U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

71–692 DTP WASHINGTON : 2001

AN EMERGING DRUG THREAT IN CENTRAL

FLORIDA: CLUB DRUGS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE,

DRUG POLICY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON

GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JUNE 1, 2000

Serial No. 106–212

Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform

(

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COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman

BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York

CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

STEPHEN HORN, California

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia

DAVID M. MCINTOSH, Indiana

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida

STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio

MARSHALL ‘‘MARK’’ SANFORD, South

Carolina

BOB BARR, Georgia

DAN MILLER, Florida

ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas

LEE TERRY, Nebraska

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois

GREG WALDEN, Oregon

DOUG OSE, California

PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin

HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE, Idaho

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

TOM LANTOS, California

ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia

MAJOR R. OWENS, New York

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,

DC

CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

JIM TURNER, Texas

THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine

HAROLD E. FORD, JR., Tennessee

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois

———

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont

(Independent)

KEVIN BINGER, Staff Director

DANIEL R. MOLL, Deputy Staff Director

DAVID A. KASS, Deputy Counsel and Parliamentarian

LISA SMITH ARAFUNE, Chief Clerk

PHIL SCHILIRO, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, DRUG POLICY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES

JOHN L. MICA, Florida, Chairman

BOB BARR, Georgia

BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio

ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas

DOUG OSE, California

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana

PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

JIM TURNER, Texas

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois

EX OFFICIO

DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

CHARLEY DIAZ, Congressional Fellow

RYAN MCKEE, Clerk

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C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on June 1, 2000 ................................................................................. 1

Statement of:

McDonough, James R., director, Florida Drug Control Policy Office, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida; Patty Thompson, special

agent, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Tampa; and Lieutenant Michael E. Miller, Orange County Sheriff’s Office .............................. 10

Varrone, John, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Investigations, U.S. Customs Service; and William Fernandez, executive director, Central Florida HIDTA ..................................................................................................... 78

Webster, Mario, Families Against Drugs; Debbie Alumbaugh, private citizen; and Ernest D. Cantley, president and CEO, Stewart-Marchman

Center ............................................................................................................ 49

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Alumbaugh, Debbie, private citizen, prepared statement of ........................ 54

Cantley, Ernest D., president and CEO, Stewart-Marchman Center, prepared statement of ........................................................................................ 58

Fernandez, William, executive director, Central Florida HIDTA, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 96

McDonough, James R., director, Florida Drug Control Policy Office, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida, prepared statement of ..... 12

Mica, Hon. John L., a Representative in Congress from the State of

Florida, prepared statement of .................................................................... 4

Miller, Lieutenant Michael E., Orange County Sheriff’s Office, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 35

Varrone, John, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Investigations, U.S. Customs Service, prepared statement of ........................................................... 83

Webster, Mario, Families Against Drugs, prepared statement of ................ 51

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AN EMERGING DRUG THREAT IN CENTRAL

FLORIDA: CLUB DRUGS

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2000

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, DRUG POLICY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, Orlando, FL.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., at City

Hall, Orlando, FL, Hon. John L. Mica (chairman of the committee)

presiding.

Present: Representatives Mica and Towns.

Also present: Representative Brown.

Staff present: Charley Diaz, congressional fellow; and Ryan

McKee, clerk.

Mr. MICA. I call the hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives

Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources to order. Pleased to be here in my local community, central

Florida. Pleased to welcome my colleague, Mr. Towns, Ed Towns,

a member of our subcommittee. We have invited some of the local

representatives who are not on the committee to join us, and I believe Ms. Brown is on her way, but because we have three full panels today, I would like to proceed with the regular order of business

before the subcommittee.

The topic of today’s hearing is ‘‘An Emerging Drug Threat in

Central Florida: Club Drugs.’’ And we do have, as I said, three panels. The order of business will be as follows: I will open with my

opening statement, I will yield to other Members as they arrive, or

in order, proper order this morning. And then we will hear from

our three witness panels.

I have a lengthy statement that I have prepared and I would like

to have made as part of the record. Mr. Towns, I move my entire

statement be made part of the record. Without objection, so ordered. And I do have some opening statements that I wanted to

make at this hearing this morning.

As chairman of the Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human

Resources Subcommittee, I have the responsibility to help develop

a coherent and effective national drug policy. As a Representative

to Congress from this area, I also have an obligation to see that

the threat of dangerous and illegal narcotics are kept from our

communities, and especially from our children.

In recent years, this area has been ravaged by natural disasters,

including tornadoes, droughts, storms and fires. Even with the loss

of life and property, we have fought back and we have recovered.

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We have joined together to fight those natural disasters. In the

past few years, central Florida has also been ravaged by an epidemic of illegal narcotics. Heroin overdose deaths have, at times,

exceeded homicides in our local community.

Now we face an explosion of designer drugs, including Ecstasy

and other club drugs, that pose an even more insidious threat to

our children, to our parents in the local community and also to our

law enforcement officials. These designer drugs are now flooding

into our country and produced also domestically in huge quantities.

The cover and lead story of this week’s Time magazine showcases

Ecstasy and also describes the national scope of the problem and

threat that we face. It is ironic that the cover of this magazine

today focuses on the subject of this hearing. This new scourge of

drugs pose a new challenge to parents and law enforcement. This

article and some of the information our subcommittee has received

said that some 5 percent of those 12 or older say they have used

marijuana once a month; 1.8 percent say they have used cocaine.

However 8 percent of high school seniors say they have used Ecstasy at least once, which is up from 5.8 percent in 1997.

Nationwide, our customs officials, who we will hear from later,

seized again in 1998 750,000 hits of Ecstasy. So far this fiscal year,

more than 5.4 million hits have been seized. Again, a dramatic explosion in the quantity of designer and club drugs coming into this

country.

Ecstasy and other so-called club drugs have flooded rave, dance

and D.J. clubs and also functions where our youth congregate. Unaware parents send their children to these events and these events

boast security, no alcohol, music and fun. Unfortunately we will

hear today that too often lives are destroyed and our youth, in fact,

become victims of addiction.

Two years ago, I was able to have central Florida designated

under Federal statutes as a high-intensity drug traffic area. That

is also referred to as a HIDTA. That designation has brought together initial Federal funding, Federal support and resources to

help this area and its local and State officials deal with primarily

the growing heroin trafficking problem we experience.

Today, we face another challenge relating to illegal narcotics, the

problem of club drugs and Ecstasy. It is my hope that this hearing

can assist us in several ways. First of all, we need to examine the

extent of the club drug and the Ecstasy problem. I noted, and the

staff provided me with a copy of this year’s National Drug Control’s

strategy, and we do have an awareness even cited in this strategy

prepared by General McCaffrey, director of our Office of National

Drug Control Policy. On page 23, he talks about MDMA, also

known as Ecstasy. He said Ecstasy is often used in conjunction

with other drugs and is extremely popular among some teenagers

and young professionals. Furthermore, growing numbers of users,

primarily in the Miami and Orlando areas, combine MDMA with

heroin, a practice known as rolling. That is where we have seen the

large number of deaths. There may be debates about the exact

number of deaths, but one death is too many, as we will hear from

parents and individuals who have been the victim of this scourge.

But again, the purpose of this hearing is to examine the extent

of the problem. Second purpose is to hear from local, State and

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Federal officials as to how they are dealing with this problem. The

third purpose of this hearing is to listen to those involved in treatment and prevention, and work with them to develop better programs, also in the areas of education, prevention and public awareness. And also it is important today that we review the HIDTA

that we established here, less than 2 years ago now, see how that

is working, see if we need to make changes in its operation, its

function, its direction, now that we face this new threat.

I will tell you something here, and again it is not written in my

official submitted statements. I have faced some challenges in my

life, but I do not think I have ever seen anything like this. Heading

this subcommittee for the last year and a half has been the ultimate challenge. And I feel sometimes we are making two steps forward and one step back. But I think that if we all redouble our efforts here in our community, and nationally, that we can turn this

around. Again, I remain committed to it.

I am so pleased that I have been joined by a member of our subcommittee, someone who I have the highest regard and esteem for.

When I went to Congress—and by way of introduction, he chaired

a subcommittee of which I was a member. He came into our community, he helped us initially with some of the problems that we

had here in our community, he provided a great example for me

as to how to work in a bipartisan fashion in Congress, and I consider him not only a colleague but a friend, and someone I have

learned a great deal from. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for the gentleman who has joined me, also joined our subcommittee. And I am pleased to yield at this time to Mr. Towns,

Ed Towns, from New York.

You are recognized, sir, and welcome.

[The prepared statement of Hon. John L. Mica follows:]

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Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and let me

begin by saying that the feeling is mutual, no question about it. It

is a pleasure working with you. I am delighted to be joined this

morning by my colleague Corrine Brown, also from the State of

Florida.

I will be brief, because I am eager to hear from these outstanding

witnesses. I would like to commend you on your leadership on drug

policy issues in the Congress, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to

working with you and this subcommittee as we inform and seek

guidance from the American people on these important national

issues that have such a profound effect on the lives of so many people.

I know this may date me, but I am old enough to remember

when people said that marijuana was fun, cocaine was harmless

and speed was not addictive. Now, I am old enough to know that

all of that was a bunch of lies. And yet there are a lot of people

who are not here today because they believed those lies. Today, we

are hearing some of the same lies about club drugs. You almost

want to say, here we go again.

I want to take a moment to tell the truth about club drugs. Recent studies by the National Institute of Drug Abuse have found

that these drugs may permanently impair your ability to concentrate and remember. In the short-term, these drugs can cause

confusion, depression, anxiety and paranoia for weeks after using

them. Several deaths have been linked to them, as well.

Mr. Chairman, I do not want to scare anyone, I know that fear

is seldom an effective educational tool. I am here to caution people,

and especially young people, because I do not want the dawning potential and determination of Generation X to end up in the nightmare of despair of general Ecstasy.

The good news is that club drugs use is low. According to the Department of HHS, only 3 million people have ever reported using

these drugs. Mr. Chairman, I applaud you for taking the appropriate steps to avoid further spreading of the club drug crisis.

In December 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse announced that it will raise its funding for research about club drugs

and what to do about them by about 40 percent, bringing the total

commitment to $54 million. That is not enough. Additionally, NIDA

and four national organizations have largely multi-media public

education strategy to alert teens, young adults, parents, educators

and others about the dangers of club drugs. And that is not

enough.

So with great anticipation, I look forward to hearing from these

various presenters today, because I know that we still have some

work to do on this issue. Again, I want to thank you for holding

this hearing, Mr. Chairman, and I also want to thank you for your

leadership. And I look forward to working with you as we seek solutions to this problem that appears to be spreading every day.

Thank you, and I yield back.

Mr. MICA. Thank you again, Mr. Towns.

I am pleased at this time to yield to my colleague from central

Florida, and I must say that I commend her for being with us

today. She represents a very vast area from Jacksonville to the city

of Orlando. She has been a stalwart in assisting me on a number

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of issues, including transportation, which sometimes also is a great

challenge for us. But she came here today, got up early this morning from Jacksonville and came down because of her interest and

concern. Again, I am very pleased that she has joined us, the

gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Brown, you are recognized.

Ms. BROWN. Good morning. First of all, Mr. Chairman, let me

say, driving from Jacksonville to Orlando, we have not solved the

transportation problems.

Mr. MICA. That may be the subject of our next hearing.

Ms. BROWN. But I would like to give everyone here a very warm

welcome, and thank the witnesses for being here today. I would

also like to extend a special thanks to Congressman Mica and Congressman Towns for inviting me to this hearing today to address

the recent increase in club drugs.

This has adversely affected our area youth and, quite frankly, I

am really here to just listen and see what we can do as Members

of Congress to affect this American drug threat in central Florida,

but quite frankly all over the country. So thank you for inviting

me, and as I said before, I am here to listen.

Mr. MICA. Thank you so much, Ms. Brown.

Pleased now to turn to our first panel of witnesses. For the information of our panelists and also for those attending today, this

subcommittee is an investigations and oversight subcommittee of

the House of Representatives. And in that regard, we do swear in

all of our witnesses. You will be sworn in just a moment.

Furthermore, if you have lengthy statements or documentation,

information you would like to be made part of this congressional

record, upon request through the Chair and with unanimous consent, that will be made a part of the record. So we would ask you

to limit your oral presentations this morning, but again, feel welcome to provide us with additional data.

Mr. Towns moves that the record be left open for a period of 2

weeks?

Mr. TOWNS. Two weeks, yes.

Mr. MICA. Without objection, so ordered.

And with that, we had a number of requests from individuals

who wanted to testify. Unfortunately, given the time constraints

and the business at hand, we were not able to accommodate all the

witnesses today. But again, Mr. Towns has moved that we will, and

we have passed authorization to include in this congressional

record from this hearing, and part of this hearing’s record, statements from those individuals and organizations who are concerned,

and would like to have some contribution as far as testimony. So

we will leave that open.

With that, our first panel of witnesses, first of all is Mr. Jim

McDonough, he is the director of the Drug Control Policy Office,

the Executive Office of the Governor of the State of Florida. Second

witness is Patty Thompson, special agent, the Florida Department

of Law Enforcement, coming from Tampa. And a third witness is

Lieutenant Mike Miller, and he is with the Orange County Sheriff’s

Office.

If the witnesses would please stand to be sworn, and raise your

right hands.

[Witnesses sworn.]

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Mr. MICA. Witnesses answered in the affirmative. Let the record

reflect that.

I would like to welcome each of you, thank you for being with

us today. And we will at this time recognize Jim McDonough, who

is the director of our Florida Drug Control Policy Office. Mr.

McDonough, you are recognized.

STATEMENTS OF JAMES R. MCDONOUGH, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA

DRUG CONTROL POLICY OFFICE, EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF

THE GOVERNOR, STATE OF FLORIDA; PATTY THOMPSON,

SPECIAL AGENT, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, TAMPA; AND LIEUTENANT MICHAEL E. MILLER, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Mr. MCDONOUGH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for

holding this meeting and thank you for inviting me here to testify

before you. My thanks also to Congresswoman Brown and Congressman Towns. I have had the honor of working with this subcommittee in Washington in my prior job with the Office of National Drug Control.

Per your request, I will restrict my remarks today to club drugs,

which I do believe is a serious problem in Florida, and by extension, I think it is a serious problem in the United States. But I do

want to highlight the fact, as you do, sir, that all the drugs that

are now besetting our people are, and remain, a problem. So heroin

remains a very serious problem, particularly in this part of the

State, but throughout the entire State, and cocaine does as well.

But let me focus for today on club drugs.

If I may, sir, I would like to submit my remarks for the record,

and just sum them up.

Mr. MICA. Without objection, your entire statement will be made

part of the record. Please proceed.

Mr. MCDONOUGH. With regard to club drugs, about a year ago

this time, we began to suspect that we had a problem in the State.

My office had recently been formed and I had spent much of the

opening months going around the State looking at the traditional

sorts of drugs. And then, in my travels, I began to hear increasing

reports of the club drug scene.

About that time, having read various newspaper accounts and

talking with various experts, I believed that we had in the State,

over the last 18 months from that time, a total of six club drug

deaths. And in a early discussion of that, I likened it to a serious

problem with a recreational park ride, and offered the opinion that

if this, in fact, was a ferris wheel, we would quickly close it down,

take a look at it and see what the problem was and fix it before

we proceeded. But the number that stuck in my mind about this

time last year was six.

As I began to ask law enforcement officials what they were seeing, they quickly associated the club drug scene with the rave

scene, and I discovered there that what we actually were seeing

was widespread use of so-called club drugs. And I might put in at

this point, it was very seldom a single drug, but usually it was

multi-drug, poly drugging, or the most graphic description given to

me was drug soups. And as we have gone through our study, we

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find that is exactly what we are seeing. And that is not just the

club drugs, but other drugs as well, such as heroin and cocaine.

We launched therefore an operation last year which we entitled

Operation Heat Rave, which was essentially phased with training,

with some information efforts, and then actually a move against 57

so-called rave clubs throughout the State. And we were amazed by

the take. I was first amazed by the reports getting in the undercover phase of the operation, which lasted a couple of months, by

the scene itself, well depicted in the article that you referred to,

Mr. Chairman, and I will not go beyond that.

But at the end of the Heat Rave effort, we had come up with over 1,200 arrests and over $7.5 million worth of drugs seized. And

about almost 140,000 of these were club drugs, doses of club drugs.

So we then realized we had a major problem, but we did not know

the extent to which physical harm was being done to the users.

That led us in December 1999 to go to the medical examiners in

the State, there are 24 of them, and request submissions of club

drug-related deaths, and to capture this as best as we could at the

time. That is when NIDA came out with its original recognition of

the club drug epidemic, as they call it. We went with a list of 20

drugs or their analogs that would indicate that club drugs may

have been used. And the numbers started rolling in in January and

continue to come in.

But as of May 15th, what we were able to determine, that if you

aggregated the direct cause of death and related cause of death, we

believed in Florida that we had a total of 188 dead in the last 3

years. We took the years 1997, 1998, 1999.

Now a quick note on that because I am getting short on time, we

found that, of that, very seldom was it a single drug; almost always, it was poly drug. If you look at Ecstasy, for example, only

seven of them were only Ecstasy. In fact, if you look at the only

drugs, it turns out a total of 26 had one drug identifiable in the

blood stream. And therefore, in something like 71 cases of the direct cause of death, we found out that it was poly drugs.

Let me point out that the greatest danger here, it is an unrecognized problem. We had no idea of the extent of it. We are still receiving data, we are still getting data, but it is very clear that our

figure of six was way off. We now believe, with some degree of assurance, that we are pushing up toward some 200 deaths over the

last 3 years, and early signs of this year, that number continues

to remain high.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Pleased to recognize Patty Thompson now,

and she is a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Welcome and you are recognized.

[The prepared statement of Mr. McDonough follows:]

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Ms. THOMPSON. Thank you for the opportunity that I have to testify before you all today.

I have had the unique opportunity of working many different

kinds of people and subcultures. For example, we worked alternative lifestyle establishments, we have worked places that cater

to bikers, black people, white people, Colombians, Puerto Ricans,

gothic, just to illustrate a few.

I have been working multi-jurisdictional undercover drug operations now for approximately 7 years. About 4 years ago, we started working, investigating undercover places that catered to raves

and traditional raves, what we would refer to as a traditional rave

several nights a week, 1 to 3 nights a week, several hours at a

time. Quite frankly, the first time that we walked in, in comparison

to these other types of investigations, we were shocked by the open,

flagrant use of drugs on the inside of the club. One of the very first

times I ever went inside one of these clubs, in less than 15 minutes—and keep in mind, I did not know much about them—I was

offered drugs, approached and offered drugs, using terms like rolling, blowing up and beans. I had pills in my pockets in less than

15 minutes.

This had never happened in other types of investigations. Typically we would be there for 2 or 3 weeks and get known, even

though the place was a problem. I know we all have in our minds

that drugs are in every bar, and yes, when the numbers grow up,

we are able to make some buys. But not all bars or clubs are a

problem, and certainly not to the extent.

The best way I can illustrate this is to describe for you my observations on a typical night of work. I would begin work about 10

p.m. I would meet my partners and we would be inside the clubs

by 11:30. People would just start coming in at this time. There

would be a long line outside of about 100 to 200 people, and by the

time 12:30 rolled around, there would be an average of 400 people

on the inside of one of these clubs.

I would start approaching people after I observed them making

hand-to-hand transactions of small objects in exchange for U.S.

currency, and I would ask them, not if they had any beans, which

refers to Ecstasy, because I quickly learned that they had a lot

more, I would ask them what they had tonight. And they would tell

me, well, what would you want? And I would say, well, what do

you have? And they would tell me, Ecstasy, I have got LSD, I can

get GHB for you, you want some sex pills, I have got oxycodone,

hydrocodone, whatever you would like to buy. Keeping in mind, I

have purchased and seized all of these substances.

We would make a couple of drug buys and then we would move

on, observe, make a couple of more observations, move around the

club. I would see people that I knew were under obvious effects of

substances, based on my training and experience. I would walk to

another area of the club and I would see a female crouched in the

corner, somebody would kick her and ask her if she was all right

and walk on. Of course, I would have to stop and check on her. She

was passed out completely cold. I would leave the bar because it

was too loud for me to use my cellular telephone on the inside, and

I would call EMS, and I would check with my partner and wait for

EMS to respond.

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If the person had not been taken out by their friends and tossed

in the back seat of a car and driven around for 4 hours, not knowing if they had already passed out and died, then EMS would be

able to take care of the problem.

Then I would walk back inside the bar, finding out that my other

partners had made two or three more drug purchases, and I would

attempt to purchase more drugs. I would make one or two buys,

and then by this time I would have to use the restroom.

I would go into the restroom and immediately I would smell the

stench of vomit. I would try to use one of the stalls, and there

would be a female crouched down on the floor, her knees in vomit,

and she would be vomiting in the stall. I would go to another stall

and it would not work. It would be inoperable and there would be

vomit on the floor. I would leave that restroom, I would probably

leave the club, go use the restroom and come back.

I would walk around, make a few more observations, I would approach another suspect, male or female, and ask them if I could

purchase drugs. He would then exhibit a Mini-M&Ms container, for

example, full of LSD geltabs, and jingle his pocket around indicating to me that he had about 80 or 100 Ecstasy tablets. I would

make another purchase.

My partners and I would leave the bar at approximately 3 a.m.

when it closed, after hearing about the after-party that was to

occur. We would go back to the office, we would take notes for

about 1 hour, exhausted before we would go home and rest.

Then the next day we would come into the office and we would

type a report, begin typing a report that would take approximately

1 week, because we would be not only investigating the people, but

we would be investigating the owners of the club for fostering or

condoning an environment where drug activity flourished. That

was our objective, and we were very successful in accomplishing

that many times.

After we did that, we would go back and do it all over again, at

least 1 or 2 more nights a week, in that same bar or another bar.

And my desk was full of complaints. Much of the same.

You can go to any high school, any local high school and ask

them what the No. 1 drug of choice is. They will tell you it is Ecstasy, most of them can go to the Internet and pull up the recipe

for GHB, they can tell you all these things. This club drug trend

is a trend that is not going to go away.

Thank you.

Mr. MICA. Thank you for your testimony. And now we will turn

to Lieutenant Mike Miller, who is with the Orange County Sheriff’s

Office. Mr. Miller, welcome and you are recognized.

Lieutenant MILLER. Thank you, Congressman. On behalf of Sheriff Beary, thank you for inviting us here to speak. I think this is

a very important issue. We spend a lot of our resources in my unit

and at the Sheriff’s office addressing club drugs and rave clubs.

I will make some brief comments and then I have a video to

show you that I think paints a very good picture of a lot of what

Ms. Thompson just described.

I have been in law enforcement since 1980, I feel like I am in

the third wave of drug epidemics. I went through crack cocaine in

the early 1980’s, I have been through heroin in the 1990’s, and now

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it appears the new millennium brings us designer drugs. You cannot really talk about designer drugs without talking about rave

clubs. To me, they are integral parts of one another. They seem to

be the focal point for where you can find them and the distribution

of these types of drugs.

The video I will show you will kind of depict the scene, but often,

hundreds to thousands of kids will flock to a rave club. We have

some in central Florida, it is not uncommon to have 500 to 1,000

kids there on any given night.

The clubs themselves are not always necessarily bad or involved

in illegal activity, but they do seem to be the focal point for designer drug use. Let me take you to a rave club for just a moment,

and I will try to narrate some of what goes on there because it is

hard to tell. But it should be up on your monitor. Not all of the

footage you will see is Orange County, but it is all Florida.

[Video begins.]

Lieutenant MILLER. This footage is inside, and some is outside.

You see a lot of Vicks inhalers being blown into people’s eyes. Obviously people under the influence. A lot of paraphernalia on display

and for sale at a lot of these clubs. That is GHB.

Again, the main draw is the dancing and music, but there is a

lot else going on there. This is, I believe, a GHB overdose. A lot

of rubbing and massaging to enhance the effects of Ecstasy. Again,

the Vicks inhaler being blown in the eyes. That is all designed to

enhance the high. This is the young man who passed out outside

the Firestone store in Orlando. And I think that speaks for itself.

[End of video.]

Lieutenant MILLER. Clearly there is a lot going on there, and you

could not appreciate it truly without being there in person. But let

me share with you some street names that we hear commonly

when we deal with designer drugs. When you talk about a drug,

‘‘easy lay,’’ ‘‘grievous bodily harm’’ or being ‘‘K-holed out,’’ that is

the users talking about these drugs. They know the effects, they

know the dangers. They are just willing to take that risk. They are

at a time in their lives when that risk is worth it, to be in the

party, in the groove, in the scene. Most of these drugs are dangerous chemical compounds brewed up in home labs. There is no

regulation, there is no control. The average age of users runs anywhere from 18 to 25 years of age, and they are often used in combination with alcohol and other drugs.

We did an analysis of our overdoses, both fatal and non-fatal.

Just in unincorporated Orange County, one out of four were designer drug overdoses. I have provided you some charts to review

that show you kind of the progression of the problem, if you look

at it from the overdose perspective.

Unfortunately, with designer drugs also come a wide range of

other crimes. Of course, vehicle accidents are very common with designer drugs, because these kids have to leave the club and get

home. But also, sexual batteries. A lot of these drugs are used to

take advantage of young men and women and victimize them.

Why central Florida? That is probably a good question. I would

say our central location in the State, we have two community colleges and a State university here. But I think our problem probably

34

mirrors Tallahassee, Gainesville, anywhere where there is young

people in abundance.

Like so many other issues, we rely on your strong leadership,

your Federal funding, your HIDTA dollars to help us to fight this

battle, because it is not an easy battle, and it eats up our resources. One of the things that we have been able to do is to funnel

some of our resources into education. I have provided Mr. Diaz

from your staff with a copy of a ‘‘Kids and Drugs’’ tape that lays

out very, very clearly and with good video what each drug looks

like, what are the dangers, what are the street names. I think that

is the best way to go about resolving this problem, in combination

with tough law enforcement.

Again, in conclusion, it is a team approach, it has to be. All of

our operations have to be multi-jurisdictional, we have to work together and we have to rely on your leadership and the leadership

of our local leaders to get a handle on this problem.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Lieutenant Miller follows:]

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Mr. MICA. I would like to thank each of the three witnesses in

our first panel for their testimony. And at this time we will turn

to some questions.

First of all, from Mr. McDonough, some people feel that this, the

problem of club drugs or designer drugs, is not a problem, that this

is an overblown hype, and that these are harmless drugs, and could

be taken without any problem. How do you respond?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I think one of the greatest problems that we

face here is the myth that they are not a problem. Because they

are defined as not a problem, we ignore it, parents ignore it, young

people ignore it, and that leads directly to the problem.

I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, we have some guests

with us today. Mr. and Mrs. Alumbaugh—I wonder if they could

just stand for a moment—and Ms. Marsha Montesi. I wonder if

Marsha could stand.

Mr. and Mrs. Alumbaugh lost their son, Michael, to GHB. I believe Michael was 15 when he died, and he would have been 17

today—is that so?

Mr. ALUMBAUGH. That is correct.

Mr. MCDONOUGH. Ms. Montesi lost her daughter to Ecstasy,

which apparently someone placed in her drink unsuspectingly. I

have here—thank you very much—I have here, I brought with me

the file on 90 of the direct causes of death. These are just about

half, less than half of the current volume I have on deaths in the

State. These happen to be 90 that we were able, a few days ago,

to compile as direct cause of death. These are just horrific stories.

If I could take a moment just to refer to one of them.

Let me add at this point, one of the interesting things about this

particular genre of drug, the nodal use seems to be young white

male. The mean age of death is 28, and it is about 80 percent white

male. The death scene I am about to recite just happens to be a

young woman, the youngest we are now maintaining our files, was

15. But let me just read for a few moments on what these scenes

look like. This is repeated again and again and again in the accounts we have. I will be brief, I will condense this.

It talks about the author of this report responding to a call, to

the death of a young white female. She and four other juveniles

were together in the motel consuming Ecstasy pills and inhaling

nitrous oxide. The deceased was found lying prone, face-down on a

bed closet at the door. And then it goes on to describe the deceased,

which I will skip over.

The four juveniles—these are the survivors—admitted taking one

pill of Ecstasy, and stated the deceased had taken two pills. What

they had done, and this is described in the report, they had gone

to party in a motel room. They had prepared a shopping list, in fact

the deceased had prepared this, which had them going after $320

worth of Ecstasy, which law enforcement advised would mean

about 15 pills was bought at that quantity. The juveniles immediately started partying.

At approximately 3 a.m. to 3:30 a.m., the juveniles advised the

writer that the deceased was acting bizarre, sweating profusely,

throwing water over herself and banging her head several times

against the wall. Some time after 4 a.m., a 14-year-old juvenile

with this group called 9–1–1, as the deceased, ‘‘looked dead to her.’’

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Mr. Chairman, I find all deaths sad and all drug deaths a tragedy. But when you deny the problem and/or are unaware of the

problem and you have repeated scenes like this, I am very concerned that we have to highlight the danger of this.

I might add, I remain in very close contact with Dr. Allen

Leshner of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He continues to

research, he runs on his Website on club drugs a picture of your

brain on Ecstasy, which I think is shocking. And I have tried to

keep up to date with the scientific studies. Ecstasy and all of the

others are very, very dangerous drugs. If anything, because of lack

of knowledge and the difficulty in the lasting effect of these drugs

in the blood stream, I actually believe that the overdose rates, the

death rates, not to mention the non-fatal overdose rates, are underreported, not over-reported.

Thank you.

Mr. MICA. Given your last statement, there has been some controversy about the number of deaths related, directly or indirectly,

to some of these club drugs. How do you respond? Is there a problem with obtaining this information? I read also that there is a

large number of other incidents, traffic deaths, where there are not

autopsies performed, where it may appear that there was alcohol

involved, but possibly mixed with other drugs. Are we having trouble really determining the number of deaths?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. Sir, I think you know, because of your approach to this job, your very scientific and serious approach, how

hard it is to go out after a new set of data, and then share that

data, and then wait for the onslaught of criticisms on how valid or

invalid your data is.

What we faced in this scene, there was no data. Remember, sir,

I was the strategist for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

As the strategist, I was not aware of the extent of the problem.

When I came to Florida, I began by thinking we had six deaths.

Even after Operation Heat Rave, I realized I knew seizure rates,

but did not know medical health rates, except by anecdote which

talked about near-fatal overdoses, fatal overdoses, date rapes and

other debilitating health effects.

When we, therefore, went after the data, we were in a whole new

field. Medical examiners in the State, which there are 24, have different ways of keeping records. This was a new item for them as

well. I mean, I have learned since I began this things like, how

quickly GHB dissipates in the blood stream. It is gone within 20

minutes. And if you go to the urine, it is gone within 13 hours. So

you have to be very quick.

To be as precise as I could be with my own data, increasingly,

I have erred on the side of caution. So, for example, I only count

among 188 dead, that is as of May 15th, and that number surely

will continue to change. Those where these drugs were present in

the blood stream. If you were driving a bus and you died, and 17

people died with you, but only the bus driver had this in his blood,

I do not count the others. Yes, it is a problem, but I think what

you learn from this is order of magnitude. I had no idea the order

of magnitude. I am now stunned by the order of magnitude. Thirty

times higher than I suspected, and again, I think I am receiving

less accurate reports than we could have. I actually believe we are

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going to have to mount a whole effort to determine the extent of

this problem, at the same time we mount a scientific effort to understand the effects of these drugs on the central nervous system,

and still yet another effort to interdict their supply.

Mr. MICA. Again, you leave me with the next question, the supply. Where are these drugs coming from? Are they domestically

produced, international sources? Do you have a handle on where

they are coming from?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I would say I have a weak handle. I have

asked the question of many sources, Federal, State, local, and I

think the quick answer to the question is, all of the above.

I actually think if you take a look at the Ecstasy trends, they

began in Europe and then entered the United States. I believe

Florida was one of the points of entry. They quickly made their

way up and down the East Coast, jumped out to the West Coast,

and have subsequently gone all across the United States. There is

hardly a city, a major city, where reports of Ecstasy use do not

occur.

Methamphetamines, which I and NIDA include as a club drug,

originated in Mexico, crossed over the border to southwest United

States, worked its way up the coast, then out to the midwest and

for a while stayed there. And then since has jumped into the southeast and northeast. It is increasingly present in Florida.

If you go to the Internet on many of these man-made drugs, you

get not only the recipe for how to make these drugs, you can also

get locations where you can purchase the precursors to make the

drugs. So at this point in time, we have an onslaught of imported

drugs, home-made drugs, manufactured drugs for wholesale, and

they are following the young crowd.

One of the insights I have gotten from good law enforcement

work, to include the two people sitting next to me, is how quickly

on the Internet you can identify where there is going to be a rave

party and attract the thousands of kids that law enforcement agent

Miller was talking about. They are very quick at it. And generally

what we see is the drugs show up, and the wholesale transactions

that Ms. Thompson was talking about occur.

Mr. MICA. Ms. Thompson, a quick question, and Mr. Miller, one

quick question, and I will yield to my colleagues. You are from

Tampa. The scenes that you described in your testimony, were they

also in this area or in Tampa? Where are we seeing this activity?

Ms. THOMPSON. Most of the work that I have conducted has been

in Tampa Bay and Pinellas Counties, mostly because I have been

requested elsewhere but there has been such a huge problem there

and we have been involved in so many investigations, we have not

been allowed to leave.

Mr. MICA. It is not just Orlando, this is spreading across the

State?

Ms. THOMPSON. Most of the attraction comes where you are going

to have a major city, where you have hotels to support the draw,

you have clubs, you can get a large group. Promoters are attracting

numbers. They do not make their money off the sale of alcoholic

beverages, they make their money from the cover charges at the

door and from the water and paraphernalia sales. So they are

going to go where they can get the numbers.

43

Mr. MICA. Mr. Miller, why can we not close down these rave operations?

Lieutenant MILLER. Well, the ones that are static, they are generally housed in clubs that conduct business 7 nights a week, and

only 1 night a week is designated for rave clubs. So you always run

into the obstacle, what they say, you know, 6 nights of the week,

I do not have these problems. It is just this 1 night. And often it

is the promoter that gets the blame, or it is the security service

that gets the blame. There is a lot of blame shifting, if you will.

And what Ms. Thompson said is accurate. The way to attack this

is to go after club owners, property owners. In Orange County we

have been fairly successful with nuisance abatement action, to go

in and get the consent decrees and set things in place that kind

of prohibit the way they do business, and lessen the crowds and

how they control the club.

Mr. MICA. Is the local, State or Federal law adequate to close

these places down if we have an undercover agent like Ms. Thompson go in, or one of your folks go in, purchase on that scene some

illegal narcotics, do we have adequate laws to allow you to go in

after these folks and close down these operations?

Lieutenant MILLER. We have adequate laws. I would not say we

have adequate resources at the Federal level. For one thing, you

know, it takes us a while to get from the street level or the club

level to a level where we are dealing with a trafficker or supplier.

That is where the Federal Government really has the best bang for

the buck.

Mr. MICA. I am learning a lot about this whole problem. I held

a hearing in New Orleans on Tuesday at the request of Mr. Vitter,

who is also a member of our subcommittee. The subject was drug

testing, but the District Attorney and some of the others started

talking about raves, which they are having the same problem. We

had the local sheriff also testify.

So I asked one of our young aides, a clerk, to see last night—Mr.

Towns and I had dinner together, and asked if he could find the

dates and places for raves on the Internet. And he said in less than

5 minutes he found listed—I also found that you could buy,

through some of the booking agencies, tickets to some of these functions also.

But we have got to find some way to close these operations down,

and if you do not have the resources, we are going to have to see

that we get the resources. And then also educate the population at

large, to get a handle on this. Parents, I think, have no idea, sending their kids to some of these clubs that sound legitimate or dance

parties, and then have them exposed to this quantity of deadly and

addictive drugs.

With those comments, I am pleased to yield to Mr. Towns.

Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Let me begin with you, Mr. McDonough. When you talk about

poly drug use, are you talking about substances like methadone?

Would that be included in that as well?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. When we talk about poly drugs, what you will

see is drugs to get you high, drugs to bring you down, depending

on your stage of activity through the time of the night. So you will

find that alcohol is mixed in, that is important to keep in mind,

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very dangerous. GHB, Ketamine, sometimes LSD and Ecstasy. And

by the way, some of the more traditional drugs are also present,

so heroin remains on the scene, methamphetamines, which I would

classify now as a club drug, and cocaine are all included.

The poly drugging is really an interesting effect. I think the

young people that use this—remember the mean age is in their

20’s, so when I say young people, that captures most of the group— they are doing the drugs for various effects. They want the energy

to dance, and they want to come off of that. They want to get high,

they also want to get warm and cuddly. So they have therefore

come to believe—what they have really learned, which I think is

the most dangerous part of this, from this sort of environment, is

that if you take drugs in combination, your body will do all sorts

of things for you, one of which they have also learned, is die.

Mr. TOWNS. Let me just sort of throw this out for all three of you.

We are always anxious and eager to blame law enforcement as to

what they should be doing and how fast they should be doing it

and all that. What do you suggest that we should be doing, as

Members of the U.S. Congress? Let us switch roles for a moment.

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I will be very brief, and then I will yield.

I think the most important step to take on this is the education.

What you are doing this morning, what you have been doing I

think is vitally important. Just getting the information out, clearly

will send a warning to parents and to young people that this is

dangerous.

I think other things need to be done, better law enforcement, better research, scientific research, but right up front, it is education.

Mr. TOWNS. Ms. Thompson, this is your opportunity to take a

shot at Congress.

Ms. THOMPSON. I really do not have to do that.

Just to tell you what our problems are, basically we have to buy

3,000 or 5,000 pills to get the Federal Government really interested

and involved in pressing charges against someone for selling that

many tablets of Ecstasy to us. It takes a lot to get to that level,

sometimes, and then when a 19-year-old goes before a judge, they

have a tendency not to sentence them on a Federal level for more

than year, regardless of what the guidelines are.

I can work and try hard to buy 10 grams of liquid acid, which

allows me to spread it myself on a sugar cube or a blotter——

Mr. TOWNS. How long would it take you to buy 5,000 pills?

Ms. THOMPSON. Well, it depends. It depends on where we are in

that stage of the investigation. I am in a unit now, I work on a different level now, mostly trafficking. But sometimes it can take a

long time, and a lot of effort goes into it. And a lot of money. At

that level, you are talking an average of $8 a pill, $8 a tablet, times

3,000. When you have got kilos of cocaine and heroin and all these

other cases on your desk to worry about, where are you going to

allocate your resources?

And until now, very recently, we had no trafficking in Ecstasy,

so no departments were willing to allocate their funds on purchasing many pills. I mean, why purchase 100 pills when one pill basically gets you the same thing. And most of the judges did not know

about the enhanced penalty in the statutes so that did not do us

a lot of good anyway.

45

I agree with Director McDonough, the public clearly is being manipulated by several organizations, and I can exemplify this. And

the kids themselves, you know, are contributing to it. They do not

have the maturity to make the decisions when they read this clear

misinformation over the Internet and through the marketing. That

is the thing that is astonishing, is the marketing. These drugs are

being marketed like no other drugs before. When you take the Tele

Tubbies and you put them on an Ecstasy pill, there goes the stigma

that is attached with cocaine and heroin and all those other drugs.

And then you print all this information on the Internet, and it is

so easy to access. It is so easy to manipulate a 15-year-old person’s

mind, and then have that 15-year-old who is living a totally different life than their parent pull one over on their parent. It is just

astonishing.

So the education would help us a great deal, especially with everyone, the parents, the church leaders, the kids, the judges, the

attorneys and the cops.

Mr. TOWNS. Yes, Mr. Miller.

Lieutenant MILLER. I agree, education is the key component. And

the tape I gave you is a kind of quick and easy way to get a lot

of information out in a format that people will look at. In 30 minutes on that tape, you will basically get the breakdown of five of

the club drugs we have been talking about here, a picture of it, you

can see what it looks like, it will tell you what it does, what the

street names are. So a parent can look at that and quickly, if they

have heard these terms used or they have seen that substance in

their house, they know what it is that they need to be concerned

about.

On the law enforcement side, though, I agree with Agent Thompson. The Federal Government cannot stop what it is doing at its

level and get interested in a one or two or three-tablet Ecstasy

deal. But we have had a lot of success with crack cocaine in Weed

and Seed areas, where we designate a certain area of a community

and say, zero tolerance in this community, in this area, and the

Federal Government will focus resources in that area. That has

been very successful.

If we could tailor something to that that addresses designer

drugs, possibly that is an avenue to explore that would give us an

opening to Federal prosecution, OCEDEFT dollars and the tools we

need to conduct our investigations, and get to that level and rid the

community of that problem.

Mr. TOWNS. Would you have any statistics on whether or not visits to emergency rooms have increased over the past year, 2 years?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I will tell you that the quick answer is, no.

But I have a lot of anecdotal discussions. I began to understand the

extent of the problem by going around the State, as I said at the

beginning.

Emergency medical people tell me that there are increasing numbers of overdose cases. They also tell me there are increasing numbers of reported date rape cases, and many of these drugs do put

you in a stupor on to coma, where you are barely aware of what

is happening to you.

I do not have a capture of the entire State, very difficult to get.

Privacy laws interfere in some ways with getting that data, and the

46

other thing that gets in the way, actually, is the diffusion of authorities for such reporting and the magnitude of the problem. So

the answer is no, but my indications are, it is an increasing problem.

Mr. TOWNS. All right. Any other comments on that? Anyone else

have anything?

[No response.]

Mr. TOWNS. All right. Thank you very much. I yield back, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Towns. Pleased to recognize at this

time, Ms. Brown.

Ms. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I read with interest the Michael’s Message Foundation story, and

I hope everyone gets a chance to read this. My heart goes out to

the family. It seems like that the line that goes through all of this

is the Internet. And when we think about Congress, I think if there

is something that we can do, it lies in the Internet for people to

be able to just go online and how do you make these kind of drugs,

and where can you get the ingredients for these drugs, and where

are we going to have the next meeting, all on the Internet, I think

that is a problem. And I think it is a problem that we in Congress

have been reluctant to address. But I think as we move forward,

it is clearly where we have got to put some penalties or some

guidelines. And what is your response to that?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. Ms. Brown, I think you have very good insight

there. If I wanted to run another Operation Heat Rave, the very

first—in the near term, the very first place I would look would be

on the Internet, figure out where the kids are going to gather, and

what likely the trends are.

I mean, I do not want to sound like we are putting the blame

on the kids. I actually think they are the market here. They are

the ones that are, as Ms. Thompson said very well, the manipulated. I believe it is the traffickers who understand the patterns

that very quickly get the drugs in location, to either sell at or near

the premises, or distribute to party-goers that will then be the

agents in the field.

So the Internet presents a daunting challenge on how to use it

to bring this problem under control, but it certainly works both

ways. It is an information source for the traffickers and for the

users. It has also got to be an information source for responsible

leaders that want to safeguard the citizens of our State and our

country.

Ms. BROWN. One other question. Most of these drugs, it seems,

have been produced in Europe. What are we doing to crack down

on these houses, and have we had any raids on these houses, and

what kind of correlation is going on between us and other countries?

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I want to point out, Ms. Brown, that at this

point it is virtually impossible to pinpoint any foreign locale and

blame them. They are still coming in from abroad, of that I am

sure, because I do try to stay informed from Federal law enforcement as well as State and local. But I think we are also producing

great quantities here at home.

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But to answer the latter part of your question, what the State

of Florida has done, it has scheduled all of these drugs, and in the

most recent legislative session has passed a club drug trafficking

bill that sets appropriate penalties for degrees of volume of these

club drugs. We have also done such things—and here is a drug all

by itself that is hard-pressed to be defined as a club drug, but is

clearly associated with the scene—that is nitrous oxide, which has

legitimate uses, but without a doubt has killed eight of our citizens

by asphyxiation, and three others by related accidents immediately

upon using it. It is present at the rave club, club drug scene. And

what we have tried to do is criminalize the sale and use of that

in conjunction with a drugged effect. You can still use it for its legitimate practices, but if you are using it to get high, if you are

selling it to allow someone to get high, then we are trying to bring

it under control.

Ms. BROWN. Thank you. I yield back my time.

Mr. MICA. Thank you.

Finally, I wanted to ask Mr. McDonough and maybe the other

law enforcement officials that are here, we established a HIDTA

that is concentrated primarily on heroin trafficking. Do we need to

readjust our strategy, and what type of resources would our HIDTA

need to deal with this, or the State need to deal with this new club

drug problem?

Mr. McDonough.

Mr. MCDONOUGH. I actually laud you for your leadership on the

HIDTAs and I am very pleased to see one here in the central part

of the State, just as I am to see one in the southern part of the

State.

I would tell you that club drugs have to be integrated and seen

as a similar threat to all other illegal drugs. I do not necessarily

think you have to compartmentalize HIDTAs, so you have the club

drug crew or team, but what you have to do, what we have to do

is first of all educate, not only parents and community leaders, but

law enforcement experts on how this works. We need more research on treatment, on the physiological, the neural effects of

these drugs.

I would argue, have argued, and continue to argue for an expansion of the HIDTA system in Florida in this way. I would like to

see a third HIDTA in Jacksonville.

Ms. BROWN. Thank you, I just mentioned that.

Mr. MCDONOUGH. We have not only club drug problems up there,

but other problems.

I would like to see an intelligence information linking between

the three HIDTAs in Florida and the HIDTA in Puerto Rico, for a

starter, so that we can react in advance. Instead of coming into

emergency medical scenes after the fact, instead of having to purchase 5,000 or 3,000 Ecstasy pills to make a case, we prefer to anticipate the trans-shipment through such a connectivity, and then

catch the tragedies before they happen.

I appreciate all you have done for that. I know it is a question

of resources. But I do believe that Florida can lead the effort in cutting the importation of all drugs, we could have such an

interconnectivity between four HIDTAs, a third one in Jacksonville,

and contact with the Puerto Rican HIDTA.

48

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Did either of the other two witnesses want

to comment on the question, is how we could be more effective with

the HIDTA or from Federal level, in cooperation with your efforts?

Lieutenant MILLER. Yes, I would. HIDTA works very well for us.

Now the sheriff’s office has actually three people assigned to the

HIDTA, two in DEA and one in Customs.

I agree with Mr. McDonough. I do not know that we want to diffuse the effort that the HIDTAs are making right now, but clearly

they need to expand their awareness, and they can do that through

resources, information sharing, an additional HIDTA would help

that effort. So I agree, I think HIDTA is a very effective tool. And

if we expand it a little bit to include this group of drugs, it would

be very, very effective.

Mr. MICA. Ms. Thompson.

Ms. THOMPSON. I would agree. The HIDTA in our area also concentrates very heavily on methamphetamine. A lot of our problem,

too, is we have to educate our own officers on what to look for, the

terms, where to go, and of course, there is an age and educational

barrier there between the actual tactical issues in working these

types of people. And unfortunately, they do cross all socio-economic

barriers, so we have them in all different areas. We cannot define

it to one area as being worse than another.

Mr. MICA. I would like to thank the three witnesses on this

panel. Did you have any further questions at this time?

[No response.]

Mr. MICA. There being no further questions, I will dismiss these

witnesses. And again, we appreciate your cooperation on addressing this difficult problem.

And at this time, I will call our second panel of witnesses. The

second panel of witnesses consists of Mario Webster, and he is with

Families Against Drugs; Debbie Alumbaugh, and she is a private

citizen; Ernest D. Cantley, and he is president and chief executive

officer of the Stewart-Marchman Center, Volusia County. Pleased

to welcome the three of you.

And as I explained earlier to our previous witnesses, this is an

investigation and oversight panel of Congress. In just a moment I

will swear you in. Also, if you have lengthy statements or documents, data that you would like to be made part of the record, we

can do so upon request.

If you would please stand at this time and be sworn.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. MICA. Let the record reflect, the witnesses answered in the

affirmative.

And again, I welcome each of you this morning, and thank you

for your participation.

I will first recognize Mario Webster, who is with Families

Against Drugs, for your testimony this morning, thank you. And

you are welcome, sir, you are recognized.

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STATEMENTS OF MARIO WEBSTER, FAMILIES AGAINST

DRUGS; DEBBIE ALUMBAUGH, PRIVATE CITIZEN; AND ERNEST D. CANTLEY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, STEWARTMARCHMAN CENTER

Mr. WEBSTER. Thank you for having me here, Chairman Mica.

My name is Mario Webster, and I first started using club drugs in

the late 1980’s.

After high school, I made an easy transition from alcohol and

marijuana to acid and Ecstasy. At that time there was no information on Ecstasy. All I did know is that it made me feel good by giving me a false sense of unity and pleasure. I did not think it was

a harmful drug like cocaine or heroin. I actually thought it was no

more harmful than using marijuana and that it was not addictive.

At that time, I did not think I had a drug problem because I felt

I did drugs by choice, unlike hard drug addicts who are hooked

physically and mentally. My lifestyle was nowhere near that of a

crackhead. The people I hung out with were kids from good homes,

we had nice cars and bright futures. We thought we were in control

and invincible. But in all actuality, we were totally ignorant to the

damage we were doing to ourselves.

Later on, in the mid-1990’s, I started using other club drugs,

such as GHB, Special-K, Roofies and pharmaceuticals. Eventually

heroin made its appearance onto the rave scene. By this time,

many of my friends and I graduated to harder and heavier addictions. Over the years, I have seen many of my friends go to jail for

very long sentences, both State and Federal, and on the other

hands, I guess that is not as bad as the ones that I have seen overdose and die because of drugs.

I only wish that I had the information that I have now on club

drugs before I started using them to understand how addictive and

dangerous they are. Not only immediately, for in the future. Heavy

users of Ecstasy may be headed for long-term memory problems,

research has shown that Ecstasy users suffer damage to their visual and verbal memory. Ecstasy depletes the seratonin in your

brain and is never replenished. Seratonin is the chemical that

makes you naturally feel good. The stimulating effects of the drug

that lets the user dance all night, combined with the hot, crowded

condition usually found at raves can lead to dehydration, hypothermia and heart or kidney failure.

Ketamine, which is called Special-K is anesthetic for human and

veterinary use. It can produce a feeling of weightlessness and even

out-of-body or near-death experience. People who use Special-K can

have long-term problems with motor skills, depression and respiratory illness.

GHB is usually found in clubs in major cities. Most of GHB is

home-grown or shipped in from the Netherlands. There are no

guarantees as to the potency, and there is a chance that foreign

substance may make up a large part of the drug. As with any drug

purchased on the street, much of the real danger lies in not knowing what you are getting. GHB is another date-rape drug and can

be slipped into a victim’s drink leaving them unable to defend

themselves with no recollection of the event.

Rophynol, known as Roofies, is another date-rape drug. It is like

a super drunk and produces sedative, hypnotic effects, including

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amnesia. Guys will give it to a girl so that he can rape her and

she has no memory of it. Chronic use of Roofies can result in physical dependence.

Nitrous oxide, which is also known as whippitts is one of the

many inhalants. With moderate amounts, users feel less inhibited,

less in control, light-headed and giddy. Large doses can cause unconsciousness, and it can cause death because it gets into the lungs

and does not allow oxygen to get out of the lungs and go to the

body organs.

In many instances the club drugs are used in combination to intensify their effects. They are mixed with alcohol and harder drugs

such as cocaine, crystal meth and heroin. The cocktail of uppers

and downers is danger because everyone has different chemical

make-up and there is no way of knowing the potential harm.

I feel the best way to combat the popularity of club drugs is

through prevention and education. You should start by educating

both parents and children in elementary schools, and more government funding is needed. Younger age groups are abusing club

drugs everywhere, so I think more straight-forward information

needs to be presented earlier. Parents need to know the signs of

drug use, and be able to recognize drug paraphernalia and be familiar with the drug language.

Rehabilitation in central Florida, as well as nationwide, is expensive and hard to come by for those who are already addicted and

want a way out. For those seeking help, there needs to be more

programs that are affordable and that offer continuous support. Rehabilitation should also be provided for addicts that are incarcerated, as well as additional help after release.

I started using pot and alcohol as a teenager, but I slowly started

breaking all the barriers I set for myself. I used every drug except

for nitrous oxide and ended up with a heroin addiction. I guess I

was expressing my freedom to do with my body whatever I wanted

to, but in the long run, I lost my freedom to drugs. Drugs controlled

my life and I wanted to die. The only thing that saved me was that

I got arrested and had to kick heroin in jail, cold turkey. I knew

that if I survived that, I would never go back to drugs. I was sent

to rehab after I got out of jail, and I have been clean ever since.

I joined FAD a year ago, and educating kids and parents keeps

me clean and honest.

Mr. MICA. Thank you for your testimony. And I would like to recognize now Debbie Alumbaugh, and she is a private citizen and

also experienced a tragedy in her family she will describe.

Just pull that right up to you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Webster follows:]

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Ms. ALUMBAUGH. OK, thank you.

First of all, I would like to thank you. It is an honor and privilege to be here. This is our son, Michael, and he was 15 years old

when he died. I am the surviving mother of Michael. That was 20

months ago.

We lost Michael to the date rape drug, GHB, or Gamma

Hydroxybutyrate. The cause of Michael’s death was aspiration

vomitus and GHB toxicity.

Michael was a sophomore at Westwood High School in Fort

Pierce, FL. He was a black belt in karate and was also an instructor. He had won several academic awards for reading, music, mathematics and spelling and he was on the honor roll.

On October 1st, 1998, Michael went to school, as any normal day.

During the break between second and third periods, he complained

to a friend of a headache. Another child overheard the conversation

and offered ‘‘Michael, I have these pills, they will make your headache go away and make you feel better.’’ Michael made a wrong

choice. He accepted these pills. We found out from the autopsy that

this was methadone.

Michael asked if he could go to the show that evening with some

friends. This was unusual for a school night, but he was doing well

in school. Before he left, a friend came to the house. They went directly to Michael’s room. This is where the transaction of GHB occurred. As we understand it, Michael never saw the first 5 minutes

of the movie. When he got home, Michael’s father looked at him

and asked, are you on something, son? Did you take something?

No, dad, he replied. After continuous questioning, he finally admitted that they had smoked some pot. Brad decided not to lecture Michael this late, he would talk to him tomorrow. Brad never got that

chance, Michael died that night, in his safest place of all places,

alone in his bed.

The next morning the phone rang. Brad, Michael’s not at the bus

stop, the voice said. Brad got up to wake Michael, he could hear

his alarm blaring. Michael did have intentions of getting up to go

to school. When he opened the door, he knew our son was dead. He

was on his back, his eyes wide open and glassy. He had vomited

from the chemicals in these designer drugs. Dried vomit ran down

his chin into a puddle in his collarbone. His hands were in a

clawed position, where he had tried to roll himself over, but he

could not because these drugs paralyze your motor skills.

Because we did not know why our son had died, there had to be

an autopsy. It took 12 weeks for us to know what happened. None

of his friends would come forward, and there was nothing in the

blood or urine, GHB leaves the body that quickly. They took our

son’s brain, and that is where this drug was found.

There is no antidote for GHB toxicity. If you do go into a coma,

you will die unless your constitution is strong enough to pull you

out. Most are not. In the last 3 years, we have lost 189 young people to designer club drugs in Florida alone. That is 188 tragedies

just like ours.

After several months, Michael came to his father in a dream and

said, dad, it is wrong for us to destroy the body the way I did. You

and mom must tell my story. You do not have a clue about the

drugs that my friends and generation are faced with every day.

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Brad and I got enough courage and strength and we made the first

call.

Brad called St. Andrews where Michael had attended school. Ms.

Schroeder welcomed us with open arms. When we went to the

school, and as I stood in front of all these beautiful young faces,

I started, we are not here to lecture or accuse any of you of being

bad kids. We are here to share our experience of losing our child

to drugs. That is when Michael’s Message Foundation was born.

I tell the students what took our son’s life and then tell them a

little bit about Michael, that he was not only a great son but a loving son; and yes, today is my son’s birthday. He would have been

17.

We are in the process of filing the paperwork for Michael’s Message Foundation to be a non-profit organization. We travel to

schools in Florida from 6th grade to 12th, sharing our son’s story.

Our goal is to take Michael’s message nationwide in the hopes of

saving another family the heartache and devastation these drugs

have caused our family. Our children are our tomorrows. If we

keep losing them, tomorrow will never come. We feel that Michael’s

message should be heard by parents and grandparents also.

We have teamed up with the Substance Abuse Council of Indian

River County, and they have graciously offered to adopt us until we

can get the foundation up and running. They plan to assist us in

getting literature printed and schools scheduled.

I am here today with the hope that laws will be made to punish

the individuals who distribute these deadly drugs. No one was arrested for our son’s death. The report reads, ‘‘due to the fact that

there was no intent to harm him, no crime was committed.’’ After

sharing Michael’s story, students come up and do ask, what happened to the supplier? The guilty need to be made examples of.

We know you are all concerned about our youth, and that is why

we are all here today. Thank you for asking us. Our kids are begging for help. Let us unite and make our schools and streets safer

for everyone.

Mr. MICA. Thank you for your very compelling testimony.

At this time, I am going to recognize Ernest D. Cantley who is

the president and CEO of the Stewart-Marchman Center.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Alumbaugh follows:]

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Mr. CANTLEY. Chairman Mica, I thank you for having this hearing and inviting me to participate. I have enjoyed working with you

and watching you become a State, national and international leader in the field of addictions over the last few years, and I am honored to be here. Congressman Towns, thank you for being here;

Congresswoman Brown, another one of my Congress Representatives, we sure appreciate you and your efforts.

My official role as president of Stewart-Marchman Center is that

of a drug abuse treatment, education, prevention center. We heard

earlier some discussions from the southwest end of I–4, you know,

from Ms. Thompson. I am actually on the northeast part in Volusia

County.

A recent article here in the Orlando Sentinel identified the number of deaths here in central Florida. And if you look at that over

the year 1998 and 1999, there were 14 deaths in Brevard, Lake,

Orange, Osceola and Seminole. There were 11 deaths attributable

to Volusia County. Volusia County, I will tell you, is less that

450,000 in total population.

Because some of the information is questionable, you know, we

went to Mr. McDonough’s office and got some further clarifications

on those Volusia County deaths. And in my report here, this is presented on the second page. Basically, there are five deaths related

to MDMA or Ecstasy. This means that they died from some other

cause, but the Ecstasy was in the body, not necessarily the cause.

Deaths due to methamphetamine, there was two. Ecstasy, directly,

one. To multiple club drugs, one, and methamphetamines, there

was one.

In effect, while there is a little bit of differences in the numbers,

the message is very clear. There is something special going on, you

know, in this area, in this State, and particularly in Volusia County. I have not seen anything like this, and what I have been hearing, since late 1984 with the beginning of crack cocaine in this

area. It is scary, what I am seeing.

In order to get a better handle, you know, on what is going on,

to prepare my remarks here, we decided to go to the real experts,

and that is going to some of the kids that we have got in our adolescent residential treatment program at Stewart-Marchman Center in Daytona Beach. Basically we have 26 kids in this program,

16 of them had reported experience with some form of club drugs.

We followed that with a little focus group, with five of the kids,

just to really get some of the specifics, and on the fourth page of

my remarks that I submitted to you previously, I would just like

to review some of these statements because—and some of them

may not be 100 percent accurate, but they are accurate as to the

way that they was presented by the kids. So it is very important,

I think.

First they are talking about Ecstasy. It is sold as beans, using

it is called rolling. It is a cocktail, a variety of different drugs.

Strongly euphoric; $11 to $25 per bean. Beans had cocaine, heroin,

all sorts of things in them; 90 percent of the time, it includes heroin, coke, speed. You can tell some of the pills, like the ones with

heroin will have brown spots. The dirtier, the better. Dirty beans

smell. Dirty beans are more common than clean beans. Normally

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when I think of a bean, I think of almost every drug I can think

of.

GHB. Do not know what it is, but it gives a drunken feeling, a

kind of hormone. Preferable to alcohol because two to three caps

will trash you, and you do not feel hung over the next day.

Rophynol. The past couple of months, Roofies have become more

available again.

Ketamine, a cat tranquilizer, sold in three forms. Ketamine,

Ketacet for oral and Ketaject for IM usage. Very profitable because

people obtain the drug by stealing it from humane societies or vets’

offices.

LSD, it enhances the effects of the clubs. Used with Ecstasy, it

is trolling, or tripping and rolling at the same time.

And finally, alcohol is always there in combination.

The next question is, who uses it? And basically it is a cross-section, lots of people who do not use other drugs use Ecstasy. It is

sophisticated users. This is, by the way, coming from 15, 16 and

17-year old kids.

Ask, have you or anyone you ever known have trouble with what

they would refer to as an overdose? Yes, throwing up. A lot of people take beans and try to throw up because that increases the effect. You might pass out for a minute or two. I saw a girl on her

birthday who ate a lot of beans. She fell out on the dance floor in

convulsions. She was taken away by ambulance, and I heard later

that she had died.

This is kind of consistent throughout. They just really have no

idea or perception about the finality of what really happens. And

even when it does to someone else, they kind of downplay it and

it does not seem to be as significant as to you and I.

There is all kind of other issues and questions, statements here

attributable to these kids. The bottom line of the whole situation

is that the kids in our treatment programs know a whole lot more

about the club drugs than do the staff that is trying to deal with

them. And this really points out a major, major effort that we need

to concentrate on.

I know everyone is talking about the need for prevention, education services, and I totally agree. But we have absolutely got to

concentrate on the professionals in this field to try to bring them

up to speed. Crack cocaine earlier, it took the system about 2 years

to really adjust to that onslaught, 1984, 1985. We cannot wait this

long here.

We have no idea in the State of Florida how many club drug

users are in our treatment system, and it is another issue that I

make in my remarks, and I am going to provide to Mr.

McDonough. One of the real problems we have got is a State reporting system that we have does not ask by name for the drugs,

the club drugs in our reporting system. So therefore, the kids that

is in our treatment program, we just really have no idea what they

are there for. We know a primary drug may be heroin, but the club

drugs, if they are used in conjunction with that, is not there.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the time and the remarks and we look forward to your questions.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cantley follows:]

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Mr. MICA. I thank you. Let me if I may first turn to Mr. Webster.

Mr. Webster, you have sort of been through it and survived.

What are we going to do to get this situation under control and get

the attention of young people and parents?

Mr. WEBSTER. The best solution I see is, you have got to start

early on. You have got to get into elementary schools, even middle

schools. Right now, my group, Families Against Drugs, I work with

Tinker Cooper, we will go out and speak to any school that will let

us in there. Our biggest problem is we run into road blocks. We

run into principals or political members who say the video that we

show, Overdose, is too graphic. And it is not, to me. I mean, it basically shows crime scene footage of overdose victims, and places that

we have shown it, it has been a very effective tool and it hits home

to the kids because they know kids that are out there partying in

the middle school and high schools.

And I think if we can just get more cooperation here in the community and stop ignoring the problem—we have a lot of people that

say, there is no problem, we do not need that in my school. We had

a parent who kept saying that out in Oviedo, because her son had

overdosed, and we have been trying to get out there. And they

would not let us, like, we do not have a problem. Then a week or

two later they had a bust out there, and they busted all these kids

in the school, and now they are blaming the law enforcement for

setting up their kids. And they are still in denial that there is a

drug problem.

So our biggest problem is getting out there and getting in the

schools and getting where it needs to be educated. That is where

it needs to be because these kids are starting younger and younger,

and I see it, and I hear you mention that, by shutting down the

rave clubs, there is another catch–22 to that. And what is going on

now with the young kids is that they are not going to the clubs.

They are having blow-up parties, they call them. They go to a

friend’s apartment or they get a hotel room. Most people know the

heat is on them, and what they are doing is going underground. I

mean, if you can get the drugs off the street, these kids are going

to take it and they are going to go underground. If you shut down

the clubs, you pose another threat. You have got people in their

own homes, and they are overdosing, and they do not have a club

there, bouncers to drag them out and get an EMS there. They are

overdosing and you have got scared kids, and that is how most of

these overdoses happen. These kids do not call EMS, and that is

another problem.

Mr. MICA. We, in Congress, funded, about 2 years ago, a $1 billion drug education program, almost unprecedented in the history

of the country. It is matched by another $1 billion of donated time

or services in education and media-directed. Have you seen any of

this, and can you give me a frank assessment? Is this effective?

Should we continue it or how could we better spend the money to

get the message that you are talking about out?

I will ask Mr. Webster and then I will ask Ms. Alumbaugh.

Mr. WEBSTER. Like in Families Against Drugs, I deal with parents that have dealt with overdoses, such as Ms. Alumbaugh. And

we go out and we speak, and they get a point of view, I have been

in it. And I have done the drugs, and I know what is out there.

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Mr. MICA. What about our $1 billion effort?

Mr. WEBSTER. It is kind of milk toast. I see the stuff that has

been going out there.

Mr. MICA. It is not tough enough?

Mr. WEBSTER. Yeah, it is not tough enough. It needs to be more

straight, to the point. These kids laugh at it. You know, it is like

the Nancy Reagan ‘‘Just say no’’ thing. I do not even see it; that

is what kids say. And I hear what is going—they laugh at D.A.R.E.

I was talking to some kids last night telling them what I was doing

now, and they went through the D.A.R.E. program. They tell me,

oh, man, we used to laugh at that stuff. And they are kids that go

out and use.

They need to have younger people out there giving it to them,

not so much as people that are maybe law enforcement. Sometimes

kids get intimidated by that and they blow that off. A lot of times

they need to talk to people that have been through it, and see parents, like they have parents. And when they see a mother grieving

or a father grieving and telling their story, that really hits home,

and it does need to go to a lower level.

You get kids when they are young, educate them, they know

what they are putting into their system, knowing that they are

mixing chemicals and their body chemistry, there is no way of telling what is going to happen to them. I think that is not being

taught to the young people today. They are just getting, oh, just

say no to drugs, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, and then they

get hold of it and they go, oh, I feel good. You know, then they just

ignore everything that was taught.

Mr. MICA. Ms. Alumbaugh, did you want to respond?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. I agree with Mr. Webster. The response that

we get from going to the schools, there is silence when we are

speaking. And I can submit letters to you from children.

Mr. MICA. Well, as to the billion-dollar-plus and another billion?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. It is not working. They are not listening.

Mr. MICA. It is not working and they are not listening. It is not

effective?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. No.

Mr. MICA. OK. Because we are going to conduct—I have conducted one hearing, after we completed 1 year last October, I believe in November we conducted one hearing. We are scheduled

to—we were scheduled, I think, just before we recessed, General

McCaffrey was not able to participate. But we need to go back and

look at how we are spending that money. If you are telling it is not

effective, and I have heard this repeated over and over.

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Yes.

Mr. MICA. Maybe you could give me a quick assessment, Dr.

Cantley?

Mr. CANTLEY. My opinion is, it really depended upon who the intended audience is for those ads. If it is for teenagers that may be

or are close to using or may be using right now, I think it would

be totally non-effective. However, I think it does have some positive

traits in the area of working, trying to educate family members or

other people in the community. I think it may prove to be marginally effective there.

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Historically, we have shown that the real heavy, hard-hitting

things, like I remember back doing the DWI things, where we

showed a lot of pictures of automobile accidents with people’s heads

cutoff. Those proved not to be real effective. But I do think that

there is some middle ground between that real gory kind of stuff

and where we are right now with this one. So I think if we look

at it from the kids’ perspective, it needs to be a little bit more hardhitting. I concur.

Mr. MICA. Ms. Alumbaugh, you have attempted personally to

turn a tragedy into something positive by going out into the community and educating young people. But you also called in your

testimony for tougher penalties for those who deal in these deadly

substances, is that correct?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Yes.

Mr. MICA. And you would like to see those who provide this

deadly substance to be brought to justice, is that correct?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Yes, I would. President Clinton—— Mr. MICA. There have been proposals to increase the penalties

for trafficking.

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Yes.

Mr. MICA. One of the problems we have is, with some of these

designer drugs, that the law does not keep up with the production

of these new substances, and penalties do not keep up. So I think

you have indicated you would like to see tougher penalties and people brought to justice. What do you think, is that going to be something we need to do also, Dr. Cantley?

Mr. CANTLEY. I think we need to be very careful and never, in

any way, shape or form, encourage anyone to sell drugs. Now, I

will qualify that with users, sometimes we will see, you know, addicted people out there, the real low-level sellers, that many of

those are dealing it from a different perspective. But the real traffickers, there never should be any wavering whatsoever. I concur,

you traffic, you go to jail.

Mr. MICA. The other thing, too, is you have had a great deal of

experience, and described some of the response from young people.

Some of the articles and some of the pro-drug culture say that

these drugs are not addictive, that these drugs are not a problem,

that people should be free to get high, to use these drugs at will.

How do you respond, Dr. Cantley?

Mr. CANTLEY. I think that that is one of the scariest things in

the world. These same people will say to you, if we legalize—pick

a drug, any drug—it is no worse than alcohol. It is a legal drug.

And I cannot think of anything worse than putting another alcohol

on the street with all the ills that we have in society as a result

of that.

The fact of the matter is, accessibility is the key to drug use. If

it is not accessible, people will not use it. If it is legal, it will become more accessible. There will be more on the street and then

it will certainly kick up the public health spectrum. It may assist

some, I do not know, it may assist some in the legal aspects. But

certainly not in the public health aspects with that. Anything you

do to legalize, or make it more available, you are going to increase

the amount of human suffering from it, period.

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Mr. Towns.

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Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Let me begin by saying to you, Ms. Alumbaugh, I really salute

you in terms of the effort that you are putting forth to, first of all,

make certain that your son’s name does not die in the fact that you

are making certain that his loss is not going to be in vain. I want

to salute you and your family for making certain that you carry on

that effort.

But let me sort of deal with this whole education issue. We are

using the word, but I am not sure that I know where we should

be going with it. We talk about education in terms of young people

and then also we talk about it in the fact that, people that are involved with young people do not have the knowledge. And then we

talk about the $1 billion that we are putting forth, and I am not

sure we are spending that wisely.

What kind of education program would you think about putting

forth? Now, you as a person that has been through it so you have

had some experience. And we have other folks who are involved

with our youngsters every day that have not been through it, and

probably have no knowledge; you know, if they saw a pill, might

not even recognize it. So what do we do now to make certain that

we get this education going and bring it to the level that we should

have it in order to make certain that we do not lose any more children?

Because when you look at the fact that, in this State alone, that

you are losing 60 people a year, now that is multiplied by all other

kinds of things, the pain and suffering of families, of course as Ms.

Alumbaugh described earlier, the fact that—the director indicated,

the fact that maybe it could be a bus or a truck, somebody could

be driving. I mean, all kinds of things could happen as a result of

this. And we have to sort of do something now, I think that we cannot afford the luxury of sitting back and saying we will fix it later

or it will take care of itself.

So what can we do in terms of education? What would be a

model kind of program?

Mr. WEBSTER. To me the hardest-hitting thing about, that I

learned about drugs that I had been doing, like Ecstasy, GHB,

Roofies, is how your body has a chemical make-up. And when you

add these kind of drugs to your body, how it can affect each person

differently.

I did not really know the harmful potential danger of Ecstasy, I

did not have any information like that, I did not know how it depletes the seratonin. And after years of use and friends that have

used, I have seen how it has affected people. And if I had known

a lot of that information beforehand, I would have looked at it differently. I did not think there was any harmful effects. I mean, I

used to love Fettucini Alfredo, and once I found that Alfredo is one

of the most fattening things out there, I kind of looked at it different. It was not something I wanted to eat every night.

And a lot of these kids that are out there partying, these kids

are really into fitness. I mean, I know kids that work out at the

gym and eat healthy, and then go blow-up every weekend. I think

a lot of them, if they knew the harmful danger that they are doing

to their body, there needs to be more information what it is doing

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to their brain. Because once people find out that it is affecting

them in this certain way, it is more effective.

And plus, they need to see things like crime footage. He was

talking about the DUI campaign, when people see wrecks, sometimes that gore is effective, especially on a young person because

that stays in the mind. And I do not see it as a scary thing, I see

it as a thing that will keep them from going out there and doing

crazy stuff. Because I know, I would have totally thought different

about Ecstasy, if I had more information, and saw the truth and

seen an overdose, a heroin overdose or things like that.

Mr. TOWNS. Education. What can we do?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Again, it has to come from people who know.

We not only discuss our suffering but we discuss these drugs, and

that they—we find that the kids are begging for information. They

are not going to go ask the school resource officer what this is

going to do to them. But they will come up, after we have spoken,

they will come up to us and ask questions. And I myself, I speak

to Mr. McDonough’s office, I try to speak to them once a week to

let them know what we are doing, and the letters that we get back

from the kids that say, thank you so much for coming. Without you

coming, we would not know this answer.

So if we can educate the kids, and they will listen, because again,

the D.A.R.E. leaves them in fifth grade. They are left on their own.

And all these drugs are there, and they are there every day hitting

them in the face. And they do not know where to go.

If we can educate them and give them the information they need,

not from the Internet, because in my speech I do tell them, I am

here to prove the Internet wrong, this will kill you. And that is

what they need to hear. They need to hear that it will kill you.

Mr. TOWNS. Education, what can we do?

Mr. CANTLEY. I hope you are asking me because I am just dying

over here to respond to this question.

Mr. TOWNS. Yes, I am.

Mr. CANTLEY. I think nationally, and also within the State, we

have some very good prevention programs that are scientifically

based and are consistent. Specifically in the State of Florida, I

think we have some real problems with our prevention system

within the State of Florida, and that is that there is no uniform

system of getting consistent messages out from Pensacola all the

way down to Miami.

We have got some good prevention programs in certain areas,

and certain pockets, but we do not have that statewide system that

we can take something like club drugs and all of a sudden start

massive education of the entire State. That is, in my opinion, the

biggest weakness that we have in our prevention system within

this State, and this State is what I consider myself more knowledgeable of.

If there was some way that we had prevention resource centers,

in different areas of the State, that is tied to an overall State prevention effort, that would be able to distribute the same consistent

information through every school, through every law enforcement

office, through every parent group within the State, then I think

we could be effective in some of the things we do.

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Mr. TOWNS. I think you make an excellent point. And that is my

problem with spending the $1 billion. But the point is that I am

not sure that we are getting the kind of results that we should be

getting from it.

When you talk to law enforcement, they say education is important. And you go to young people, they will say education is important. It is sort of highlighted here. And then you have the people

that spend a great deal of time with our young people, in terms of

the educators themselves, will say, education is important.

But the point is that how do we coordinate this to make it work?

I mean, that is my real concern. We need to find a way. I learned

something here this morning. I really did not really know

Ketamine was a part of this. I had no idea. This is something that

the veterinarian gives to people with dogs and all. I mean, I had

no idea people were using that as well. So I have learned something here this morning just from this hearing. And I am certain

that there is probably a lot of other things that we could learn.

So I do not know, in terms of how we coordinate that. I think

that somewhere along the line, the Federal Government has a responsibility to get that package down to a community, with some

flexibility, but to make certain that everybody is sort of aware of

what is going on. And I think that until we do that, we are going

to continue to lose folks, and I do not think we can afford the luxury of that. And I salute you for your efforts in terms of getting

out and spreading the word.

But here again, I think more needs to be done and that we need

to look at how we are spending our money to make certain that it

is being done, and being done properly.

And back to the Internet, I think there are some things that we

have to address there, too. I am not one for regulating everything,

but I think there are some things that we have to begin to look

very seriously at, if we find that it is detrimental to our young people and to our lives and the quality of life.

So here again, thank you so much for your testimony.

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Towns. Ms. Brown.

Ms. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you all for coming with your presentations today. I do not

know, there just does not seem to be one answer, and that is the

problem. If it was one answer, we would do it. It is not one thing.

It is a series of things. And when we talk about education, it is not

just education, it is not just the schools, because we have got to get

the parents, the families involved. Take your son, it just seems that

from reading everything that I can read here is that this was a

one-time situation. And so how do we get kids to understand one

time could be the end?

And some kids we probably need a harder approach, and others,

the D.A.R.E. kind of programs is more effective, probably with the

younger age. But it is a community problem. How can we get the

entire community involved? We cannot just say, just leave it to the

school, because the parents have got to be involved, the church has

got to be involved. When you say prevention, what are you talking

about? After-school programs? It is just a community problem. And

how do we address that community problem?

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To know the name of all these drugs, all I want my kid to do

is not use it. So what do we do? What is the one thing? You say

if you had known all this about drugs. I know that eating certain

foods is not good for me, but I still eat them. So what is it that

we can do to stop young people from getting involved in these

drugs, because it seems as if it is cool, it is popular. But how do

we get the message that it will also kill you? It will destroy your

life.

Mr. WEBSTER. There is no one answer to that, either. I mean,

each person is different. I am just saying for me, myself, if I would

have had more information, I cannot say that I would have never

tried the drugs, because a lot of kids are young and they think they

are getting a sort of independence, they are 18 or what not, or they

feel that they are grown up and they can make adult decisions.

They may go out and try things.

But I do not think I would have had the drug habit that I kept

up if I had had more information. If I know I could deplete my

seratonin in my brain, you know, I could be clinically depressed in

years, I might not have done that much X. I cannot say that education will stop kids from doing drugs, but it will give them more

information and let them know that, if you are going to mixing

these chemicals in your body, there is no telling the outcome. And

you could be that statistic and be the one who tries it one time and

go down, or you can be the one who parties for years, and the next

thing you know you graduate to a higher addiction because, you

know, you cannot ever feel good.

Ms. BROWN. Where do you think that information should come

from? The school?

Mr. WEBSTER. To me, that is just science class, that is biology.

These kids need to know that. I mean, if you are going to teach

them about biology, you might as well tell them about drugs, because that is what it is doing. It is all chemicals, and your body

is all chemistry right then and there.

Mr. CANTLEY. Ms. Brown, thank you. It is a remarkable question. I really appreciate the possibility of looking for solutions for

it.

To me, I think one of the things that is clear in my discussions

with the kids is that when they use club drugs, particularly Ecstasy, they do not use it to, do drugs. They do not consider themselves as a drug addict, like a heroin or a cocaine user. It is something unique and special out here.

