U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001

75–475 DTP 2001

S. Hrg. 107–154

ECSTASY USE RISES: WHAT MORE NEEDS TO

BE DONE BY THE GOVERNMENT TO COMBAT

THE PROBLEM?

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

JULY 30, 2001

Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs

(

(II)

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman

CARL LEVIN, Michigan

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois

ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey

MAX CLELAND, Georgia

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware

JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri

MARK DAYTON, Minnesota

FRED THOMPSON, Tennessee

TED STEVENS, Alaska

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah

JIM BUNNING, Kentucky

JOYCE A. RECHTSCHAFFEN, Staff Director and Counsel

JINNETT RONA-FINLEY, Fellow, CIA

KIERSTEN TODT COON, Fellow for Senator Lieberman,

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

HANNAH S. SISTARE, Minority Staff Director and Counsel

WILLIAM M. OUTHIER, Investgative Counsel to the Minority

DARLA D. CASSELL, Chief Clerk

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Opening statement: Page

Senator Lieberman ........................................................................................... 1

Senator Bunning ............................................................................................... 3

Senator Akaka .................................................................................................. 4

Prepared statement:

Senator Levin .................................................................................................... 38

WITNESSES

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2001

Dayna Moore, Phoenix House Drug Rehabilitation Center ................................. 5

Philip McCarthy, Phoenix House Drug Rehabilitation Center ............................ 6

Donald R. Vereen, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Director, Office of National

Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President .................................... 13

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National

Institutes of Health .............................................................................................. 16

John C. Varrone, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Office of Investigations, U.S. Customs Service ................................................................................ 18

Joseph D. Keefe, Chief of Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration,

U.S. Department of Justice ................................................................................. 20

John M. Bailey, Chief State’s Attorney, State of Connecticut ............................. 22

Roy Rutland, Detective, Narcotics Bureau, Miami-Dade Police Department ..... 24

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES

Bailey, John M.:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 22

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 81

Keefe, Joseph D.:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 20

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70

Leshner, Alan I., Ph.D.:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 16

Prepared statement with an attachment ....................................................... 53

McCarthy, Philip:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 6

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42

Moore, Dayna:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 5

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39

Rutland, Roy:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 24

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 84

Varrone, John C.:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 18

Prepared statement with an attachment ....................................................... 63

Vereen, Donald R., Jr., M.D., M.P.H:

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 13

Prepared statement with an attachment ....................................................... 45

(1)

ECSTASY USE RISES: WHAT MORE NEEDS TO

BE DONE BY THE GOVERNMENT TO COMBAT THE PROBLEM?

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2001

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC.

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room

SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph Lieberman,

Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

Present: Senators Lieberman, Akaka, and Bunning.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LIEBERMAN

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Good morning and welcome to this hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, in which we

will begin to examine the threat posed by the drug Ecstasy and the

government’s response to increasing Ecstasy use and abuse by our

Nation’s youth. I began to hear about Ecstasy earlier this year

from concerned parents and from the media. During April, I asked

to meet with law enforcement authorities, parents and students in

Connecticut, and I learned a lot about this latest threat to our children. I learned that it is entering our country in ever-growing

quantities; that the increase in use by our Nation’s youth has

reached arguably epidemic proportions, and that despite the evidence to the contrary, kids do not think Ecstasy is a harmful drug.

What I have not learned enough about yet is if the government

at all levels is doing all that it can to stop the continued spread

of this drug, and that is one of the key questions that we will explore this morning at this hearing.

According to a recent study, the number of eighth graders using

Ecstasy at least once in the past year increased 82 percent between

1999 and 2000, 82 percent, and the number of those using it within

the past month increased 75 percent. While the overall percentage

of our young people using this drug remains low in absolute terms,

the testimony of one of the witnesses that we are honored to have

before us today points out that Ecstasy has now replaced inhalants

as the third-most frequently used drug among high school seniors

in America, and that is behind marijuana and methamphetamines.

The U.S. Customs Service reports that its Ecstasy seizures have

surged 165 percent between fiscal year 1999 and 2000. These are

alarming statistics that were brought home to me during the meetings I had in Connecticut in April. Ecstasy is a problem at so-called

raves and at schools, in cities, and in suburbs.

2

In fact, on the very same day that I was to meet with law enforcement about this drug in Connecticut, police arrested an individual who was trying to use a methamphetamine lab to manufacture Ecstasy in the small Connecticut town of North Stonington.

During my meetings, I was surprised to learn not only how dramatically Ecstasy use is increasing among young people, but also

how so many of those young people mistakenly believe that it does

no harm. Ecstasy is far from benign, as we will hear today. Its dangers are well-documented and painfully experienced. Ecstasy is

toxic to the human nervous system. It can lead to kidney and cardiovascular failure. It can overload the heart, causing attacks or

strokes, and especially troubling because we are talking about

young people, the drug can impede a user’s ability to learn and to

remember.

Because this drug is beginning to do serious damage to people in

our country, particularly young people, I think we have an obligation to educate and to warn them and their parents about its danger, and then to do what we can to coordinate Federal, State and

local law enforcement efforts against Ecstasy. We are going to start

today’s hearing by listening to two young people who are courageous enough to be willing to come forward and speak to us today,

Dayna Moore and Philip McCarthy, who have fought an addiction

to Ecstasy. I appreciate very much their willingness to testify and

I have the feeling that more than anything else that anybody says

today, your testimony really will make this hearing worthwhile and

send a message out to other teenagers, particularly about the dangers here.

We are then going to hear from a panel of Federal, State and

local officials. Dr. Alan Leshner of the National Institute on Drug

Abuse will discuss his work that makes clear that Ecstasy is not

a harmless drug. Dr. Donald Vereen of the Office of National Drug

Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar’s office, will offer us

an overview of the many facets of our government’s war on this

particular drug. Joseph Keefe, Chief of Operations at DEA, and a

representative of the Customs Commissioner—I know Mr.

Winwood was supposed to be here, but he has been detained and

a deputy of his is with us—respectively will tell us of the challenges Ecstasy poses to Federal law enforcement; Miami-Dade police officer, Roy Rutland, who will testify behind a screen because

much of his work is undercover; and finally Connecticut State’s Attorney Jack Bailey will give us State and local law enforcement’s

perspective on this latest drug epidemic and threat to our children.

Today, I hope these Federal, State and local officials will provide

a comprehensive picture of what the government is and is not

doing right now and what we in Congress can do to help them do

more. I welcome all of the witnesses, and particularly want to give

a special greeting to my longtime friend, Jack Bailey from Connecticut, who has had some considerable success in fighting Ecstasy through his office’s Nuisance Abatement Unit, which we will

hear about.

Before turning to the first panel, I want to explain the screen in

the well to my left. As I already mentioned, one of our witnesses

on the second panel, Detective Rutland, is an undercover detective.

Many of the people with whom he works are unaware of his true

3

identity. Should a photograph of Detective Rutland appear on television or in the newspapers in his hometown, it would greatly increase the chances of compromising his identity and indeed his personal safety, as well, and possibly affect the outcome of one or more

investigations. In light of this, Detective Rutland has requested

that no television, video cameras or other cameras photograph him

during his testimony.

In accordance with the Committee’s rules of procedure, without

objection, we are granting his request. Detective Rutland is now

sitting before us with a screen around him in order to protect his

identity. In addition, no television cameras or other photographs

will be permitted of him during this session, although cameras can

televise or photograph the proceedings from the other side of the

screen and, of course, of the other witnesses. I appreciate the cooperation of the news media in this, and I would now call on my

friend and colleague, Senator Akaka, for an opening statement—I

am sorry, Senator Bunning?

Senator BUNNING. Yes, I have a short opening statement.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. You moved quietly into the room.

Senator BUNNING. I was here before you got here.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you. That may be why.

Senator BUNNING. That is how quietly I got here.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. You are a big man, too. I thank you very

much for being here. We will call on Senator Bunning now.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BUNNING

Senator BUNNING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The use of illegal

drugs is a serious problem in this country, and I am pleased that

we are holding this hearing today on Ecstasy. Drug abuse not only

affects the drug addicts and users, instead, these illegal drugs take

a toll on the whole community, from increasing crime to breaking

apart families, to a general decay of the community structure. In

my State of Kentucky, Ecstasy has not yet gained a strong foothold. Right now, drugs like marijuana are more of a problem. In

fact, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Kentucky

law enforcement contends that marijuana is the State’s largest

cash crop, and that Daniel Boone National Forest, which is located

in eastern Kentucky, has become one of the primary areas for

growing marijuana plants in the State. Daniel Boone National Forest happens to be a park that encompasses about—I would say

about one-fifth of the State land mass. So you can imagine how big

and how often we have illegal marijuana grown there. This is nothing to be proud of.

Although Ecstasy has been around for many years, its increasing

use and trafficking in the United States is alarming. Unfortunately, Kentucky is not isolated from this trend, and in the

Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport, the airport has seized approximately 50,000 Ecstasy tablets from three flights originating in

Belgium from November 1999 to March 2000. Also, in July 2000,

the airport seized an additional 1.44 kilograms of Ecstasy on a

flight originating in Los Angeles. So it is a constant battle in the

Greater Cincinnati Airport because of the international traffic.

In Kentucky, the drugs are primarily sold in high schools and

colleges, clubs, and all-night raves. Raves have been held in LouisVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
4

ville, Bowling Green, Covington, Erlanger, Lexington, Murray, and

Newport, which are not very big towns, except for Louisville. As

the demand for this drug rises, I am afraid we will see an increase

in deaths of our young people and an increase in violence often associated with selling drugs. I am looking forward especially to hearing from the first panel, the two young people who have the courage to come forth and tell us the problems that can come from an

addiction to drugs.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks, Senator Bunning and Senator

Akaka.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I wish to

express my appreciation for your holding today’s hearing on the rising use of MDMA, or Ecstasy. As all witnesses will testify, Ecstasy,

the fastest-growing illegal drug, is a dangerous chemical and a

public health problem. Its perception as a safe and harmless moodenhancing drug is false. There are serious side effects, including

brain damage, depression, and possibly death. Brain damage, depression, death—this does not sound like Ecstasy to me. The use

of Ecstasy is on the rise in my home State of Hawaii. It is the only

illicit drug to show increased levels of abuse last year.

According to a recent study by the Hawaii Department of Health,

the use of Ecstasy is increasing, particularly among high school

students. Although Ecstasy use in Hawaii is below the national average, unfortunately my State has not always lagged behind the

mainland on emerging drug use. Hawaii’s law enforcement agencies and health officials were the first to identify the threat of crystal methamphetamine, known in the islands as ice or crystal meth.

This smokable form of methamphetamine came to Hawaii in the

mid-1980’s and continues to be the biggest drug problem facing our

State. Eleven years ago, I proposed the first Federal legislation to

increase the penalties for trafficking in crystal meth. I also sponsored legislation to place restrictions on the purchase of precursor

drugs, the chemical components used to manufacture crystal meth.

While ice remains the overall illegal drug of choice in Hawaii,

law enforcement and public health officials are targeting Ecstasy,

as well. In 1999, Hawaii was designated as a high-intensity drugtrafficking area, or HIDTA, which is helping to interdict the flow

of drugs into the State. We are fighting the spread of crystal meth

through the Federal, State and local partnership, and we will fight

the use of Ecstasy, as well. This summer, the Honolulu Police Department created a special unit to target Ecstasy. A key component

will have task force members talking to young people and businesses that host raves parties, where Ecstasy may be used, about

the dangers of the drug. I am pleased to co-sponsor S. 1208, the

Ecstasy Prevention Act, which will provide much-needed funds for

HIDTA task forces, including Hawaii, for anti-Ecstasy law enforcement activities.

The bill would also fund a national media campaign, as well as

medical research into the effects of Ecstasy. Mr. Chairman, again

I would like to thank you for calling today’s hearing on Ecstasy. I

5

1The prepared statement of Ms. Moore appears in the Appendix on page 39.

look forward to our witnesses’ testimony on the scope of the Ecstasy problem, and I thank them for being with us.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks, Senator Akaka. Just a random

sample of Members of the Committee here, from Kentucky to Connecticut to Hawaii, each of us testifying from our own State’s perspective about the appearance of this drug. I think this provides

evidence of the national scope of the problem. Let us now go to our

first panel, Dayna Moore and Philip McCarthy. Both are residents

of Phoenix House Drug Rehabilitation Center in Ronkonkoma, New

York, and I thank the folks at Phoenix House, which is a nationally-recognized facility, for enabling the two of you to be here, and

most of all, again I thank the two of you.

Dayna, do you want to start? Thanks very much, and please now

offer the testimony that you have prepared.

TESTIMONY OF DAYNA MOORE,1 PHOENIX HOUSE DRUG

REHABILITATION CENTER

Ms. MOORE. Good morning. My name is Dayna Moore, and I

would like to thank the Committee for giving me the opportunity

to testify today. I am a resident of a Phoenix House residential

drug treatment program in Long Island, New York. Before coming

to Phoenix House 6 months ago, I was 20 pounds underweight and

I would often go 2 or 3 days without sleep. I would not go to school

for a month at a time and I had no hope for the future. I was going

nowhere and I did not care. My life was spiraling out of control because I was addicted to Ecstasy.

I had not always been a kid in trouble. Until I was 13, I was an

honor student. I grew up in a nice middle-class town with two parents at home. I helped out raising my little brother and sister, and

3 days a week I went to dance class, ballet, jazz and tap. I was

good at them all. I had hoped someday to be a dance teacher. I also

sang in the school chorus. When I was 13, I tried marijuana. I used

Ecstasy for the first time when I was 14 and it completely changed

my life. My friends had been doing it for awhile, and they told me

it was the best experience of their lives. I was scared, but I fell in

to peer pressure and tried it. I swallowed the pill, and 1⁄2 hour later

I started to feel it. The first words that came out of my mouth

were, ‘‘This is the greatest feeling ever. I have no problems.’’ Nothing could bring me down. I had so much energy and I loved everyone.

But when I came down, I fell into a deep, dark hole. It was a

depression that I could not stand, and I could only get out of it by

letting time pass or by taking more Ecstasy. From that day on, my

life began to go downhill. I began using Ecstasy every day. I had

already been in trouble from smoking marijuana and skipping

school, but now I found it impossible to get up in the mornings and

I stopped going to school for days and weeks at a time. I was the

subject of a PINS petition, meaning I was a person in need of supervision. A judge eventually ordered me into an outpatient drug

treatment program. I went for 7 months, but I got high the whole

time.

6

1The prepared statement of Mr. McCarthy appears in the Appendix on page 42.

First, I was able to buy Ecstasy by lying to my mother. I would

ask for money for movies or for clothes, then I would spend it on

Ecstasy. When that did not work anymore, I would steal money

from my parents’ wallets. In the beginning, I hid my drug use from

my parents. After awhile, I did not care anymore. What could they

do about it anyway? My mother would say, ‘‘You have not been eating,’’ or ‘‘You have not been sleeping,’’ and I would just say, ‘‘Yeah,

Mom, I was using Ecstasy.’’

Sometimes my mother would plead with me, ‘‘You could die from

this,’’ and I would tell her I did not care. I knew this was what

drugs could do to me, but I just could not stop. The addiction I developed for Ecstasy was too strong for me to overcome alone. Ecstasy led me to harder drugs like cocaine and angel dust. My drug

use just got worse and worse, and I kept failing drug tests ordered

by the courts. When I finally went to court with my mother, we

both asked the judge for help. I knew my family loved me very

much and they supported me, but I had destroyed their trust in

me. I knew it was time to regain it. The judge ordered me into a

long-term residential treatment at Phoenix House.

Since I have entered treatment, my life has changed drastically.

Over the past 6 months, I have learned to stop living for the next

brief high. I have realized that by doing drugs I was going absolutely nowhere and I was throwing my life away. I have focused

again on who I am and on my education, something that was always so important to me. I am thankful that my relationship with

my family is strong again. My family is now very proud of me and

that makes me happy. To anyone who thinks Ecstasy is not a serious drug, I give this advice: Stop before you get hurt. I spent years

chasing that first magical high, and that chase almost killed me.

I was once a normal kid, and Ecstasy took me down a deadly, destructive path I could never have imagined. Life is too precious. Ecstasy is not worth it. Thank you.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you, Dayna. Your parents have

every reason to be proud of you and we are grateful to you for coming forward today, and I bet a lot of other parents around the country are grateful to you, as well. I am going to come back and ask

you some questions, but let’s hear next from Philip McCarthy.

TESTIMONY OF PHILIP McCARTHY,1 PHOENIX HOUSE DRUG

REHABILITATION CENTER

Mr. MCCARTHY. Good morning. My name is Phil McCarthy and

I want to thank you for inviting me today. I am a resident of a

Phoenix House drug treatment program in Long Island, New York.

I would like to tell you about my life on Ecstasy, a life I am not

proud of. Three years of my life revolved around Ecstasy, getting

high and finding the money to get high. At times, I robbed houses

for television sets and anything else of value. The reason? I needed

over $300 a week for Ecstasy. I am 17 years-old and I was a pretty

good kid. I grew up in middle-class neighborhoods in Connecticut

and Long Island. I had good grades in high school and played junior varsity basketball, baseball, and hockey. I liked to draw and I

7

wanted to become an architect, but in eighth grade I tried marijuana and I got heavily involved.

The next year, I was at a party and a friend showed me a few

Ecstasy pills. At first, I said no, but I could see everyone having

fun, so I took a pill. It was amazing. I felt like the world was flowing with love and my body felt unreal. I felt like I could do anything. I had so much confidence and everyone seemed so happy. It

was a high I definitely wanted again. Pretty soon I was using Ecstasy almost every night. Sometimes I would go 2 or 3 nights without sleep and I did not eat all day. You could tell that I was living

a rough life by the bags under my eyes and my low weight.

After awhile, I started to stay away from home. When I did come

home, I would not talk to my family. I would not even look at anyone. I would just walk straight to my room or walk straight out the

front door. Getting money to support my Ecstasy habit became a

problem. At first, I asked my grandmother for money for the movies. Pretty soon she stopped giving me money, so my friends and

I started looking for other ways. We offered to sell drugs for kids

who gave us their money, but we just walked away and gave them

nothing in return. That worked a few times, but we needed even

more money. So we started going into the open windows of houses

and stealing TVs, VCRs and anything else we could sell.

Some people may say that Ecstasy is not addicting, and it may

not be physically addicting, but I can tell you I was scared to death

of breaking into houses, yet I wanted to get high so badly I was

willing to risk it. And by this time, I needed three to five pills a

day to get high, and they cost $20 a pill. It was an expensive habit

and it was not always a pleasant experience. When I came down

from Ecstasy, I felt depressed, angry and lonely. I would tell myself

over and over, ‘‘I hate this. I will never do this again.’’ But, of

course, the next day I would get high again. Because of Ecstasy,

I stole, I associated with criminals, I skipped school and I got in

trouble with the courts. I was incarcerated six times in juvenile detention centers. For 3 years, I was on probation, and during that

time I got high.

Finally, the court ordered me into Phoenix House. Over the past

3 months in treatment, I have begun to learn about myself. I have

learned to control my emotions and to think before I act. I have

learned that I do not need drugs to have fun, to have friends, and

to live my life. I have also learned to talk to my parents and tell

them the truth, because the truth—no matter what it is—does not

hurt as much as a lie. I feel remorse for what I have done and the

damage I have caused to people’s property and their lives. Perhaps

the first step I can take in making it up to people is by telling you

today—is by telling you what I have learned. Ecstasy is not a fun,

lighthearted drug. It can ruin lives. It can make you sick. It can

make you do things you never would have done otherwise. My advice to anyone thinking of taking Ecstasy is stay away. Ecstasy is

bad news. Thank you.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you, Philip. That was a very

strong statement. Let me begin the questioning. One of the things

that concerns a lot of people about Ecstasy is that we hear that it

is thought by a lot of young people to not be dangerous and not addictive. And I know when I met with people in Connecticut, they

8

said that often kids will say to their parents, ‘‘I am going to a rave,

a big party at a warehouse or out in a field, or I am going to a

club and there is no alcohol served there,’’ so as to be reassuring.

But then Ecstasy is sold there, and, of course, it has all the damaging, painful effects that you have described.

I wonder if both of you could just talk a little bit about whether

that is what you understood about Ecstasy, that it was not dangerous when you first used it, and not in any detail about exactly

where, but what were the circumstances in which you first used it?

Was it at a rave? Was it at a club? Dayna, do you want to go first?

Ms. MOORE. The first time I used it, a couple of my friends, we

were just hanging out on the street and they had a couple, and I

just took them.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. What did they tell you about it at that

point?

Ms. MOORE. They did not tell me any of the effects or where it

came from or whether or not it was dangerous. They just told me

it could get you high and it will make you have fun and it will

make you feel good, and for awhile I was seeing people taking it,

and it looked interesting and I was curious. So I tried it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right.

Philip, how about you?

Mr. MCCARTHY. The first time I used it, I was at a party with

all my friends.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. At a house or at a club?

Mr. MCCARTHY. At one of my friends’ house, because their parents were on vacation, and like a lot of my friends were older than

me and they used the drug like a—times before me. So I saw how

they were all having fun and how they were acting. They were all

like happy, talking to each other about anything. They did not really care. So I just decided to do it, and like Dayna said, none of

them really explained the dangers of it and the after-effects, either.

They just said you had a great time on it and you could feel like

you could do anything.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Were you told at that point that it was

not dangerous, or were you not?

Mr. MCCARTHY. They really did not say anything about it, like

if it was dangerous or not. They just said if you took it, you would

have like the greatest time of your life.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Maybe we should go back to some basics

for people who are listening or following this. Did you both take it

in pill form?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yeah.

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. About how much did it cost per pill?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Like $20 a pill.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Was that about the same, Dayna?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Both of you have described a situation in

which, though the word is out that this is not addictive, physically

addictive, you both became addicted to it. How do you explain that,

or do you want to describe what the addictive feeling was?

Ms. MOORE. It is more of a mental addiction, because the first

time you do it, it is great, and afterward, after you do it for awhile,

9

the high is never the same as the first time, and you are chasing— you are always trying to do more pills or different kinds to try to

get that same first high, and it does not happen. And when you

come down off the pill, you are back to reality again and you are

really depressed, and your whole body hurts and you want to do

that pill again to get back up there.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Does your body actually hurt, or is it

more of a mental hurt?

Ms. MOORE. Your whole body just feels like sore, and your jaw

hurts. You are pale. You feel weak the next day.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Philip, how about you?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Could you repeat the question real quick?

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes. The question is the word is out that

Ecstasy is not addictive, even though it can be harmful. But both

of you describe what sure sounds like an addiction. So talk to me

a little bit about why it became addictive for you.

Mr. MCCARTHY. Well, the first time I did it, like my friends were

telling me they do not do it every day, it is just like a weekend

thing. It is like it is not really addictive at all. But when I first did

it, the first time I did it, after that I really could not get enough

of it. I wanted to do it every day, and if I would have had the

money to do it every day, I probably would have, and that is pretty

much what led me to do all the things that I have done, because

I wanted to do it so bad I would risk anything to do it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right. So it was a feeling that it had

taken you up, if you will, and you wanted to keep going back there?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. When you came down, did you come down

lower than normal?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yeah. You feel really depressed. You would not

want to get out of bed in the morning. You really would not eat,

because you felt—like you did not feel good at all. It was just a bad

feeling, and that night you would just do it again, just to feel normal, I guess.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Did you also feel physical symptoms, besides the psychological symptoms?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yeah, the same thing Dayna said. Like your jaw

hurt the next day. Your body felt all worn out. You really did not

want to do anything.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. We are going to hear more testimony

about this in the next panel, but unfortunately there is now a

record of dramatic increases in emergency room mentions of Ecstasy in recent years and, in fact, now there are some deaths associated with it. Had you heard, in your own experience, of anybody

getting really sick on it and having to go to the hospital?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes. A couple of my friends, they used to do too

much at one time because they did not feel anything, because they

used to do it a lot. After like a half-hour, they would just start

throwing up all over the place, like violently, too. They would not

just be like throwing up normally. It was like really disgusting.

Again, I do not know. That was the only thing I really saw happen.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Dayna, how about you?

Ms. MOORE. Not anybody that was really close to me, but I have

heard about people around where I live that had to get rushed to

10

the hospital, or the first time they ever tried it, they died. Their

heart stopped right then and there. In the middle of like me doing

it, I knew—I started to hear about the damages and the effects of

it, but I could not stop. I just had to keep doing it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. So even though you heard these stories

and you knew there was danger physically for you, you were unable to stop at that time?

Ms. MOORE. No, and that is how I realized that I needed help.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Did either of you use Ecstasy at any of

these larger gatherings, like the raves or clubs?

Mr. MCCARTHY. I went to clubs a couple of times, like I went to

a rave once or twice. But I usually just stayed at my friend’s house

or just walked around the streets, hanging out, just doing it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. How about you, Dayna?

Ms. MOORE. Yeah, me, too. Once in awhile, I would go to a club.

But it was more like I would just take it on a normal, daily basis.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Tell me about how you bought it. Is it

easy to buy?

Ms. MOORE. Yes, it is easy to find anywhere. You can just pick

up the phone and make one phone call, and somebody could be at

your house, dropping it off.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Were these other kids who were selling

it?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. They were? People you knew or just

friends of yours told you to call somebody and they would come and

sell it to you?

Ms. MOORE. Yes, it was a little bit of both. My friends were selling it or they knew people that had it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right.

Philip, how about yourself?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Pretty much the same thing that she said. Like

most of my friends would usually get it, like and I would just get

it from them. Or if nobody could get it, somebody would stop by the

house that had it, and like we would all just buy it off him, like

friends and just like my friends’ friends, stuff like that.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Mostly around $20 a pill?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. If you were going to—and in a way you

have done this already in your excellent testimony—but if you were

going to speak to your contemporaries, to teenagers or others, what

would you say to them about Ecstasy?

Mr. MCCARTHY. I would have to say like they should learn more

about it before they try it, like some of the long-term effects that

happen, like you lose your relationship with your family, you stop

going to school, like what happens to you after you come down from

it. If they got more educated about it, I think more kids would not

do it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. How about you, Dayna?

Ms. MOORE. Basically, I would just say that back then, when I

first tried it, I never thought I would be in a treatment program

because of it. I never thought it would lead me to harder drugs. I

never thought it would take away everything that I had from me,

11

but it does. And it may seem fun in the beginning, but it is not.

It is definitely not.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Would either of you give any advice to

parents?

Mr. MCCARTHY. I would pretty much have to say the same thing

as the kids, like they should get more educated about it, see how

your kids look on it and how they act, and like follow up on their

kids, like see who they are hanging out with, what they are doing,

make sure they are doing what they tell you they are doing. It is

like even though I would not have liked it—like if my mom did it

to me—it is just better for the kids, though.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right.

Dayna, would you give any advice to parents across the country

who might be listening to you now?

Ms. MOORE. Yes. They need to really research and see the effects

of it, learn how to tell that your child is on it, be more aware of

where they are going, who they are hanging out with, because if

they just looked a little more into it, took a little time, it is easy

to see what their children are doing.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes. My time is up. I thank you very

much. You both are very impressive, and you both are good, normal

kids. And you went off the track here for a lot of different reasons,

and the great thing to say is that you are obviously back on the

track. I remember I had somebody once say to me, which is old wisdom, that everybody in life gets knocked down at one point or another. The question is whether you get up. And the two of you, obviously—thanks to Phoenix House and your parents—are getting

up. So I admire you and I cannot thank you enough for coming forward and telling your stories today.

Senator Bunning.

Senator BUNNING. Thank you.

Dayna, the first time you used Ecstasy, you were handed a pill

by one of your friends?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. You did not purchase it—just, ‘‘Here, you

want to try something,’’ and no explanation of what it did?

Ms. MOORE. No, I was hearing about it for a while, just seeing

what it did, how everybody was having a good time, everybody was

laughing, everybody was just having a really good time, and they

offered it to me. They said, ‘‘Dayna, we have some extra pills. Do

you want one?’’ And I was like, ‘‘Yeah,’’ and I took one.

Senator BUNNING. And you started with marijuana.

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. The first kind of illegal contact with drugs

was with marijuana?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. Because we have heard marijuana is not an

addictive drug, and we have heard that most people, most young

people, start with marijuana and it leads to other, more serious

and addictive drugs. Can you tell me, Philip, how you got involved

with the law, other than after the fact? In other words, there was

no law enforcement, as far as Ecstasy is concerned, prior to your

use, and even though your friends and a lot of other people were

using it?

12

Mr. MCCARTHY. Well, when I stopped going to school—I stopped

going to school a little bit. I was not really going a lot, and they

put me on PINS. And then, after that, I started doing Ecstasy, and

that is when I got robbery charges, and they put me on probation.

Senator BUNNING. But it was only after the fact.

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. So there is no prevention until someone has

used the drug. You did not see any police officers or any drug undercover people, prior to your use of the drug?

Mr. MCCARTHY. No, I did not.

Senator BUNNING. Both of you were in high school when you first

started?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. Dayna, were you younger?

Ms. MOORE. I was in junior high.

Senator BUNNING. It is sometimes mind-boggling to think how

far from your high school you were, or your junior high, you were

when you were approached. Philip, did you buy your first portion

or was it given to you?

Mr. MCCARTHY. The first time I did it, my friend gave it to me,

because he wanted to see if I liked it or not, and I did. So I just

kept on doing it.

Senator BUNNING. Do you have any idea where those people were

getting that from? In other words, I am trying to look past your

use, to the people that supplied you the first time.

Mr. MCCARTHY. I just usually got it from my friends. I do not

really know who they got it from. I was not really into it like that.

I just got it from them.

Senator BUNNING. And once used and once hooked, it got progressively higher and more use?

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. And progressively lower when you came

down?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Senator BUNNING. It is scary, it really is, to see the trafficking

coming through an international airport like Greater CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky International Airport, and the volume has

picked up to the point where we had marijuana, amphetamines,

and now this. And we want to thank you for coming in and telling

us your story, because if we can get the story out about the effects

on people of this drug, we can help stop it and we can help people

with your help, and you have given us that help today. And I just

want to thank you for being here and telling your story, so that the

rest of the United States and the young people can understand that

the net effect is a real downer, to the point where your friends and

others could have died if some of them did not. What we are trying

to find is a solution, how to stop it from coming here and how to

convince young people and anyone else who might use it to discontinue use because it is so dangerous. Thank you for your testimony.

Ms. MOORE. You are welcome.

Mr. MCCARTHY. You are welcome.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks very much, Senator Bunning.

13

1The prepared statement of Dr. Vereen with an attachment appears in the Appendix on page

45.

Dayna, just one other question. It struck me in your testimony— again, it is contrary to what the conventional wisdom is here, and

Senator Bunning’s question about marijuana reminded me of it— Ecstasy actually led you to harder drugs, didn’t it?

Ms. MOORE. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. What was going on there? In other words,

Ecstasy, when you were addicted, became not enough?

Ms. MOORE. Yes, and I was trying—I wanted a drug that could

have that high, but I did not like the side effects from it afterward,

feeling sick.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. From the Ecstasy?

Ms. MOORE. From the Ecstasy, yes. So sometimes when I came

down from the Ecstasy, I do other drugs to try to numb those feelings, the side effects from it, and I was always trying to find something bigger and better, but nothing compared.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Again, Senator Bunning and I really

thank you for coming in. You know, you have beaten back something, and in all of life’s struggles that we all have, we can identify

with it. We can identify with your parents, and I just wish you well

and think you are on the road to both being the winners that you

were just a short while ago. So God bless you and thanks for coming in. I wish you the best.

We are now going to call the second panel: Donald R. Vereen, the

Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Dr.

Alan Leshner, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse;

John Varrone, who is the Assistant Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service; Joseph Keefe, Chief of Operations, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; John M. Bailey, Chief State’s Attorney,

State of Connecticut; and Roy Rutland, Detective, Miami-Dade Police Department. Thank you all for being here.

Dr. Vereen, let’s begin with you—Deputy Director of the Office

of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President.

Thank you for your testimony. Let me say before you begin, Doctor,

that we are going to enter into the record the prepared testimony,

the very fine prepared testimony that all of you have given, so proceed.

TESTIMONY OF DONALD R. VEREEN, JR.,1 M.D., M.P.H., DEPUTY

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY,

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Dr. VEREEN. Thanks. Good morning, Chairman Lieberman, Senator Bunning, other distinguished Members of the Committee. I

would like to thank you for this opportunity to testify today about

one of the most problematic drugs that has emerged in recent

years. I would also like to recognize some of our key partners in

our integrated approach to this problematic drug: The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service, and the State

and local law enforcement groups that heroically pursue the increasing number of cases brought to their attention. I also want to

thank our collaborators in the Department of Health and Human

Services, particularly the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

14

1 Chart referred to appears in the Appendix on page 52.

Services Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse,

under the leadership of Dr. Alan Leshner, one of the world’s leading authorities on drug abuse. Most especially, a thank you to

Dayna and Philip, who testified here just a few minutes ago. They

are the most vulnerable to the grave dangers of MDMA and they

are very courageous. They represent the primary data that most of

us prefer to have when we are trying to deal with the drug issue.

I commend them for what they represent for themselves, their

peers and their community. And, as you mentioned earlier, I do

have a longer prepared statement, which I would ask to be submitted to the record at this time.

MDMA is one of the most problematic drugs that has emerged

in recent years. Public health and other research data from our Nation’s community schools and hospitals indicate increased availability and increased use of MDMA among young adults, despite

the fact that the substance has dangerous effects on the users. The

misnomer, Ecstasy, which implies a benign substance, is one of the

most harmful aspects of this particular epidemic. MDMA has the

fastest accelerating illicit drug trend trajectory in the past few

years. What is also disturbing is its negative health effects are not

appreciated by the user. MDMA is a public health problem that is

behaving like an epidemic. Taking cues from past epidemics, including drug epidemics, many researchers view a four-phase cycle.

There is an incubation period, an expansion period, a plateau period, and a decline.

MDMA is now in the expansion phase. I refer you to the chart,1

‘‘Monitoring the Future Data of MDMA Use Among 10th and 12th

Graders,’’ and you can see the expansion in use, from a relatively

flat, low level, to one that is expanding. No single solution can effectively address any multifaceted drug problem. The Office of National Drug Control Policy, as a part of its national drug control

strategy, insists on a comprehensive response to all emerging drug

epidemics, MDMA in particular. ONDCP is uniquely positioned to

integrate public health, public safety and public policy perspectives

in the face of the spread of a synthetic drug, such as MDMA, and

ONDCP bases sound drug policy on scientific research, consistent

with the goals of that strategy.

From a public health perspective, demand reduction efforts inform—the public about the dangers of MDMA use. Second, the demand reduction efforts assemble epidemiological data. And, third,

demand reduction efforts support the collaboration of our Federal

partners to improve drug testing and screening methods for

MDMA. From a public safety perspective, supply reduction and law

enforcement efforts continue to, one, emphasize precursor chemical

control and, two, identify and prosecute drug-trafficking organizations.

Investigations are ongoing to identify vulnerable areas in the

production and distribution network, including the production labs,

organized crime, and methods for transshipment. From a public

policy perspective, ONDCP has led coordinating roles among 50-

plus Federal agencies that have illicit drug use as part of their

mandate. The following steps to address MDMA problems are in

15

place and are ongoing. The first is ONDCP has convened a Federal

interagency demand reduction working group subcommittee to address MDMA specifically. This group consists of representatives

from several agencies. Through the information gathering and exchange that has occurred during the meetings, the subcommittee

has identified the need for a screening tool and the development of

cost-effective testing systems, which are under development.

Second, in August 2000, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media

Campaign launched a nationwide radio and Internet, as well as television, initiative focused specifically on MDMA. The initiative is

designed to educate young people and their parents about the

drug’s dangers and change the widespread misperceptions that it

is harmless. There is a video that we have that gives an example

of one of the ads that was developed specifically for this initiative.

I draw your attention to this print poster, that has been reproduced

in various vehicles, to get information out to young people and

their parents. Here is an example of one of the ads that was developed in this campaign.

[A videotape was shown in the hearing room.]

Chairman LIEBERMAN. How widely are these playing now? Do

you know?

Dr. VEREEN. They are all over the country. We develop different

parts of the campaign to hit young people and their parents in

waves. So we have got one wave out, and what we have in production—I misspoke; I am a little bit ahead of myself—are in new

wave of—I do not want to call them exactly ads, but information

out to parents and young people.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Good.

Dr. VEREEN. Third, ONDCP’s High-Intensity Drug-Trafficking

Area program, known as HIDTA, is a strategy-driven drug enforcement effort. The HIDTA program facilitates coordination and

leveraging of resources of over 900 local, 172 State, 35 Federal law

enforcement agency resources, including 86 other participating organizations. Each of the HIDTAs is conducting a threat assessment

of MDMA that will be included in their future work.

Fourth, in partnership with the National Guard Bureau, the

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Community Anti-Drug

Coalitions of America, CADCA, and the National Institute on Drug

Abuse, ONDCP is participating in a four-part series of satellite

broadcasts on specific drugs of abuse. A 90-minute broadcast on

MDMA was held on May 24 of this year that set a record for attendance size and reached over 800 sites in 50 States and five in

the District of Columbia and one in Canada.

Last, in March of this year, Ecstasy was the featured special

topic in the latest edition of Pulse Check, which is an on-theground instrument that ONDCP uses to detect new and emerging

drug trends. I commend the Committee on its effort to protect the

American people from this dangerous drug, and thank you for this

opportunity to speak about the facts and how they have been applied in overall U.S. Government policy.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks, Doctor. Just very briefly, did you

say at the outset that Ecstasy use is the fastest-growing, that is

percentage-wise, of any drug in the country now?

16

1The prepared statement of Dr. Leshner with an attachment appears in the Appendix on page

53.

Dr. VEREEN. Well, the perceived availability of the drug, that is

the young people who are taking it perceive that it is so available,

that is the indicator that we are using that says it is growing at

a very fast rate. And, as you can appreciate, when we gather this

data, there is always a lag time, and almost always the numbers

are an underestimate of what is actually going on out there.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you. Next is Dr. Alan Leshner, an

authority in this area, Director of the National Institute on Drug

Abuse. Thanks for being here.

TESTIMONY OF ALAN I. LESHNER,1 Ph.D., DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES

OF HEALTH

Dr. LESHNER. Thank you, Senator. I am delighted to be here. I

am also delighted to have this opportunity to talk with you about

what science has been teaching us about 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine—known popularly as MDMA, or Ecstasy. In

fact, a little bit over a week ago, my institute held a major 2-day

scientific conference on Ecstasy, where we brought to the NIH leading researchers from all over the world. Having sat through the 2-

day conference, I can provide you today with the scientific community’s very latest thinking about this drug.

Not surprisingly, one overarching theme is MDMA is far from

being the harmless fun drug you hear about from many young people and in the popular press. The fact is that we have known for

over a decade from animal studies that Ecstasy can be extremely

dangerous, even when used only once, and repeated use over time

damages critical brain cells in ways that can have long-lasting effects on behavior. Importantly, over the last 5 years, virtually every

major finding from those animal studies has been confirmed in humans.

As you know, MDMA is a synthetic drug that is typically sold in

capsule or tablet form, and we have heard quite a bit about that

today. Ecstasy has both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties.

Although it does not cause full-blown hallucinations like LSD,

users do report distorted time and perception while under its influence. As an extremely powerful stimulant, MDMA can increase

heart rate and blood pressure and it can disable the body’s ability

to regulate its own temperature. When it is used in club or dance

settings, it can lead to very severe rises in body temperature, what

we call hyperthermia; it can lead to dehydration, hypertension, and

even heart, or kidney failure in particularly susceptible people.

Like other stimulants, Ecstasy also appears to have the ability

to cause addiction. The brain mechanisms by which Ecstasy works

are actually critical to understanding its short- and long-term effects. Ecstasy increases the activity levels of at least three major

brain chemical systems, the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine

and norepinephrine. It is what Ecstasy does to serotonin levels that

concerns us the most right now. Serotonin normally plays a critical

role in everyday functioning. It is significantly involved in the regulation of mood, memory, sleep, pain, emotion and appetite. When

17

people take Ecstasy, the drug increases the release of serotonin,

thereby producing its mood effects, but it also interferes with the

buildup of new serotonin pools, so that over time Ecstasy use

causes the brain to actually become significantly depleted of serotonin, and then it can take the brain weeks to rebuild its serotonin

levels to normal.

Recent studies are showing that it is not just those people who

use Ecstasy chronically or repeatedly that are affected. Again, from

animal models, we have known for awhile that even one dose of

MDMA can decrease serotonin levels for up to 2 weeks. We now

know this to be true in humans, as well, and I have brought you

one example over here, which is a series of PET scans. On your left

is an MRI scan, and then the middle scan shows you the brain of

a former Ecstasy user who has been abstinent for awhile, and these

are occasional users, not heavy users. It is important that this is

relatively small amounts of Ecstasy use. You then see the response

of the brain, to the right, of tremendously reduced overall brain activity, and I can explain that in detail to you later, if you would

like.

But it is showing you, in effect, from a single dosing of Ecstasy,

2 weeks after the individual last used Ecstasy. So what you are

seeing is a brain change in a relatively moderate Ecstasy user,

what would be called an occasional user, from a single-dosing regimen that is lasting 2 weeks after the individual stopped using—— Chairman LIEBERMAN. Doctor, would you say that would be typical, or might that person have had some special vulnerability?

Dr. LESHNER. Actually, this is the 2-week version. There is also

a 10-week version that I did not bring you. It is not quite as dramatic. It is not dependent upon the particular vulnerability. It is

a mechanism by which Ecstasy produces both its short-term and its

long-term effects.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right.

Dr. LESHNER. Again, the areas that you see affected are obviously critically involved in all of those behaviors that I mentioned

to you. Despite our best efforts at sharing what we know about

these drugs, all indicators suggests that MDMA is gaining popularity among students and young adults who continue to use Ecstasy in increasingly higher doses, and actually, now, outside the

more traditional nightclub array of settings. The fact that one in

nine high school seniors and over 150,000 eighth graders, that is,

13- and 14-year-olds, have tried Ecstasy in their lifetime is truly

a national public health crisis.

The one encouraging point in this grim scenario is the amazing

ability of the brain to compensate and adapt to life stressors.

Emerging research on other drugs, like meth-amphetamine, a drug

structurally similar to MDMA, is showing that there are signs that

if one stops using it, the brain can recover over time. To summarize, the scientific evidence is clear. Ecstasy is not a benign drug.

It is an extremely dangerous substance, both in the short- and in

the long-term. As a scientist, and as a public health official, I believe it is tremendously important that we get this science-based

message out to the public. We do not need any more people, particularly our young people, our greatest resource, experimenting on

their own brains with this extremely dangerous drug.

18

1The prepared statement of Mr. Varrone with an attachment appears in the Appendix on

page 63.

Thank you, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you, doctor, for that compelling

and chilling testimony.

John C. Varrone is the Assistant Commissioner, Office of Investigations, U.S. Customs Service. I appreciate your willingness to

come by. I gather Mr. Winwood had some difficulty making it here

today, but we are delighted to have you here and look forward to

your testimony now.

TESTIMONY OF JOHN C. VARRONE,1 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS, U.S.

CUSTOMS SERVICE

Mr. VARRONE. Thank you. Chairman Lieberman, Senator Bunning, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you

today on behalf of the U.S. Customs Service and our efforts to enforce the smuggling of Ecstasy. The U.S. Customs Service has vigorously increased their efforts against MDMA, otherwise known as

Ecstasy, entering into the United States since the drug first began

appearing at our borders in substantial quantities in the late

1990’s. Almost negligible 5 years ago, Customs seizures of MDMA

has since skyrocketed. Total quantities of MDMA seized by the

Customs Service have jumped from approximately 400,000 tablets

in 1997 to 31⁄2 million tablets in 1999, to well over 9 million tablets

in fiscal year 2000. With 3 months remaining in our current fiscal

year, we have seized approximately 6 million tablets.

As you know MDMA is extremely profitable to drug traffickers.

Clearly, that is one of the reasons why we are seeing so much more

of it. A pill that costs pennies to make in Europe can retail from

anywhere from $25 to $50 here in the United States. To give you

an example, this bag of Ecstasy which I am holding, was part of

a seizure that Customs inspectors made at Dulles International

Airport. This bag is approximately five pounds and it is valued at

$140,000.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. How was it brought in? Do you know?

Mr. VARRONE. It was smuggled in luggage by two individuals,

sir.

It would be logical to assume that with more MDMA coming into

the country, overall seizures would rise, but that simple explanation does not do justice to the combined efforts of law enforcement to disrupt the MDMA trade. Many of our largest seizures of

MDMA to date have been the result of better targeting and shared

intelligence between Customs, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, State and local authorities. In my long statement, I

elaborate on some of the key enforcement measures Customs has

put into place to complement this exemplary interagency cooperation.

These include the creation of a special Customs Ecstasy Task

Force here in Washington, DC; the training and deployment of 260

canine enforcement teams for detection purposes; and, the involvement of the Customs Cyber-Smuggling Center in the investigation

of websites marketing MDMA and other club drugs. The enhanceVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
19

ment of our communications with law enforcement in Europe and

Israel, in conjunction with DEA, has also contributed to some of

these successes.

The majority of MDMA seized by Customs arrives by commercial

air. In addition to focusing on the traditional source countries for

narcotics, we are playing close attention to former non-source countries, especially flights from known MDMA hubs, such as Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt. Yet, when pressured on one route, the

traffickers is quickly turning to others. The Dominican Republic,

Curacao, and Surinam all emerged last year as popular MDMA

transshipment points. We are also seeing increased activity from

Canada, and this year we have almost doubled our amount of seizures from Spain.

Several recent MDMA seizures along our southwest land border

suggest that smugglers may be probing other flanks. It may only

be a matter of time before the powerful drug cartels and the trafficking groups operating to our south stake their claim in the lucrative MDMA trade, as well. We are also very concerned with the increasing signs of domestic production. Customs has made several

seizures of key precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of

MDMA. One of those seizures, which occurred at our international

mail facility in Oakland, California, led to the discovery and closure of a fully-equipped MDMA laboratory outside Los Angeles.

From a detection standpoint, MDMA’s compact size and shape

make concealment options almost infinite. Customs has seized

MDMA in packages and shipments of all shapes and sizes, from

suitcases to cargo containers to aircraft engines to baby formula to

stuffed animals. A great deal of MDMA is smuggled by couriers

who conceal it somewhere on their body. Of late, we have noted a

rising trend in the use of spandex bicycle shorts worn under clothing by smugglers. These shorts are altered to contain extra pockets,

which can hold hundreds of pills. We have also encountered an increasing number of MDMA swallowers, who ingest the drug in

small packages or balloons in order to evade Customs. We are shoring up our defenses against MDMA because we simply do not see

this trend declining any time soon. Clearly, what was once ad hoc

smuggling by small-time dealers and users has mushroomed into

organized trafficking by criminals. They now have the money and

the infrastructure to market MDMA well beyond the club scenes in

New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. The motive of the club owners

who help the traffickers push MDMA is obvious. They are in it for

the money. So it is not surprising that we have seen them come

under the spell of organized crime.

But the traffickers are also aided by another, more unlikely

source. These include social scientists and others in the so-called

harm reduction movement, who claim that the real damage is

caused, not by MDMA and its pushers, but by the laws designed

to curtail them. This line of argument has given rise to the myth

that American law enforcement is out to criminalize the experimental behavior of a whole generation of young Americans. To the

contrary, our responsibility is to enforce the drug laws of this country and arrest and prosecute those who, without hesitation, routinely exploit our children and place them at serious risk.

20

1The prepared statement of Mr. Keefe appears in the Appendix on page 70.

Certainly the efforts of this Committee to raise awareness of the

MDMA threat will help to drive this message home. Education and

outreach to parents and children are also vital, as Customs, the

DEA, and others are doing via information posted on our website.

Customs uses this type of outreach as a critical aspect of our enforcement mission, and we are examining ways to expand our regular contacts with schools, community groups and others to include

a greater focus on MDMA use and trends. The fact remains that

no matter how successful our enforcement efforts, our best defense

is less demand.

Thank you for this opportunity, Mr. Chairman. I will be happy

to answer any questions at the conclusion.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks, Mr. Varrone, for that excellent

testimony. One quick question, though. You mentioned the current

diversification of the points of origin of the flights or shipments

coming in. Am I correct that the major manufacturing locations are

still in the Netherlands and Belgium?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Mr. Keefe from DEA, Chief of Operations,

thank you for being here. I look forward to your testimony now.

TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH D. KEEFE,1 CHIEF OF OPERATIONS,

DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT

OF JUSTICE

Mr. KEEFE. Thank you, sir. Chairman Lieberman and Senator

Bunning, I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before

you today for the purpose of discussing the outstanding coordination between Federal, State and local law enforcement in combating MDMA, the dangerous club drug deceptively referred to as

Ecstasy. As always, I would first like to preface my remarks by

thanking the Committee for its unwavering support of the Drug

Enforcement Administration and overall support of drug law enforcement.

MDMA is manufactured clandestinely in Western Europe, primarily the Netherlands and Belgium, which produce the vast majority of the MDMA consumed worldwide. A typical clandestine laboratory is capable of producing 20 to 30 kilograms of MDMA per

day, with one kilogram of MDMA consisting of approximate 4,000

tablets. Dutch police reported the seizure of one laboratory capable

of producing approximately 100 kilograms of MDMA per day. Most

often, MDMA consumed in the United States is manufactured by

Dutch chemists and transported or distributed by various factions

of Israeli and Russian organized crime groups. These groups recruit and utilize American, Israeli, and Western European nationals as couriers.

In addition to the use of couriers, these organizations exploit the

mail, private carriers, and airline freight to facilitate delivery of

their merchandise. The drug trafficking organizations involved in

MDMA distribution are brought together by the enormous profit realized in these ventures, which has led to the professionalization

of MDMA trafficking. Once the MDMA reaches the United States,

a domestic sale distributor will charge $6 to $8 per tablet. The

21

MDMA retailer will, in turn, distribute the MDMA for $25 to $45

per tablet. MDMA traffickers utilized all major airports in Europe

as transshipment points for MDMA destined for the United States.

Los Angeles, New York and Miami are currently the major gateway

cities for the influx of MDMA from abroad. These three cities reflect the greatest number of arrests and seizures of MDMA within

our borders.

The largest MDMA seizure in the United States occurred in Los

Angeles, California, where DEA and U.S. Customs seized over 2.1

million tablets of the drug. Currently, Israeli and Russian MDMA

trafficking organizations dominate the MDMA trade in the United

States. As Ecstasy proves more profitable and as law enforcement

pressures force the traffickers to regroup, the U.S. MDMA trade

will become increasingly diverse, incorporating drug trafficking organizations based in the Caribbean and Asia. Dominican violators,

in particular, have exploited their well-organized trafficking infrastructure in the Caribbean to capitalize on links to MDMA sources

in the Netherlands.

DEA has completed a number of significant investigations that

have dismantled global MDMA trafficking organizations, as well as

limited the effectiveness of rave parties as a venue for distributing

MDMA. None of these successful cases could have been brought to

fruition without a consistent line of open communication between

Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies. Through a multitude of task forces, and joint investigative ventures, DEA seeks

to maximize the impact of its enforcement initiatives in communities throughout the United States. DEA’s joint investigations

have incorporated innovative strategies, such as the Federal Crack

House Statute and utilization of municipal health codes and nuisance abatement ordinances to neutralize rave events that facilitate the trafficking of MDMA.

The May 18, 2001 arrest of well-documented Israeli MDMA violator Odet Tuito is an excellent example of interagency and international cooperation. Through the coordination of DEA’s Special

Operation Division, police authorities in Barcelona, Spain arrested

Odet Tuito pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant. As a result

of this cooperation, Tuito, who was perhaps the premier Israeli

MDMA trafficker operating between Europe and the United States,

will face charges pending in New York and Pennsylvania. Last

year, to focus national attention on the MDMA threat, DEA hosted

the International Conference on Ecstasy and Club Drugs in partnership with approximately 300 officials from domestic and foreign

law enforcement, judicial, chemical, prevention, and treatment

communities. As a follow-up to last year’s conference, DEA is in the

process of implementing a series of regional club drug conferences,

which will serve the purpose of taking DEA’s demand reduction

message out to a variety of selected communities.

A regional conference was recently held in Atlantic City, and future regional conferences are scheduled to be held in Chicago and

San Diego. In closing, I would like to reiterate that DEA’s investigative strategy makes maximum use of the tremendous assets

and experience offered by our Federal, State, local and foreign police counterparts. These efforts, when combined with DEA’s training and club drug conferences, provide the foundation for an inteVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
22

1The prepared statement of Mr. Bailey appears in the Appendix on page 81.

grated community-based approach that serves to aggressively confront the threat posed by MDMA-trafficking organizations.

I thank you for providing me the opportunity to address the

Committee and I look forward to taking any questions you may

have on this important issue.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks very much, Mr. Keefe, and now

we move to the State and local level, I am proud to say, with my

own Chief State’s Attorney and longtime friend, former co-worker,

John M. Bailey, who has overseen a very aggressive and, I would

say, creative response to the threat of Ecstasy in the State of Connecticut. I am proud to welcome him.

TESTIMONY OF JOHN M. BAILEY,1 CHIEF STATE’S ATTORNEY,

STATE OF CONNECTICUT

Mr. BAILEY. Good morning, Senator Lieberman and Senator

Bunning. For the record, I am John M. Bailey, the Chief State’s Attorney for the State of Connecticut. To explain my responsibilities,

I am the chief law enforcement officer of the State of Connecticut

and the administrative head of the Division of Criminal Justice,

which is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all

criminal matters in the State of Connecticut. I sincerely thank the

Committee for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss the

drug Ecstasy and how we in Connecticut have utilized our nuisance

abatement program to correct one serious problem area involving

Ecstasy.

I am sure the Committee Members are aware of the growing

problem that we in law enforcement and in our society in general

are facing with the drug Ecstasy and so-called designer drugs or

club drugs. Let me quote from USA Today of July 20 of this year.

‘‘The trade in the use of Ecstasy has mushroomed since 1995. In

that year, Federal agencies confiscated a few hundred thousand

pills. Last year, Federal agencies confiscated more than 11 million

pills coming into the country.’’ I should add those 11 million represent, I think, less than eight percent coming into the United

States.

On July 19 of this year, the New York Times reported on the seizure of one million Ecstasy tablets from one studio apartment in

New York City. At the price of $20 to $40 for each tablet, this seizure alone took $30 million worth of Ecstasy off the streets and out

of the rave clubs. Similar seizures are being reported elsewhere

and they are not limited to big cities such as New York—and the

drug Ecstasy. On July 20 of this year, the Wichita Eagle newspaper

in Kansas carried a report on the seizure of 21,000 vials of the narcotic catamine, or what is known in the drug trade as Special K.

This was the biggest seizure ever of Special K in the country, and

that was in Wichita, Kansas.

The problem is not limited to one drug and certainly not to one

city or part of the country. It makes no difference whether we are

talking about our American cities or the American heartland.

When the drug traffickers go looking for a market, they will sell

wherever and to whomever will buy. In Connecticut, for example,

we have found that Ecstasy is more popular among suburban users

23

than other drugs such as heroin or cocaine. But more importantly,

our statewide narcotics task force, who you met with, Senator, they

are warning us that the designer drugs and Ecstasy could replace

marijuana as the drug of choice among young people. And these are

the economics of the drug trade: Introduce new drugs; and create

a new market. Remember, although this is an illicit business, it is

a business, and a business that is generating billions of dollars

each year in income. The drug traffickers know what they are

doing, which is why it is so absolutely critical that we in law enforcement know what we are doing.

Just as they work to develop new markets and push new poisons,

we must develop new ways and new initiatives to stop the dealing

in death. One of the ways that we were successful in Connecticut

is our nuisance abatement program. I would like to use the remaining part of my time to explain this program and how it is used to

correct a problem that deals precisely with Ecstasy trafficking. We

in Connecticut are very proud of our nuisance abatement program.

It is one of the most exciting and innovative initiatives that we

have undertaken in recent years. The program joins together legal

forces of civil action and criminal prosecution to deal with nuisance

properties.

I have submitted detailed written material to the Committee explaining specifically how the program works. Simply put, when we

can show a pattern of criminal activities through actual arrest or

issuance of arrest warrants, we can take a civil action to clean up

the problem. The Ecstasy problem in Hartford is an excellent case

in point as to how this law can be utilized. A traditional narcotics

investigation was undertaken. We identified three rave clubs in

Hartford were Ecstasy trafficking was taking place. It should be

noted that people from New York, Providence, and Boston came to

Hartford to go to these clubs. And I should also note that one

young man going back to Boston died 6 hours later, leaving the

club.

One of these clubs was a traditional liquor establishment, but

the other two were after-hours clubs, catering to individuals as

young as 14-year-olds. The clubs opened up at 10 o’clock at night

and closed at 7 in the morning. We proceeded with a criminal investigation and arrest, and, at the same time, with the civil action

allowed under the Nuisance Abatement Act, we obtained court orders shutting down all three clubs. The clubs remained closed

while the owners worked with us to put in place strict controls to

stop the drug dealings.

I would just briefly mention the conditions which we placed on

the clubs to reopen: One, no employee could have a criminal record

in anything to do with drugs; two, uniformed police officers had to

be on the premises when these clubs opened. No one under 18

could go into the club, and we also changed the hours of the clubs.

We did pat-downs when people went into the clubs to make sure

they did not have any drugs on them. We put four video recorders,

showing the entire square footage of the clubs, and we could inspect those clubs at any time and look at the video, and we prohibited the sale of surgical masks, Vicks inhalers, pacifiers, or any

drug paraphernalia. And, finally, we could go in there without a

search warrant and inspect the club at any time.

24

1The prepared statement of Mr. Rutland appears in the Appendix on page 84.

The clubs have since reopened and we are continuing ongoing

monitoring to ensure compliance. Nuisance abatement differs from

traditional activities in that the goal is not to permanently close a

business or property, but to clean up that property. We work with

the property owners or the business operators to make that property a productive part of the community, and we do so with a clear

understanding that if the problem returns, so will we, armed with

the full authority of civil and criminal prosecution. The nuisance

abatement program has shown its value in a relatively short period

of time in Connecticut, and we believe the program holds a tremendous promise for the future. We also believe this is a model, not

only for the communities in Connecticut, but for jurisdictions

throughout this country that may not even know of its existence.

Coming down here this morning, I picked up—and, Senator

Lieberman, you are familiar with The Advocate.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes, I am; for the record, it is a Connecticut newspaper.

Mr. BAILEY. And we picked it up at the airport. It states, ‘‘Raves

On and Off: Hartford Rave Scene Has Not Recovered from John

Bailey’s Drug Crackdown.’’ Right now, they are about to go out of

business.

Thank you, Senator.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you. Thanks for what you are

doing and thanks for presenting an excellent model, which may be

adapted in other jurisdictions around the country.

Finally, we have Detective Roy Rutland, who is with the MiamiDade Police Department. As I indicated earlier, Mr. Rutland is behind a screen at his request, because many of the people with

whom he works are unaware of his true identity. We are pleased

to have him here and pleased to give him this opportunity to testify. Go right ahead now, Detective Rutland.

TESTIMONY OF ROY RUTLAND,1 DETECTIVE, NARCOTICS

BUREAU, MIAMI-DADE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Mr. RUTLAND. Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to be here before you

and the distinguished Members of the Committee. I would also like

to thank your staff, members of the ONDCP, and the Governmental Affairs staff for their exceptional support prior to this meeting. I am employed by the Miami-Dade Police Department. The

Miami-Dade Police Department Narcotics Bureau is responsible for

investigating any narcotics-related offenses occurring in the unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County, Florida. My responsibility

as an undercover narcotics detective is twofold: First, my job is to

effectively target and infiltrate organizations responsible for the

manufacture and distribution of any illegal narcotics. The goal is

to disrupt and eliminate these organizations at their core foundation, including source nations. Second, my job is to testify in the

judicial process and pursue the proper judicial measures necessary

for the prosecution and incarceration of these narcotics and organized criminal offenders.

Mr. Chairman, during the mid-1990’s, south Florida first began

to experience what many in law enforcement and in the health

25

community now consider to be a global epidemic. The introduction

or reappearance of this deadly drug, MDMA, has surfaced in all

types of venues. The arrival of MDMA comes as no surprise to

those of us who are investigators and who have targeted and investigated other deadly narcotics that have entered south Florida and

the United States. The surprise, however, comes in dealing with

the volume of this drug being smuggled into the country and the

unfortunate global popularity associated with the drug.

I first began investigating MDMA when I infiltrated the subculture that frequented venues, which are now commonly referred to

as rave parties. A vast majority of these parties consistently disguised and continue to disguise their appearance for the sole purpose of profit through club-drug distribution, primarily MDMA. I

know, because I was there. The effective marketing techniques and

astronomical profit margins I have witnessed contrasts with any

other drug being distributed today. Make no mistake about it, the

unfortunate popularity of MDMA has caused this deadly drug to

move from the rave scene to mainstream America. This is evident

in multiple cases that I have investigated in south Florida, nationally and internationally.

The disturbing reality of MDMA was clear in the year 2000,

when Miami-Dade County experienced the first apprehension of a

drug mule who had swallowed multiple pellets containing more

than 1,000 MDMA tablets and attempted to enter Miami-Dade

County from the Netherlands, via Miami-Dade International Airport. To date, the Miami-Dade Police Department, along with the

U.S. Customs Service, has apprehended two additional drug mules

attempting to enter the United States from various source nations.

Each of these mules had swallowed more than 2,000 MDMA tablets

each.

It is important to note, however, that these numbers pale in comparison to the multiple drug mules that we have apprehended in

south Florida who have used alternate body-packing techniques.

Since the explosion of this epidemic in south Florida, my focus has

been on investigating MDMA cases, including educating law enforcement nationally and internationally. During the infant stages

of the epidemic, I was primarily negotiating and dealing with

younger narcotraffickers with little experience in the narcotics

trade. During the last year, I have seen a rapid transformation in

power.

As many of us in law enforcement anticipated, the traditional

narcotraffickers and their source nations have assumed much of

the network control over MDMA, thus causing multiple power

struggles with organizations and new source nations. As a result

of these power struggles, along with the astronomical profit margins, we on the front lines are experiencing the associated violence.

Through aggressive investigations and successful infiltrations, I,

along with many other undercover narcotics detectives, have successfully disrupted and eliminated multiple MDMA organizations

responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of MDMA. None

of this would be possible without a global cooperative effort in law

enforcement.

I am pleased to say that we are coordinating and working effectively with other local law enforcement, along with law enforceVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
26

ment at the State and Federal levels, to combat this epidemic. Case

in point: Early in July, members of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Narcotics Bureau initiated an investigation involving several foreign nationals involved in large-scale MDMA distribution

from Miami-Dade County to New York City. As a result of a successful cooperative effort between two separate local law enforcement agencies, the investigation that was initiated by the MiamiDade Police Department’s Narcotics Bureau concluded in Manhattan, by the New York Police Department Queens Narcotics Unit.

The investigation yielded the seizure of 450 pounds of MDMA, or

approximately 1.6 million MDMA tablets, $187,000 in U.S. currency, and the apprehension of two foreign nationals responsible

for the distribution of 100,000 MDMA tablets every 2 weeks for the

last 5 years in the United States.

In closing, undercover narcotics detectives on the front lines will

continue to aggressively combat this global epidemic. With continued support from the government and effective legislation, such as

the Federal crack house law, I am confident we will have a direct

and substantial impact on MDMA. Thank you.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks very much, Detective Rutland, for

your testimony and, of course, for what you are doing every day

that you go to work. Let me begin with a little bit of history, and

maybe, Dr. Leshner, you are the best one to ask. Ecstasy just did

not appear out of nowhere 4 or 5 years ago. Give us a little bit of

history about MDMA. Am I correct that it was officially declared

a controlled substance in 1985?

Dr. LESHNER. I believe that is right. It originally was thought to

be a benign substance. There are people who have claimed all

kinds of psychotherapeutic potential uses of it over the years. It is

important to note that there has never been a controlled clinical

trial demonstrating the usefulness of MDMA for any clinical purpose at all, and I think that it is important to correct the common

misconception out there.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Do you have any idea when it first appeared in the U.S.?

Dr. LESHNER. I do not recall the exact details.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Do any of the witnesses?

Dr. VEREEN. Perhaps as early as the turn-of-the-century it was

created, but its therapeutic use in psychotherapy was in the 1970’s

and 1980’s.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, its use was allegedly for therapeutic reasons, not for recreational uses?

Dr. VEREEN. That is correct.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. But, as you said, Dr. Leshner, there is no

documented research here that proves its therapeutic value?

Dr. LESHNER. That is correct. There has never been a controlled

clinical trial. And in contrast to what you hear publicly, we at NIH

have never received a proposal to study it for any clinical indications, which I think is an interesting commentary on the biomedical communities belief about this substance.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. So let me ask the whole panel or anybody

who wants to answer, how does a drug like this, which remains at

relatively low usage in the country, suddenly become an epidemic?

This took place in 4 or 5 years. Was a decision made somewhere

27

by drug cartels or others to begin to try to develop a market, Mr.

Keefe?

Mr. KEEFE. If I could, sir. It has always been very popular in

Western Europe. As we know now, most of the clandestine labs are

located there and they have been for some time.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. So the recreational use has been common

in Western Europe for some period of time?

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir. The rave parties sort of brought it through

to the United States with the tech music, and that is where we see

the venue now for MDMA. But I think what has also happened is

the children and the young people that spoke here earlier thought

that there was no problem with it, until the doctor pointed out,

that was not harmful. So we see these young people and the harmreduction, as Mr. Varrone said, advocates saying there is no problem with this drug—became professionalized by the organized

crime members we referred to who saw this and were able to make

money. People were willing to spend money for it and to use it because they felt there was no harm. We had the rave clubs bringing

it and then it started getting into the neighborhoods and it continues, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes. I noted that the two young people

who were with us at the outset—both said they did not start at a

rave or at a club, but with usage with friends or in homes. So that

suggests it is out on the street now.

Mr. KEEFE. I think it was always available coming into the

streets. I think the rave clubs and the music are the venues to do

it, not that it was always used in the rave clubs. As Mr. Bailey

mentioned and as you see from our cases, we do not see large

quantities of the drug appearing at the rave clubs. They have often

taken it before they get there or they will take some drugs there

or hide it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes, Mr. Bailey?

Mr. BAILEY. Senator, we had 125 high school students in, and we

did not talk to them, they talked to us, which we learned a great

deal, and one of the things which Mr. Keefe just brought up, they

did not understand there was a problem with Ecstasy. They took

it for granted that you take one pill, it will not hurt you and there

will be no effect. Your parents—you do not have a smell—you do

not have marijuana and your eyes are not dilated. And that was

one of the reasons why the young people began taking it, because

no one would know they were taking it, until we saw the young

people here today.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Absolutely.

Dr. VEREEN. Sir, I would like to add that there is a general pattern there where drugs get introduced into cultures or societies. In

the case of Ecstasy, it was the raves and the source in Europe injecting the issue into the United States, taking advantage of ignorance on the part of young people, peer pressure, and this desire

to explore or to fulfill their curiosity. On top of that, the drug is

marketed specifically—this drug has been marketed very differently than crack was marketed, and marketed very differently

than heroin was marketed.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. How so?

28

1Pictures referred to appear in the Appendix on page 69.

Dr. VEREEN. Take a look at the pictures of those attractive pills.1

That is very different than in the case of crack, which was sold on

the street.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. They have diagrams or symbols on the

pills, and words like love or Adam, which is another name for the

drug.

Dr. VEREEN. Yes, and initially targeted at young, upper middleclass folks who could afford to pay $20 or upwards of $50 for a single pill.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. It is an important point that the two of

you have made. They have almost a candy look to them, or a pill

look, which, of course, makes them seem less dangerous than, obviously, using a drug that requires needle injection or even smoking

marijuana, because of the aroma. Let me come back to the international scene. We have heard testimony that the manufacturers

remain mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands. Is this becoming

a worldwide problem now? Is usage now worldwide or is it mostly

concentrated in Western Europe and the United States?

Mr. KEEFE. Sir, it is worldwide. We have investigations we work

through our country offices throughout the world, Asia, South Africa, Central America, South America—throughout the world, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. OK, and I gather from your testimony

that there are organized criminal operations in Israel and Russia

that are the primary sources of MDMA coming into this country?

Mr. KEEFE. I would not necessarily say they are all in Russia or

Israel. They are Russian-Israeli organized crime groups that come

together, many of which are in Europe, not all, but directly with

their command and control out of Israel, although we are working

more closely with our counterparts in Israel on these investigations

involving subjects that are from Israel.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. And one of you said you expect—maybe it

was Detective Rutland—that you expect, because of the profitability here, that other traditional drug cartels, if I can use that

expression, may be getting into this business now, including those

from south of our border. Is that a fair assumption?

Mr. RUTLAND. Absolutely. No question, sir. Lately we have dealt

directly with cartel members that have ties with the newer source

nations. I would like to comment, if I could, on the last question.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Please.

Mr. RUTLAND. The problem is the drug and its benign appearance. That is the problem with the younger adults and the kids.

However, let’s not limit it to just them, because we now know—all

ages are affected. The problem has gone mainstream. The rave

problem is one problem. It is now mainstream on the streets. When

I first started dealing with narcotraffickers in MDMA, I was dealing at a street level on the streets, not in these venues, these rave

parties. And it is important to know that because I have worked

and infiltrated many of these rave parties. I know they have just

been venues for this drug club distribution. But to your first question, the answer is without a doubt, that the traditional source nations are now involved and are tapping into this market.

29

Chairman LIEBERMAN. A very important point, that while as a

society—and as parents, we are obviously protective and particularly concerned about the use of the drug among young people, it

is also spreading among adults, as well. Parenthetically, would it

be fair to expect of those in law enforcement that, as there comes

to be competition for this market, they will have to deal with turf

battles, criminal conflict, and violence associated with controlling

the markets?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. I think the Sammy ‘‘the

Bull’’ Gravano case is illustrative of that point.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. That is a very important point. Go ahead.

Mr. VARRONE. From all accounts—and it was a joint investigation by Federal and State and local agencies control of the market

share in the Arizona area was what that organization was about,

and quite frankly I believe violence was expected on their part.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Just for the record, identify Mr. Gravano

and what status he had when he was apprehended for distributing

Ecstasy or overseeing the distribution of Ecstasy.

Mr. VARRONE. Well, sir, he was initially in the witness protection

program. Upon withdrawing from the program, he resided in the

Arizona area, and from photographs of his home, quite comfortably.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. And he was then apprehended for playing

a central role in the distribution of MDMA in the Arizona area. Is

that right?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir, he and his family.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. His personal family or criminal family?

Mr. VARRONE. No, his personal family.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Final question on this round for me, and

then I will yield to Senator Bunning. Because of the different nature of the drug’s appearance, it looks like a pill or even candy, is

the distribution network different than it is for what we would

think of as harder drugs, like heroin or cocaine, or is it comparable?

Mr. VARRONE. I think the distribution chain is much broader

than traditional heroin and cocaine organizations are. I think the

handling and locations of distribution are more widespread, such as

college and high school campuses. In addition, this belief, this false

notion, that MDMA is harmless is causing more and more people

to engage in it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Mr. Bailey.

Mr. BAILEY. Senator, we do not have it up in the north end of

Hartford or down in your area of New Haven.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. These are sort of urban, low-income

areas?

Mr. BAILEY. It is urban. It is suburban. It is upper middle-class.

That is where they are getting it, and as you pointed out, to make

this pill, it takes about six cents, and they can sell it for $20 to

$40, and that is why people are going into the business.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. It sounded to me from the testimony that

Dayna and Philip gave at the outset, that part of their purchases

were from peers. The distribution, therefore, seems to be moving to

where the market is, as you described.

Senator Bunning.

30

Senator BUNNING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just an observation from most of the testimony, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, the

public perception of those drugs in the United States is bad; the

public perception of MDMA is either unknown or good. Therefore,

we have a terrible education problem, not only trying to educate

our young adults and our college students, but also their parents.

That seems to me to be our No. 1 educational issue, to make sure

that they know there are consequences from taking Ecstasy, as we

saw from your scan of the brain. Unless we can get that information out, this drug is going to stay around an awful long time, because it is coming in.

Believe me, you said Los Angeles was one of the stops. Well, it

just comes through Los Angeles to the Greater Cincinnati-Northern

Kentucky Airport. The guy just stays on the plane or switches over

to a domestic plane. For that matter, we have an awful lot of international flights coming from the area of Frankfurt, Paris, Rome,

and all of the places that are becoming new distribution spots. My

question is, is local law enforcement, the DEA and all other local

and Federal agencies aware where these raves and other things are

being published, that they are actually publicly putting notices or

flyers up saying, ‘‘Come on down, have some fun?’’ How much of

that, at the local level, Mr. Bailey, do you see, or if you do not see

it, why do we know about it?

Mr. BAILEY. Well, in New York City, they rent a warehouse for

a night. The reason why people were coming to Connecticut, they

knew where the rave clubs were. They would wait outside for 4 or

5 hours to get in. They know they could get the supply in the rave

clubs. But I think the testimony this morning from the young man

was so important, when he said he had to commit crimes—burglaries, stealing TVs, tape recorders—to get the money to buy the

drugs. I have never heard that before, and I think that is the message that has to go out of this meeting today, is that when you

begin taking this pill, it can lead to criminal activities, and not just

simple criminal activities—stealing from your mother’s purse or

something—real criminal activities of burglaries, where the young

man could go away in Connecticut for 5 to 10 years.

Senator BUNNING. But normally don’t we have the same problem

with the harder narcotics?

Mr. BAILEY. Absolutely.

Senator BUNNING. So we have to look at this as a hard narcotic,

like crack cocaine. We know the addiction. But we do not have that

same message out in the public.

Mr. BAILEY. That is the point, Senator, which Senator Lieberman

said. Right now, in the suburban areas of Connecticut, and I am

sure across this country, no one is fearful of this drug, because it

is in the high schools, it is into the colleges, and more importantly

there is no negative—right now, there is no negative feeling about

this drug. Up at the University of Connecticut—we have it up

there, but this panel has finally brought out the image that it can

cause brain damage and it can lead to crime.

Senator BUNNING. Let me ask Mr. Rutland; you mentioned the

fact that more traditional narcotic traffickers are now involved, obviously for the money. What do you think are the long-term consequences of that, in direct competition to the people who have

31

been bringing it in. If we have traditional narcotics traffickers

doing it—there is going to be a conflict, a major conflict, between

those new people in the business and the people who have traditionally brought illegal narcotics into the United States.

Mr. RUTLAND. I agree, sir, and you point out probably our greatest challenge, one of our greatest challenges. Not only are we dealing with traditional narcotraffickers and the traditional source nations, sir, but we are now dealing with traditional narcotraffickers

that are now living in the newer source nations and conducting

business there. On some recent investigations of mine in Miami, it

is definitely a problem. We are targeting those source nations aggressively.

Senator BUNNING. Can I ask anyone on the panel, how do we

help the parents of these 14 year-olds, 13 year-olds, and on down,

to recognize the symptoms? There are no eyes that you can look at,

and there is no real knowledge about what we have to see in a

young person that would tip us off. If I were raising nine kids, like

I did, and this were to be a problem and I could see something that

would tip me off—if they did not eat, if they dropped out of school,

yes, but these are symptoms that come after the fact—how do we

recognize it quickly? Yes, go ahead, Doctor.

Dr. LESHNER. One thing I think that is vastly important is to get

the message out very rapidly that this is an equal opportunity destroyer, that this is a problem that is happening in every community and internationally, not just in this country, and to every

group of kids. Therefore, every parent’s child is literally at risk.

The second thing is that there are some indicators that should

alert parents; for example, mood changes. This is a drug, as you

heard from Dayna and from Philip, that has very dramatic effects

on mood while you are taking it, but also after you have taken it.

It has to do with the brain chemical effects. But there is a

verifiable, very real mood change that occurs after it. The other

thing that happens that should alert parents is that it has longlasting effects on memory. Now, it does not turn you into a school

failure, but it certainly would take the edge off school performance.

The way in which it interferes with the memory in a long-lasting

way might take your child from getting 90’s to getting 70’s. Therefore, any change in school performance should be used as a hint to

a parent.

Senator BUNNING. Well, the fact of the matter is that most other

narcotics have the same effect. When you have crack cocaine or just

regular cocaine or heroin, there is an ugliness to it. Marijuana does

not have that same ugliness, except for the smell. You can tell if

you are around somebody who is smoking marijuana—you can tell

that they have been smoking marijuana. With this drug, you do not

see anything except a pill. You have showed what you took away

at the airport, but the fact of the matter is they must have some

local places that are turning those into pills. Have we concentrated

local law enforcement and Federal law enforcement in discovering

where they are changed over to the pill?

Mr. VARRONE. Sir, most of the pill pressing is done foreign.

Senator BUNNING. There is not much done in the United States?

32

Mr. VARRONE. There is some, but to a much lesser extent. The

pill presses are regulated, I believe, by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir. We do not see that many cases to date in

the United States where we have had pill-presses seized.

Senator BUNNING. Or their producers.

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir.

Senator BUNNING. Just except a few?

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir.

Senator BUNNING. So it is still all being imported just as we see

it on the chart?

Mr. KEEFE. That is correct.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Senator Bunning, I think Detective Rutland would like to respond to the last question.

Senator BUNNING. Go ahead, Detective.

Mr. RUTLAND. Just to your last question, I think it is paramount—you were talking about looking for signs—it is paramount

that parents in this country understand the nexus between the

drug paraphernalia here, the club drug paraphernalia and the drug

itself. There is a direct connection between the paraphernalia that

is now used with this drug in these different venues. Surgical

masks, water bottles, glow sticks, Vicks inhalers—parents need to

understand and educate themselves that this paraphernalia is not

a trend. This paraphernalia is a nexus between the drug and its

use.

Senator BUNNING. May I ask the Chairman, does the bill that

Senator Graham has deal with that type of thing?

Chairman LIEBERMAN. This will not come off your time. It is no

problem. The bill which I have co-sponsored—Senator Grassley is

also on it—has four major purposes; one is the education of young

people about the negative health effects; two is education of State

and local law enforcement and also funding; three is adequate

funding for the NIH for research; and then fourth is State and local

government initiatives.

Senator BUNNING. That does exactly what we need to get done.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Yes. We have got some funding in here to

do exactly what you are talking about.

Senator BUNNING. Thank you very much for the time.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thanks, Senator Bunning. I am going to

ask a few more questions, and if you have any others you would

like to ask, please do. You did clarify a question I was going to ask,

which was that Mr. Varrone indicated that there had been the discovery of a lab manufacturing MDMA, Ecstasy, outside Los Angeles. I had understood that there was very little of this happening

in the United States, but I gather that was a rare find, that it still

remains mostly foreign-produced; is that correct?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir. The manufacturing process is difficult,

but there have been a few labs discovered. There was one discovered on a college campus in Boulder, Colorado. That lab, and I believe Mr. Keefe may know of more labs, having primacy in that

area.

Mr. KEEFE. Sir, I think you referred to in your opening statement the one in Stonington, Connecticut, which was a small lab,

obviously a very brilliant student, who was able to put the formula

33

together and work with some of the chemicals. The primary chemicals are List I chemicals here in the United States. There are only

about 84 companies that actually involve with them, and we have

pretty good registration work with them in checking that. That is

not to say that we, being so innovative in the United States, will

not smuggle chemicals in here, will not attempt to do clandestine

labs. At this point, we have seen a number of them, as Mr. Varrone

said, near college campuses, a couple of large ones. We have also

seen chemical labs in Canada, on the U.S. border, which we have

been working with our counterparts, with the Royal Canadian

Mounted Police, on those. Certainly organized crime lab operators

and whatnot will work together to build labs, and it is certainly a

concern of ours.

As Mr. Rutland stated, that is why we all need to work together

to identify this information and share it, so that we can work on

these cases.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. So this is not easy to make?

Mr. KEEFE. No, sir. You do not have to be a chemist, but you

have to have some background, although you can get the formulas

off the Internet.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right. Dr. Leshner, do you have anything

to add to that? In other words, it is not just mixing a few things

together. You have got to know how to do this.

Dr. LESHNER. Right, this is serious chemistry.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Right. While I have you there—and if you

or any other witnesses do not have this information, maybe Dr.

Vereen, I will ask you to submit it for the record—I gather there

have been some deaths that are associated with Ecstasy use, and

I also have seen numbers, as I mentioned earlier, about remarkable

increases in emergency room mentions of Ecstasy. Do you have any

data on that?

Dr. LESHNER. We do. First of all, there is tremendous individual

differences in susceptibility to the acute, the short-term effects of

the drug. So some people are tremendously reactive, both to its

stimulant effects and to its effect of raising body temperature. The

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration just

released the emergency data from the DAWN survey, and we went

from something like 250 emergency room cases of Ecstasy in 1994,

to over 4,000 in the year 2000. This is a tremendous increase. This

is a representative sample. It is not the total of emergency room

cases. So those people who are particularly susceptible to the drug

can go into convulsions, febrile convulsions, as you would with any

fever. People have had strokes. People have had heart attacks. It

is very, very powerful stimulant, and therefore it has all of the associated dangers with it.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Dr. Vereen, do you want to add anything

to that?

