Pubdate: Tue, 11 Mar 2003
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Tara Brautigam

BRITISH ECSTASY USE GOES MAINSTREAM

Increased Demand Sees Prices Plummet Cocaine Now Drug Of Choice In Clubs

LONDON—In a dank nightclub in Brixton, a south London neighbourhood with a 
rep for crime and a lively music scene, a man sporting a parka and toque 
scans the dance floor. He shifts his eyes every few seconds, looking for a 
sale.

"You want pills?" he asks above the din. "Two for ?5 (about $12.50 Canadian)."

We chat briefly. Exuding a savoir-faire for drug dealing, he says if I'm 
interested in a larger order he can hook me up with 50 hits of ecstasy for 
?50 — a pound a pill.

Britain's love affair with the drug dates back to the 1980s, when a hit of 
E cost, on average, ?25. Fast-forward to today, where the designer drug is 
now anything but. One can purchase pills for less than bottled water, 
luring first-timers and encouraging regular users to up the dose.

Matthew Atha, director of the U.K.'s Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, says 
reduced prices have made it easier for heavy users — those dropping 
multiple times in a night — aiming for an extended high to last an entire 
weekend.

"It's possible to buy in bulk for less than a pound a tablet," he says.

So why have prices plummeted? The basic law of economics — supply and 
demand. Police busts of drug labs in 1998 and 1999 reduced the purity and 
availability of E in the short-term, but since then more labs have popped 
up, and an influx of dodgy druggists and dealers have hit the streets, 
pushing costs dangerously low. That is amplified by the flood of E arriving 
at U.K. ports from the Netherlands, Europe's hotbed of E production.

Costs are so low that inexperienced users are exposing themselves to 
unscrupulous peddlers selling chalk, laundry detergent and brick dust, 
allowing for the dirt cheap prices.

"There's quite a lot of pills that are not particularly good quality. 
They're cheaply made," says Harry Shapiro, spokesperson for Drug Scope, a 
London-based drug expertise organization. According to the group's Web 
site, testing of some pills found them to be aquarium cleaner.

False or authentic, E is simple to make. With a pill-pressing machine, an 
industrial food mixer and the right, or in some cases wrong, chemicals, a 
cowboy pharmacist can produce a million hits weekly.

Official estimates peg the number of pills popped per week in Britain at 
half a million, but a classified intelligence study leaked a year ago bumps 
that figure to 2 million. It also showed there were 430,000 users who spend 
?300 million ($757 million Canadian) annually on the drug, some of whom 
take up to15 pills nightly. In contrast, that same report revealed only 6 
per cent of the estimated amount of E used in 1999 was seized.

Over the past 15 years, there have been more than 90 deaths in the U.K. 
related to E use. The high peaked to 27 in 2000 in England and Wales alone. 
Studies have contradicted each other on the long-term effects of prolonged 
E intake. Nonetheless, the proliferation of users and usage increases the 
likelihood of accidental overdoses and causes concern for Atha.

"Some will go up to 10 tablets in one night," he says. "That is really 
worrying."

A societal acceptance of E has grown in recent years. In early December, a 
Labour MP called for a softening of sentences for E possession and dealing 
on the basis it was not as harmful as harder drugs like heroin, and 
youngsters often dabbled in it. Two weeks earlier, a university professor 
also called for relaxed legislation related to E use. As it stands, the 
maximum penalty for E possession is seven years imprisonment. Distribution 
can carry a life sentence.

The social setting for dosing has changed, too. It's always been used by a 
upper-level scholars, young professionals and university-educated 
30-somethings. But it's now taken as a quick pick me-up, or in the comfort 
of home, watching a flick with friends. Or when the kids are away.

"Over the course of a weekend, tens of thousands are taking the drug .. not 
just at raves," Shapiro says.

Enter cocaine. As E use has shifted to the living room, the bathrooms of 
central London's nightclubs have been snowed due to a price drop in coke as 
well. It is estimated 2 million Britons are regular users of the stimulant. 
With coke regaining popularity as a club drug and E selling for a quarter 
of the nation's minimum wage, Shapiro says the dynamic of Britain's entire 
drug culture is changing.

"You're getting a new generation coming up."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens