Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Asbury Park Press (NJ)
Contact:  http://www.injersey.com/app/
Forum: http://chat.injersey.com/
Author: Carol Gorga Williams

NEW DRUG PERIL MAY BE ON THE WAY

TOMS RIVER -- Cocaine came. Heroin came. Ecstasy came.

Is PMA the next big drug on the Jersey Shore horizon?

First Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Terrence P. Farley says 
authorities here have not yet detected the presence of 
paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, but he adds, "It may only be a matter 
of time" before the deadly drug, masquerading as Ecstasy, shows up 
here.

PMA, a synthetic stimulant and hallucinogen, is the subject of a 
recent alert from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which on Oct. 
23 released its intelligence report on the drug and called it an 
emerging "cause for concern."

The DEA titled its report "Dancing with Death," because PMA is being 
surreptitiously marketed to young people in dance clubs and at raves. 
Fatal PMA overdoses were reported this summer at raves and and 
nightclubs in Orlando, Fla., and Chicago. The drug also has been 
detected in Virginia and Michigan, according to the DEA.

The victims, according to federal authorities, mistakenly believed 
they were consuming Ecstasy, which is rarely lethal, although 
researchers say it causes other long-term problems for users.

The Middle Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement 
Network also is warning drug investigators to watch for the pills 
known by one street name as "Death."

If the demand for Ecstasy continues to rise, the risk of accidental 
PMA ingestion would likely follow, Farley said. As always with drugs, 
money is a big issue with dealers, Farley said.

Economic incentives abound to create counterfeit Ecstasy, even if the 
fake product - PMA - doesn't produce many return customers, Farley 
said. There is no safe dose of PMA, he said, and no legitimate reason 
to consume it.

But as legislators have made it harder and more dangerous to possess 
the chemicals necessary to produce Ecstasy, clandestine drug 
operators are scrounging around for cheaper, more accessible 
materials. PMA was briefly popular in the 1970s but lost its cachet 
because the high it produced was lackluster, and the downside -- the 
drug's extreme toxicity -- was not worth the risk of consuming it, 
authorities said.

"Initially, the dose is milder than Ecstasy, and when they don't get 
the high, the euphoria, they double up," Farley said. And even though 
they think they may be getting just "weak" Ecstasy, they could be 
getting much more than they bargained for.

"This is a danger, in and of itself," Farley said. "The effects are 
of short duration, so they take more. This is much more toxic than 
Ecstasy."

DanceSafe, a national nonprofit group trying to reduce drug deaths 
and injuries at raves and in clubs, has analyzed Ecstasy tablets. The 
organization found the drug is often cut or replaced entirely by 
substances such as PCP, Valium, caffeine, detromethorphan -- an 
ingredient used in cough suppressants -- and Ketamine, an animal 
tranquilizer and sometimes human date-rape drug.

DanceSafe says PMA is cheaper and safer to make. It is not a 
recreational drug with its own demand.

"People don't go out trying to score PMA," said Farley. "They are 
being ripped off " by illicit drug manufacturers who know the 
chemicals that go into PMA are easier to obtain than those needed to 
manufacture Ecstasy.

Even the dealers who are generally being the offered cheaper product 
may not be told what they are really selling, Farley said. Dealers 
buy it at the same price, or at a slowly lower price, "and they think 
they are getting a good deal," Farley said.

The PMA that has surfaced in this country has been imprinted with the 
Mitsubishi logo: white capsules with three diamonds. Although there 
is no connection to the Japanese car company, the drug also has come 
to be known as "Stacked Mitsubishi" or "Double-Stacked Mitsubishi."

"This is coming from a Mitsubishi pill press," said Farley noting 
that Mitsubishi also is a popular "brand" of Ecstasy. "The people who 
are selling it are selling it as Ecstasy and they are disguising the 
product to look exactly like it."

PMA also has appeared in tablet, capsule and powder form and is 
white, pink or yellow.

"From 1974 to early 2000, no deaths attributed to PMA abuse were 
reported in Canada or the United States," according to the DEA. Since 
May, three young people died in Illinois and seven in central 
Florida, authorities said.

Medical treatment does not appear to reverse the damage to the body, 
Farley said. With Ecstasy, he said, "it reverses very quickly," once 
the body employs its own warning system and the user stops, cools 
down or drinks water, Farley said.

With Ecstasy, the body's internal regulators kick in once the body 
temperature reaches 100 degrees and the user realizes something is 
not right, he said.

There is no such "signal" with PMA. The body temperature meanwhile 
continues to rise without any internal signal that alerts the 
individual to cool down. PMA patients have entered comas at 
temperature of 104 to 105, and even then, the body's temperature will 
continue to increase, federal authorities warn.

"You're literally cooking from the inside out," said Farley.

In two Chicago cases in May, the body temperatures of two victims 
remained at 108 degrees hours after their deaths. The deaths were 
preceded by convulsions, intracranial hemorrhages and other 
uncontrolled bleeding, Farley said.

"The problem with a rapidly increasing body temperature is that you 
don't necessarily have the ability to tell someone you need help," 
Farley said. "The toxic effects become irreversible, but the first 
time your friends notice is when you start flopping around on the 
floor like a fish."

Authorities say there is no difference in size, shape, texture or 
weight between Ecstasy and PMA tablets.

According to the London Toxicology Group, PMA and another synthetic 
compound, parameth-oxymethylamphetamine, or PMMA, are responsible for 
several deaths in Canada, Australia and Denmark. The drugs also have 
been detected in Spain, Sweden and in Austria, where a 17-year-old 
male died in July after using PMA. His death lead to the seizure of 
4,478 tablets, according to the international drug information 
monitoring system.

Farley said that he fears PMA will find its way here because the 
drugs that come to Ocean County come from Philadelphia or New York, 
which is the route drugs from Florida generally take.

"While we are not looking to scare anyone -- and we have absolutely 
not seen it here yet -- we want to alert people," he said. "There are 
a lot of kids who use this stuff and this stuff can be fatal. People 
should be brought up to date on the potential danger of this."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe