use, can be dangerous, especially if associated with dehydration – sometimes leading to exertional hyperpyrexia/hyperthermia (raised body temperature). This was the explanation for some of the first MDMA fatalities which occurred in dance clubs when users had danced for prolonged periods in high temperatures while drinking very little water. In 1996, the ACMD acted on these incidents and issued advice to Ministers and suggested guidance to users to ensure adequate hydration when dancing for long periods (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, 1996). This was coupled with guidance to local authorities and club owners to provide free water and ‘chill-out’ rooms, to reduce such incidents. New safe clubbing guidelines – Safer Nightlife – have recently been issued by the London Drug Policy Forum (2008). Water intoxication (with secondary low blood sodium levels – hyponatraemia) is a condition also associated with the use of MDMA. This can be as a result of excessive water intake, in an attempt to prevent dehydration after taking MDMA. In some people, MDMA may cause excessive secretion of antidiuretic hormone, which makes the kidneys retain water, so aggravating the consequences of excessive water intake (Devlin and Henry, 2008). Data presented to the ACMD identified nine published case reports of fatalities due to hyponatraemia between 1997 and 2002 and one in 2006 (Rogers et al., 2009). Twenty-four case series or case reports involving non-fatal hyponatraemia were also identified. All fatal cases were in women aged between 16 and 21. The propensity for women to be

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disproportionately affected is probably due to the lower ratio of body water to body mass in women. Cases of acute liver injury (hepatitis) are occasionally reported. These can be secondary to hyperthermia or caused by direct hepatotoxicity from the drug; in the latter case, it may rere occur if MDMA is taken again (Devlin and Henry, 2008). The National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (np-SAD) (np SAD) maintains the Special Mortality Register (SMR). The dataset is unlikely to be fully complete as it records the voluntary submissions of coroners’ coroners reports for England and Wales and there are differences in the way coroners, or their pathologists, incorporate findings. The General Mortality Register (GMR) is a database maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) based on information from death certificates and an coroners’ reports. Accuracy of the dataset relies on the information recorded by the coroner. Full toxicological data on all of the drugs detected at post-mortem mortem are not always cited on the death certificate, and in some situations it can be difficult to ascribe the drug(s) responsible for the death (Hickman et al., 2007). Between 1999 and 2001, the data from the GMR show a rise in drugrelated deaths, where ‘ecstasy’ was the sole drug mentioned. Thereafter, the number of deaths attributed to ‘ecstasy’ reached ched a plateau while both cocaine- and, to a lesser extent, amphetamineamphetamine related deaths continued to rise (Figure 1).

Data from the np-SAD SAD for the period 1997 to 2006 recorded that MDMA was implicated in a mean of 50 deaths per year and around 10 where it was considered the sole drug (Rogers et al., 2009). Data from ONS using the GMR in the period 1993 to 2006 record a mean 33 deaths per year where MDMA is implicated and 17 where it was considered the sole drug

(Table 3) (Rogers et al., 2009). The difference differen between the GMR and np-SAD SAD figures will be due to the differences in data reporting and data sources used.

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Table 3 shows the number of drug-related drug deaths for selected causes either as the sole drug or as one of the drugs involved. There are fewer deaths implicating MDMA than several other Class A drugs (such as heroin, methadone and cocaine) and a similar number of deaths due to amphetamines. Data from the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO) show that, between 1995 and 2007, there was an average erage of 2.5 deaths a year which involved only ‘ecstasy ecstasy’, or only ‘ecstasy-type’ drugs, or only these and alcohol (General Register for Scotland, 2007). Np-SAD SAD data suggest that, for those deaths where MDMA has been implicated, the individuals tend to be younger ounger with a greater likelihood of being employed. This is in contrast to those deaths where amphetamine is implicated. Fatalities where ‘ecstasy’ is implicated also tend to be more associated with concurrent alcohol and cocaine use and less with heroin and nd methadone use than those from amphetamines. It is particularly difficult to estimate the risk of taking any given MDMA dose due to the lack of information on the average level of consumption and dose-response response relationship between tablet intake and increased incre risk of overdose, as well as uncertainty surrounding the number of ‘ecstasy’ users. For example, in 1995/96 a 25-fold 25 fold range was estimated for ‘ecstasy’-related related death among 15 to 24-year-olds 24 olds of between one in 2,000 and one in 50,000 users (Gore, 1999).. Equally, if we assume that there are 1.2 million adult ‘ecstasy’ users and that approximately 60 million tablets are consumed annually (Home Office, 2006a) then the risk of death per person and per tablet is: one in 39,000 and one in 1.8 million respectively, if all deaths mentioning ‘ecstasy ecstasy’ are included; and one in 76,000 and one in 3.5 million respectively, if only those deaths solely mentioning ‘ecstasy’ are included. In attempting to quantify the intrinsic fatal toxicity risk of MDMA, as measured by the ratio of deaths to availability, we looked at mortality data from the ONS for the period 2003 to 2007. Three separate measures of an index of fatal toxicity (T1, T2 and T38) were calculated as the total number of cases in which the drug was mentioned on death certificates9 divided by, respectively: (i) the number of users of that drug (T1). The number of users (16 to 5959 year-olds) olds) was derived from the BCS (Home Office, 2004; 2005b; 2006b; 2007) based on the estimated number of users in the last year over over the same period; (ii) seizures by law enforcement agencies (T2). Drug seizure data were taken from Home Office (2008); and (iii) estimates of the market size of each drug in England and Wales (T3). Market size was derived from Home Office data (Home Office, ice, 2006b). The data were then normalised such

that, for each scale, heroin = 1,000. Values of T1, T2 and T3 are listed in Table 4. For each scale, amphetamine, MDMA and cocaine have a broadly similar fatal toxicity, which is considerably lower than that of heroin.

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A study of all drug-related deaths in Scotland during the 1990s found that every death where MDMA was involved was reported in the newspapers (Forsyth, 2001). Deaths due to other drugs were much less likely to be reported; for example, only one in 50 were reported for diazepam and for amphetamine it was one in three. The skewed reporting of ‘ecstasy’ against the landscape of other drug-related harms and deaths is a real phenomenon and may heavily impact on public perception.

Societal harms -

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While MDMA clearly can have a major impact on some users and their families, there are few data suggesting negative impacts on society when directly compared with the other widely used Class A drugs, namely heroin and cocaine. Policing priorities in relation to possession (as discussed in Section 3) appear to reflect this. MDMA users are more likely to be in employment than heroin, cocaine and amphetamine users (Rogers et al., 2009) and usually fund their drug purchases from their own income rather than from acquisitive crime (Association of Chief Police Officers, 2008). In contrast to alcohol and stimulants, there are few public order offences deriving solely from the use of MDMA (Association of Chief Police Officers, 2008). ‘Ecstasy’ use has been implicated in only a very small proportion of serious sexual assault cases (0.65%) (ACPO, pers comm., 2008). Compared to ‘ecstasy’, there are over four times as many recorded victims of serious sexual assault under the influence of heroin and nearly three times as many under the influence of cocaine. In cases where the perpetrators are recorded as being, or are believed to be, under the influence of ‘ecstasy’, the figures for ‘ecstasy’ and heroin are similar. There is evidence of the involvement of organised crime in the trafficking of MDMA both into and within the UK. There is less certainty with regard to the relative extent to which organised criminal groups specialise in such commodity dealing or whether the trafficking of MDMA is part of the multi-commodity nature of organised crime where profit and risk are assessed against both the commodity and the market. At a local level, supply of MDMA is prominently, though not exclusively, based within the night club environment. It is not known what impact, if any, the classification of MDMA as Class A has on criminal activity. Downgrading would reduce the maximium sentence for production or supply from life to 14 years. However, data suggest that downgrading would not require concomitant provision of greater leniency by the judiciary, as in 2006 there was not one case of possession with intent to supply where the sentence given exceeded 10 years. Whether separating MDMA from other Class A drugs could have health and societal benefits through

separating drug markets and reducing ‘one-stop-shop’ drug dealers that encourage heroin and crack cocaine/cocaine use has been suggested, but is not certain. History of Ecstasy MDMA was first synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch. At the time, Merck was interested in developing substances that stopped abnormal bleeding. Merck wanted to evade an existing patent, held by Bayer, for one such compound - hydrastinine. At the behest of his superiors Walther Beckh and Otto Wolfes, Köllisch developed a preparation of a hydrastinine analogue, methyl hydrastinine. MDMA was an intermediate compound in the synthesis of methyl hydrastinine, and Merck was not interested in its properties at the time. On December [8] 24, 1912 Merck filed two patent applications that described the synthesis of MDMA and its subsequent conversion to methyl hydrastinine. Over the following 65 years, MDMA was largely forgotten. Merck records indicate that its researchers returned to the compound sporadically. In 1927, Max Oberlin studied the pharmacology of MDMA and observed that its effects on blood sugar and smooth muscles were similar to ephedrine's, but that, in contrast, MDMA did not appear to produce pupil dilation. Researchers at Merck conducted experiments with MDMA in 1952 and 1959. In 1953 and 1954, the United States Army commissioned a study of toxicity and behavioral effects in animals of injected mescaline and several analogues, including MDMA. These originally classified investigations were declassified and published in 1973. The first scientific paper on MDMA appeared in 1958 in Yakugaku Zasshi, the Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. In this paper, Yutaka Kasuya described the synthesis of MDMA, a part of his research on antispasmodics. Emergence of "Ecstasy", the Love Drug MDMA first appeared as a street drug in the early 1970s after its counterculture analogue, MDA, became criminalized in the United States in 1970. In the mid-1970s, Alexander Shulgin, then at University of California, heard from his students about unusual effects of MDMA; among others, the drug had helped one of them to overcome his stutter. Intrigued, Shulgin synthesized MDMA and tried it himself in 1976. Two years later, he and David Nichols published the first report on the drug's psychotropic effect in humans. They described "altered state of consciousness with emotional and sensual overtones" that can be compared "to marijuana, to psilocybin devoid of the hallucinatory component". Shulgin took to occasionally using MDMA for relaxation, referring to it as "my low-calorie martini", and giving the drug to his friends, researchers, and other people whom he thought could benefit from it. One such person was psychotherapist Leo Zeff, who had been known to use psychedelics in his practice. Zeff was so impressed with the action of MDMA that he came out of his semiretirement to proselytize for it. Over the following years, Zeff traveled around the U.S. and occasionally to Europe training other psychotherapists in the use of MDMA. Among underground psychotherapists, MDMA developed a reputation for enhancing communication during clinical sessions, reducing patients' psychological defenses, and increasing capacity for therapeutic introspection.

Due to the wording of the United Kingdom's existing Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971, MDMA was automatically classified in the U.K. as a Class A drug in 1977. In the early 1980s in the U.S., MDMA rose to prominence as "Adam" in trendy nightclubs and gay dance clubs in the Dallas area. From there, use spread to raves in major cities around the country, and then to mainstream society. The drug was first proposed for scheduling by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in July 1984 and was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in the U.S. on May 31, 1985. In the late 1980s MDMA, as "ecstasy", began to be widely used in the U.K. and other parts of Europe, becoming an integral element of rave culture and other psychedelic- and dance-floorinfluenced music scenes, such as Madchester and Acid House. Spreading along with rave culture, illicit MDMA use became increasingly widespread among young adults in universities and later in high schools. MDMA became one of the four most widely used illicit drugs in the U.S., along with cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. According to some estimates as of 2004, only marijuana attracts more first time users in the U.S. After MDMA was criminalized, most medical use stopped, although some therapists continued to prescribe the drug illegally. Later Charles Grob initiated an ascending-dose safety study in healthy volunteers. Subsequent legally-approved MDMA studies in humans have taken place in the U.S. in Detroit (Wayne State University), Chicago (University of Chicago), San Francisco (UCSF and California Pacific Medical Center), Baltimore (NIDA-NIH Intramural Program), and South Carolina, as well as in Switzerland (University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zürich), the Netherlands (Maastricht University), and Spain (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). In the mid-to-late 1990s—when the emergence of a massive market for ecstasy reconfigured the power structure of the world drug market, Israel is at the center of international trade in the drug ecstasy, according to the U.S. State Department. Ecstasy, along with marijuana, hashish, heroin, and cocaine, is heavily used and traded in Israel today, in what some call a sign of the times. Contemporary Israel is an affluent, drug-consuming country-with an estimated 300,000 casual drug users and some 20,000 junkies. In 2000 alone, police confiscated 270,000 Ecstasy tablets from smugglers, students, and partygoers in a series of stings. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates, more than 15 million junkies reside. But they add up to serious drug problems, especially among Israeli youth-and have led to commando-style raids in tree-lined residential neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. According to a report of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, 75 percent of all crime in Israel is drug-related. Since its first appearance in the 1990s in Tel Aviv's bohemian Schenken Street and "Florentine" neighborhoods, Ecstasy spread rapidly to discos and popular hotspots. "Israeli kids embraced the warm, feel-good sensation they got from the drug," said a Tel Aviv cop, "and it didn't have to be injected or snorted." Possession of Ecstasy is a felony in Israel with penalties of up to 20 years in prison. But as the Jerusalem Post has reported, Israeli law-enforcement officials tend to target the dealers, leaving the weekend rave parties alone. The young men and women consuming Ecstasy in clubs in Tel Aviv and other parts of the country represent a new breed of Israeli, raised on the pursuit of pleasures glimpsed in shopping malls or on cable TV, rather than on an ethos of selfsacrifice and the greater "Zionist good".