Dr. VEREEN. Yes, that is very important information. It is our job

to take that and to turn it into something that is useful. Parents

need to be aware that they may not see these findings in the emergency room every day, but we have to get the information out

there. And as Senator Bunning was indicating earlier, this concern

and challenge about getting messages out to parents about what to

34

look for, there are efforts to help parents and young people in the

steps before that.

For example, our National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

has messages for young people on how to refuse invitations from

peers, because when you heard from our two young witnesses earlier, it was in the setting of peers that they took the drug. There

are negative consequences that parents need to be able to sit down

and talk to their young folks about, and there are parenting skills

that can be shared, as well. In addition, we try to get information

out into television by talking to writers and producers. We have recreated in some ways the panel that you have in front of you, to

educate the folks who write for daytime television and popular television, so that accurate information gets out there early.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Good. Dr. Vereen, you had interesting testimony about the four stages of drug use or past epidemics. Just

give me those four stages again.

Dr. VEREEN. Yes. There is the initiation phase, and then there

is the expansion phase, and then the plateau, and then the decline.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. And now we are in the expansion phase

for Ecstasy.

Dr. VEREEN. Yes.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Growing rapidly, some alarming numbers,

about one out of nine, I think you said, of high school seniors using

it, still lower than other drug usage. So the question is obvious.

What can we do all together to try to stop it, to get it to the plateau

and reduction phase so it does not go through the normal sequence—which would be continuing expansion. I know that last

year we adopted legislation that increased the penalties under Federal law for—is it Ecstasy possession and sale? The question is,

and let me ask you all to take a shot at this, what are the one or

two most significant things we could do now? Let me ask another

question. Are we working enough together now or is law enforcement working together enough now? Dr. Vereen.

Dr. VEREEN. Yes, I can tell you unequivocally, and you have

heard directly from law enforcement, but more importantly, the collaboration is happening faster than it has in other epidemics.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. You all clearly identified this as a priority

concern from your testimony, and this is something that you see

happening and you are trying, each in your own way, to do something about it. So let me go back to my previous question then.

What are a couple of things that we could do, we in Congress, perhaps members of State legislatures, local governments, to try to

stop the expansion and have the usage of this drug recede? Let’s

just go down the row. Dr. Vereen.

Dr. VEREEN. One thing we can do is learn from what we have

done in the past. We got guidance to develop a methamphetamine

task force several years ago. That allowed us to go out across the

country to meet with local officials and groups, and understand the

methamphetamine problem as it was spreading across the country

from west to east. This drug is spreading in a different fashion, but

certainly a collaborative effort, a task force that would allow us to

focus even further, as we have now, to tailor a response for this

particular drug. There are some general issues we have to deal

with in every epidemic, as I have tried to outline, but each drug

35

takes advantage of vulnerabilities in different communities, and we

have to help equip our communities to thwart the spread of these

drugs. We have to do prevention. We have to do education. We

work with law enforcement. We have to pay attention to the influx

from the outside of this particular drug, and all of that has to be

coordinated and reviewed, coordinated and reviewed.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. I am pleased to tell you that the bill that

I referred to does call for the creation of an interagency Ecstasy

task force. Dr. Leshner, what would you say are the one or two

things we could do together here?

Dr. LESHNER. The biggest determinant of use rates over history

has been the perception of harm or the perception or risk. As the

perception of harm goes down, use goes up, and the reverse. So my

view is that among the most important things we can do is get accurate, non-hyperbolic—it is important that it be accurate—information about the dangers of Ecstasy use out into every community

in this country, in ways that can actually be used by people. That

is, we have to speak to people where they are, not where we are,

and talk to them about the nature of this substance and the danger

it poses for our young people and for generations to come.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Mr. Varrone.

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, the concept of an interagency Ecstacy task force, I think, is excellent. We currently have

a unit where we coordinate investigative and introdiction activity

within Customs and share our findings. However, a large task force

seeing where we can put out our findings to the larger community

and have increased contact with DEA and the international community, I think, would be very helpful. This task force would also

benefit us in addressing the active, and unfortunately successful,

campaign to market Ecstasy across this country. It would enable

us to more effectively convey the serious and harmful effects of

MDMA use. I have high school children myself, and I am often

alarmed when I talk at the dinner table about Ecstasy, and they

seem to know as much as I do, if not more. That is certainly very

alarming as a parent. I really think that education and public outreach getting the message out quickly to our young people, is vital

to our success. To date, we have had success in this area through

the use of our Customs website.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Mr. Keefe.

Mr. KEEFE. Sir, the continued support by Congress to assist law

enforcement in attacking these criminal organizations that bring

this drug into our country, and assist our agents overseas who are

working with our foreign counterparts throughout the world to attack these global organizations is very important.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. So some of that is adequate funding.

Mr. KEEFE. Continued adequate funding, certainly, to attack

them. As we move in certain directions and as we see with our foreign counterparts as they attack it, they will move in different directions. Whether they will come into Cincinnati and bypass L.A.—

as we continue to work together in law enforcement, to be supported so that we can get that information out, so that we can continue to attack them from a law enforcement—and echoing Mr.

Varrone’s comments of getting out the right message through deVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
36

mand reduction programs, to educate the young people and the

parents of this country, is very important.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Do you need additional law enforcement

authority, or is there enough in the existing laws?

Mr. KEEFE. I believe for Ecstasy, sir, the recent increase in the

penalties will be certainly helpful. I think they have been adequate.

I do not have all the expertise here—knowledge right now. Some

of the other date-rape drugs, sir, I think we might want to look into

some of the sentencing requests on that so that they do not move

from one area to another. As we attack, they will come in different

ways, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. There was reference in somebody’s testimony to use of a so-called crack-house statute.

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, sir.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Which I have before me, which just generally makes it unlawful to, ‘‘Manage or control any building, room,

or enclosure, knowingly and intentionally rent, lease or make available for use for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing,

distributing, or using a controlled substance.’’ Is that something

that you are using now to combat Ecstasy?

Mr. KEEFE. Yes, we are, sir. We have used it in New Orleans,

in Louisiana, and in other places similar to what Mr. Bailey is

doing on a State level in Connecticut. I think we need to bring all

these efforts together, whether it is civil or criminal, to do everything we can to work together to close these places where people

are making money there, using kids to make money.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Well-said. Mr. Bailey.

Mr. BAILEY. I mentioned before we met with 125 high school students in Connecticut, and what really shocked me was they told

me—and they met and came out with a list—that they wanted to

have the DARE program—fine, it is in grammar school—but they

felt that it should be in high school, because they would finally find

out the new drugs out there. When they were told about marijuana

and cocaine and crack in grammar school, they said by the time

they got to high school, they forgot all that and they did not know

about Ecstasy. They did not know about the club drugs. They did

not know about Special K, and they wanted to have that information in the high schools, because they had no knowledge of any of

these new drugs at all.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. That is exactly what I have heard in visits with high school students in Connecticut, exactly the same. Detective Rutland.

Mr. RUTLAND. Mr. Chairman, the previous changes in the guidelines regarding MDMA, both at the Federal level and the State

level, I believe have been very effective. I have seen direct results.

I am pleased to say I was an active part of the National Youth

Anti-Drug Media Campaign with the ONDCP. We went out and

gave the message to these screenwriters, who then put the message

out on television and radio. I, in addition, have seen direct results

there. All of these different methods have been effective. I see the

results now.

I think Dr. Vereen was directly on point when he mentioned this

national task force. I think a national task force that focused simply on MDMA, in conjunction with different Federal agencies, difVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:17 Nov 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00040 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75475.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS
37

ferent outside foreign agencies, such as Interpol, Europol, would, in

addition, be very effective.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you. Senator Bunning.

Senator BUNNING. I just would like to reinforce what I said before. The methamphetamine madness took Kentucky by storm. We

have got places that are producing it all over Kentucky. My fear

is that even though this drug is more sophisticated, you can get the

same type of production because it is so successful, and then distribute it, not only from importing those funny looking pills, but

you can bring them in and make them look like aspirin, locally. I

know that the sophistication of the chemical mix makes it a little

more difficult, but that has never, ever stopped criminal narcotic

distribution in the United States in any stretch—crack cocaine, cocaine, all have local distribution centers.

I would hope, through this bill, that we can at least prevent that

from starting. But we have an awful lot of work to do in the education of parents and children and young adults, particularly, and

the peer pressure that goes with being a young adult, that you

could just have a pill handed to you and right there you are

hooked. It is just like crack cocaine, nothing more addicting than

that, that I know of. Of course, the level of being addicted varies

with the person. I hope this information that we got today will

stimulate our interest in moving that bill to the floor. I know that

I have been uninformed, and now I am a lot more informed. Thank

you for being here today, and hopefully, Detective Rutland, we can

get right to the heart of things. Thank you.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. Senator Bunning, thanks. Thanks for

your participation in this hearing today. This has been a very important, informative hearing and, of course, I hope the word goes

out from here about the dangers of this drug, just as Senator

Bunning said. That is probably the most important thing that could

happen from here, but I want to in some sense, issue a challenge

to all of us, which is that we now see yet another problem, another

threat to our kids and to our society. The question is whether we

are going to be able to get together with a combination of education, prevention and aggressive law enforcement, adequately supported, and research—I would add, Dr. Leshner—so we will be able

to curtail what would otherwise be the extended lifespan of this

MDMA, Ecstasy, crisis—epidemic—and to knock it down.

We may come back in September and do another hearing on this

subject, maybe ask Senator Graham, Senator Grassley, and others

who have worked on this legislation with us, to come in and bring

others in, as well. Then, as my colleague said, this is serious

enough to see if we can get this bill out and passed this year. Considering all the other things we spend money on, this is a relatively

modest appropriation with a major potential effect. We were all

adolescents once. We know the struggles of adolescence, and we

know the extent to which adolescents, by their very nature, live on

the edge. And, this is today’s threat to them as they go to the edge,

seemingly for many of them, in an innocuous, harmless way. This

threat may lead them to hurt themselves seriously for the rest of

their lives, even end their lives.

38

So I thank all of you on this panel. I thank again Dayna and

Philip for their compelling testimony that started this out. We are

going to keep the record of the hearing open for a week.

[The prepared statement of Senator Levin follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR LEVIN

Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing. I think it’s extremely timely.

I’m alarmed at what I’ve been reading about the rapid growth in MDMA abuse

across the country and I’m especially concerned about what’s happening in Michigan. In Detroit alone, the number of poison control cases from MDMA more than

doubled between 1998 and 2000. In the seven States that make up the Great Lakes

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force region, 30 agencies have reported

that MDMA is ‘‘readily available.’’

In September of last year, customs officials seized two MDMA shipments at the

Detroit Metropolitan Airport. And in August of last year, Canadian authorities

intercepted more than seven and a half million dollars worth of MDMA in a container of automotive parts that originated in Belgium and was believed to be bound

for Michigan.

Among other problems, the increased demand for MDMA has opened new avenues

for organized crime. In fact, law enforcement officials in my State report that Israeli

and Russian syndicates have already secured control of the transport and wholesale

distribution of MDMA in Michigan. Unfortunately, I believe that an increase in violence will come in the wake of the MDMA trade.

The rapidly rising number of people abusing MDMA means that we may be approaching this situation faster than we expected. In fact, just last week USA Today

reported that emergency room visits involving Ecstasy increased 58 percent between

1999 and 2000. We have to do something to stem the tide of abuse. I hope this hearing allows us to better understand what needs to be done and provides some insight

as to how the Congress can help. Thank you Mr. Chairman and I look forward to

hearing from the witnesses.

Chairman LIEBERMAN. We may have some additional questions

we want to ask you to answer for the record. Until then, thank you,

and the hearing is adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

(39)

A P P E N D I X

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

Æ