Ecstasy Trade Israeli dealers are not content only with local distribution, however. Working with Dutch and Belgian criminal connections, they were instrumental in marketing the drug and creating the demand in Europe and throughout the world, according to DEA agents working in Europe. They used Western Europe as a hub to distribute Ecstasy globally, since the pill-making technology and the chemicals required to make the drug could easily be found in the Netherlands and Belgium. With their existing smuggling networks, the Israelis easily "flooded the market in Europe, in Israel, and in the United States," according to a federal U.S. law enforcement official in the Netherlands, "and once the customers asked for more, you could almost print the money yourself." The Ecstasy profits are enormous. It costs 15 to 25 cents to produce one Ecstasy tablet, which wholesalers will sell for $2 a pill. Distributors sell it for $10 to $15 a pill, and by the time a drug dealer sells it at a disco or on a college campus, it can fetch between $25 and $40. Thus, a $100,000 investment by an organized crime group can, in a matter of weeks, earn more than $5 million. Labs can manufacture some 100,000 tablets in a few days. Manufacturing Street "Ecstasy" could contain just about anything. It is generally manufactured in clandestine labs by criminal drug dealers, not chemists. Ecstasy usually comes in tablets, which have been found to contain anywhere from 0-50% MDMA. The most common non-MDMA ingredients in "Ecstasy" are aspirin, caffeine, and other over-the-counter medications. One of the most dangerous additives commonly found in "Ecstasy" is DXM (dextromethorphan,) a cough suppressant. In the doses usually found in fake Ecstasy, 13 to 14 times the amount found in cough syrup, DXM can cause hallucinations. DXM inhibits sweating, so it can cause heatstroke and death. Another dangerous adulterant in so-called Ecstasy is PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine), an illegal drug that is a potent hallucinogen. Like MDMA, PMA causes an elevation in body temperature, but at an even more drastic rate. Ecstasy tablets may be any color, and are generally embossed with a logo or design such as a butterfly, heart, lightning bolt, star, clover, or Zodiac sign. Ecstasy is sometimes found in powder or in capsules. Though manufacturing ecstasy isn't child's play, most any serviceable chemist can make the drug, given the appropriate equipment and supplies. It's much easier to produce than LSD, for example. The problem in the United States is that law enforcement tends to monitor the purchase of the precursor chemicals required to synthesize ecstasy. Chemical-supply companies often tip off the Drug Enforcement Administration when a customer purchases, say, an unusually large amount of isosafrole or MDP2P, two critical ingredients in ecstasy recipes. DEA agents sometimes pose as chemical salesmen in order to bust suspected ecstasy cooks. Such a sting operation led to the 2002 arrest of four New England men who were later indicted on charges of manufacturing tens of thousands of pills in a Connecticut trailer. In view of this crucial situation for manufacturing, ecstasy is produced primarily in Dutch and Belgian labs-ranging from industrial-sized plants and mobile labs hidden inside trucks or on floating barges, to basements underneath farms and factories and more than 90 percent of the ecstasy in the U.S. comes from the Netherlands and Belgium. Drug labs have been found in barns, mobile homes, motel

rooms, houseboats, mini-storage units, and basements of ordinary homes. Unlike real pharmaceutical laboratories, these labs have no guidelines for cleanliness or scientific procedures. Even if no adulterants are purposely added to the mix, any number of contaminants could enter the product due to the inadequate facilities and filthy conditions. In the past year, about 50 labs were dismantled by police in Holland and Belgium, but they keep springing up in new locations, DEA agents in Belgium say. 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. 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. 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. 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. In recent months there have been seizures of European ecstasy in Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Mexico, Suriname and Brazil. Distribution of Ecstasy The most commonly heard estimate is that Israeli criminals control no less than 75 percent of the Ecstasy market in the U.S. According to a report issued in 2003 by the U.S. State Department, Israel is at the center of international trafficking in Ecstasy and Israeli crime organizations, some of them linked to similar organizations from Russia, achieved a dominant status in the Ecstasy market in Europe, and went on to control the drug's distribution in the States. "Israeli drug-trafficking organizations are the main source of distribution of the drug to groups in the U.S, using express mail services, commercial airlines, and recently also using air cargo services," the report states. Packaged pills are sent overseas through a variety of methods. Air parcel companies, such as FedEx and UPS, are among the most popular. Israeli dispatchers will drive through Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, stopping off to ship their packages, according to drug task force detectives in New York. "The Israelis are veterans. Some served in elite units and intelligence units," said a New York narcotics agent. "They know all the tricks of surveillance and counter-surveillance. They are very hard to catch." Law enforcement, however, is slowly denting this pipeline. On April 5, 2000, U.S. federal agents intercepted two 40-pound FedEx packages of Ecstasy that, according to the Boston Globe, had been shipped to hotel rooms in Boston and Brookline, Mass. The recipients, Yaniv Yona and Ereza Abutbul, were Israelis.

A few months later, U.S. Customs officials in Los Angeles seized Ecstasy shipments of 650,000 and 2.1 million tablets, respectively, on flights from Paris; agents in upstate New York seized 100,000 pills that had been transported across the St. Lawrence River from Canada. In 2000, DEA and Customs agents seized 11.1 million doses of the drug (up from a few hundred thousand in 1995). The United States also beefed up penalties a few months ago, tripling the potential jail terms for dealers caught with 800 or more pills to at least five years and three months; those caught with 8,000 or more would serve at least 10 years if convicted. DEA agents and detectives say Israelis have been involved in almost all the major busts. They have included Sean Erez, currently awaiting extradition from the Netherlands; Shimon Levita, a New York yeshiva student who was sentenced to 30 months in a federal boot camp for participating in the ring allegedly run by Erez; and Jacob Orgad, identified as an Israeli national with operations in Texas, New York, Florida, California, and Paris. A man identified by Customs as head of one of the biggest "drug importation rings," Israeli Tamer Adel Ibrahim, remains at large. Trade Routes of Ecstasy Trade New York and Miami (with considerable Israeli populations) are major transit points for the drug. The Tel Aviv-to-Antwerp-to-Amsterdam-to-New York City route is a classic smuggler's path, says a Belgian police officer. But with law enforcement lately scrutinizing arrivals at JFK and Newark airport more closely, Ecstasy distributors are now focusing on Los Angeles and the West Coast, where indigenous Israeli communities also exist and demand is high. The Israeli Ecstasy rings have mainly used Israelis (sometimes unwittingly) as "mules," or couriers, to bring the drug into the United States. Israeli nationals living in Europe and the United States, typically young and seeking some easy cash, make ideal couriers. They don't fit the image of a Colombian cocaine smuggler and they don't usually arrive en masse. Still, according to Dan Rospond, a DEA agent working in the Netherlands, "smuggling rings will often 'shotgun' couriers on flights from Europe-either sending a bunch on the same flight or splitting them among several flights and airlines [to] the same destinations. If two or three are caught, half a dozen still get through." "Nobody suspects nice Jewish kids [of] being dope smugglers," says a former NYPD detective in the Manhattan District Attorney's office, "especially Orthodox Jews." Perhaps that's why Erez used Orthodox and Hasidic Jews from the New York area to smuggle Ecstasy into New York's major airports in 1999 and 2000. Young Hasidic couriers typically took 30,000 to 45,000 Ecstasy pills into the United States on each trip, according to a report by David Lefer in the New York Daily News, sometimes carrying as much as $500,000 in drug proceeds back to Erez, in Amsterdam. Offering $200 finder's fees, the drug rings were able to infiltrate yeshivas and rabbinical seminaries, and recruit individuals who looked innocent enough to pass through customs without suspicion. In the insular Orthodox communities of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Monsey, north of New York City, recruiters found gullible youngsters who thought they would be smuggling diamonds, not narcotics. The reach of the Israeli syndicate is truly global. In September 2000, Japanese police arrested Israeli David Biton on a charge of smuggling 25,000 Ecstasy tablets into Japan. "Ecstasy is to the new century what crack was to the 1980s," said the DEA's Rospond, and Israel has its finger on the trigger.

Although Israeli groups have dominated the Ecstasy trade for about a decade, profit margins are so enormous that organized crime groups from other countries are now attempting to muscle in on the market, an officer explains. "The Israelis are not about to allow the Albanians, the Serbs, the Poles, the Chechens, the Nigerians, the Dominicans, or even the Colombians to take away their profits," says an undercover narcotics detective. "There will be violence. There will be bloodshed and we have to be ready." In Israel, and indeed around the world, a new day is dawning in the consumption and trafficking of a narcotic that resists control. And at New York's JFK International Airport, a new day dawns for a small army of Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs officers awaiting the arrival of El Al Flight 001-the first of many daily El Al flights from Israel. For years, customs agents paid little attention to El Al flights, but now, moments before 6 a.m., they are ready, waiting. They've got their work cut out for them. "Pick the nice Jewish boy out of a crowd of nice Jewish boys," says a veteran Customs inspector as he watches the 400-plus passengers search for their luggage. "It is the needle in the proverbial haystack."