We do know that teenagers are particularly sensitive to peer

pressure, to peer cultures, to being like everyone else. And I think

that may be some of the keys in working with teenagers. Now

maybe not young kids, but once they get up into teenagers, if there

is somehow or another we can get the message across to all of our

teenagers that it is not cool to do these drugs, then we will not

have a problem with it. Right now they have got the perception

that it is cool to do drugs. And it is a social thing to do the club

drugs. As long as that is there, we have got our work cut out for

us, and we have just got to turn the tide through a mass of education kind of thing. And Congressman Mica, if somehow or another those spots can actually be developed, some of them, to begin

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to turn that tide a bit about talking to teenagers, very specifically,

you are not cool when you do drugs.

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. We do say that in the speech. If there is no demand for it, they will not make it. You know, so when it is offered,

we hope that we are giving them a tool to help them to continue

to say no. And if the demand is not there, it will not be made. But

we do have to educate them on what this stuff is made of. You

know, tell them that they put floor stripper and degreaser in this.

And when you do, and you see that child’s face, they had no idea

that that was in this. And they are taking it.

Again, that is education, but it is something that is going to stop

them from doing this.

Ms. BROWN. Well, I want to thank you for what you are doing,

but it is limited the number of schools that you have been able to

get to.

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. True.

Ms. BROWN. How do you think we should expand the kind of

thing that you are doing?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Well, we have teamed up with the Substance

Abuse Council, because they are federally funded, are they not?

Ms. BROWN. Yes, some of them are.

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. OK. If we could get involved with them, more

of them, we could reach more people, and not just we, me, we the

Substance Abuse Councils, and educate that way.

Ms. BROWN. One last question. Do you have a problem getting

into the schools?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. No. No, we have been to 14 schools. We just

started March 16th, and we have delivered Michael’s message to

4,800 students so far.

Ms. BROWN. What about you, Mr. Webster?

Mr. WEBSTER. We run into problems with our video, mainly. It

is Overdose, and it shows official crime scene footage. And a lot of

principals and other teachers feel it is just too graphic for junior

high, even high school we have had problems. So getting our video

in there is the bigger problem. But getting in there to talk to kids,

we do not seem to have too much of a problem. Except for in

Oviedo.

Ms. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back my time.

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Ms. Brown.

One final question, the hearing that we held the day before yesterday in New Orleans focused on drug testing. The parochial

Catholic schools had instituted a mandatory drug testing program

for their students for 3 years, from Mr. Vitter’s district, who is also

on this committee. We heard some interesting testimony that, from

testing positive and for a small but significant percentage of students 3 years ago to almost totally eliminating any positive tests

today, that it has been a very successful handle. We had students

testify, we heard about peer pressure, and they said, well, this

mandatory testing takes all the pressure off. It was random, they

never knew when they were going to get it, but they were all subject to it.

The District Attorney testified, and they are now trying to institute that, will have this fall in some of the schools, public schools.

There are questions when you get into the public school arena,

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some difficulties in that. Could you comment briefly on what you

think mandatory drug testing for students, would it be beneficial,

would it be helpful? Maybe we will take a quick run through the

panel. Mr. Webster, what do you think?

Mr. WEBSTER. Yeah, I believe that would be very effective. I

know I have been on probation before, and that is a good way of

keeping you clean, when you know you are going to get tested.

Mr. MICA. You find that to be very effective for people who have

had some offense, drug offense. So you think it would be?

Mr. WEBSTER. Yeah, I think it would work well. I mean, there

is going to be a lot of opposition trying to do that, to get into the

public school arena. But we work with a group called Drug-Free

America, and they offer free testing to parents, you know, they will

send you the test and you can test your kid, and you can send it

off to a lab and they will do it that way.

I think a lot of it has to do with the parents, too, not so much

responsibility put on the public schools, maybe a lot of it could be

put on the parents themselves, educating them. And if they suspect

something, maybe they should be the ones giving out those tests.

Mr. MICA. I think they only had one student who refused to participate. Of course, in the parochial schools, they will not admit

them.

What is your recommendation?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. I agree with it.

Mr. MICA. You would support it?

Ms. ALUMBAUGH. Oh, yes. We just spoke to a school, a charter

school, that did it. And the kids that we spoke to did not mind it.

Did not mind it at all. They were tested before they were even allowed into the school, and then randomly through the year. And

they basically appreciated it.

Mr. MICA. Dr. Cantley, has the time come for a mandatory drug

testing?

Mr. CANTLEY. I am a proponent of testing, you know, generally.

But also on the other end, I see the need to make sure that there

is good clear guidelines and procedures to make sure that it is used

correctly and effectively, and we do not go on witch hunts, and that

we respond appropriately to positive tests. It is kind of like an employee assistance or a student assistance model. If you identify

someone who is positive, that kicks them up into another phase,

not out.

Those kind of things, and good testing and a budget to accommodate it, because that is one of the biggest problems we have got in

local communities, is paying for these. You know, giving positive

responses to those some way. I think it would be a great thing for

schools, for the community, for the treatment systems, for law enforcement, for the entire community, if it was done uniformly, consistently and humanely.

Mr. MICA. Thank you. The New Orleans tests, incidentally, did

have a component where, once they tested positive, of course there

was a retest, and then they also had a treatment component and

counseling. I think they gave them one chance. It was after the second one it was being kicked out.

Well, I think you have helped us focus some attention on what

is not only a local problem. I brought this magazine, it is dated

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June 5th which is not here yet. And it does show, and again having

been in another venue, we are not the only victims of this problem.

This is not just a central Florida problem now, it is a national

problem, and we must address this. We are going to do a hearing

in Dallas which has had similar heroin problems, and now we are

facing some of these designer drug and club drug problems even in

that setting. So it has spread across the Nation. But you have

helped us put this into focus.

First of all, Mr. Webster, we appreciate your taking your personal involvement and tragedy into something positive, and you are

a survivor and we commend you for coming forward, being one who

can testify about what it has done to your life.

And I want to thank Ms. Alumbaugh. Unfortunately your son

was a victim. You mentioned Tinker Cooper who has been, I noticed, in the audience during the hearing. I met her and I know of

her tragic loss of her son to heroin, and she has tried to turn it

into something positive like you have. And I commend you, her.

Unfortunately there are dozens and dozens of other mothers and

fathers out there who have been through the same horror that you

have experienced. I cannot, as a parent, a father, even begin to

imagine what you have been through. But we do, on behalf of the

entire subcommittee and our committee, thank you for coming forward for your positive steps.

And Dr. Cantley, your continued efforts in this community, central Florida, are certainly appreciated. And we look forward to

working with you as you unfortunately are the recipient of so many

of the victims of this growing culture and problem that we face. So

I will thank each of you at this time, and dismiss this panel, there

being no further questions before this panel.

And call our third and final panel. Our third panel consists of

two witnesses. One is Mr. John Varrone. Mr. Varrone is the acting

Deputy Commissioner for Investigations of the U.S. Customs Service. The second witness in this third panel is Mr. William

Fernandez. Mr. Fernandez is the executive director of the central

Florida HIDTA, high-intensity drug traffic area. As I indicated to

the previous witnesses, this is an investigations and oversight subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. In that regard, we

will swear you in in just a moment.

And also, if you have lengthy statements, additional data or information you would like to have to be made part of the record, we

will do so upon request, unanimous consent through the Chair.

At this time, I am pleased to recognize first for statements, John

Varrone. And again Mr. Varrone is the acting Deputy Commissioner for Investigations for the U.S. Customs. Before he testifies,

and Mr. Fernandez, if you could please stand and be sworn.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. MICA. The witnesses answered in the affirmative. The record

will reflect that. And again, I will recognize Mr. Varrone with U.S.

Customs for his testimony at this time. Welcome sir, and you are

recognized.

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STATEMENTS OF JOHN VARRONE, ACTING DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR INVESTIGATIONS, U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE; AND

WILLIAM FERNANDEZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTRAL

FLORIDA HIDTA

Mr. VARRONE. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and other distinguished members of the committee. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to testify here today regarding law enforcement activities of the Customs Service as they relate to the

smuggling of Ecstasy and other designer drugs which are currently

the choice of the club scene people here in Florida, as well as in

other parts of the United States. I respectfully request that my

long statement be submitted for the record, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MICA. Without objection, your entire statement will be made

part of the record. Please proceed.

Mr. VARRONE. Thank you, sir.

The U.S. Customs Service is the primary law enforcement agency

at our Nation’s ports. It is uniquely positioned to detect, intercept

and investigate the importation of large quantities of dangerous

drugs which are smuggled into the United States through our ports

of entry. As America’s front line, we often act as the early warning

system to identify new drug trends or patterns of operation employed by violators who attempt to smuggle drugs into the United

States.

Since approximately 1997, U.S. Customs has experienced a dramatic increase in the importation, seizure and related investigations that focus on party drugs of all kinds, but specifically the synthetic drug commonly known as Ecstasy. Ecstasy or MDMA has

been well-known among European youth and law enforcement

where it has been produced and abused for the last decade. The

abuse of this drug has spread throughout the United States at an

unprecedented level, and can primarily be traced to two key factors. Profit and marketing.

From a smuggler’s standpoint, Ecstasy is one of the most lucrative drugs in the world. Tablets cost just pennies apiece to produce

in Europe, and they can be sold in the streets of America for as

much as $40 per tablet. For an initial investment of just $100,000,

an Ecstasy smuggler can reap nearly $5 million in profit. The 6

million tablets that the U.S. Customs Service has seized thus far

this fiscal year are valued at approximately $180 million. In addition to Ecstasy thus far in fiscal year 2000, Customs has also

seized 2,203 pounds of methamphetamine. This represents a 100

percent increase over 1999 numbers.

The profit potential for Ecstasy is enhanced because of the insidious marketing techniques that smugglers and distributors employ

to lure young adults into using this drug. In our status-conscious

society, tablets are designed with brand names and logos, such as

Mitsubishi, the Rolex symbol, Adidas emblem and the Nike trademark, to name a few. I would like pass an exhibit with some of

those logos on it to you, Mr. Chairman.

To distinguish one competitor’s product from another, the logos

are specifically selected to appeal to the young, affluent Ecstasy

users. Their seemingly benign trademarks make it difficult for the

youths to associate the actual danger that the use of this hard drug

can cause. Our partners in local law enforcement have many examVerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:05 Jun 20, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00082 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\71692.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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ples of how Ecstasy distributors enhance their profit by doing such

things as selling water for $5 a bottle to teens who are dehydrated

by Ecstasy.

During fiscal year 1999, U.S. Customs seized 3.5 million tablets

of Ecstasy. More than four times the 750,000 tablets we seized in

1998. The surge continues in fiscal year 2000. As I previously stated, Customs has already seized 6 million tablets in the first 8

months of this year.

The vast majority of Ecstasy is produced in the Netherlands, but

production appears to be spreading throughout Europe. Smugglers

export the drug directly from the Netherlands, primarily Amsterdam, or across the uncontrolled borders of neighboring European

Union states to other international hubs such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Paris or London. By comparison, the Netherlands

is to Ecstasy as the Golden Triangle is to heroin, and as the Andean region is to cocaine.

Although most Ecstasy production occurs in Europe, we have to

remain vigilant about Ecstasy labs everywhere. Just a few weeks

ago, an Ecstasy laboratory was located and dismantled by Denver,

CO law enforcement authorities. Law enforcement authorities are

monitoring this new development closely. Domestic production

could create yet another outlet for this illegal activity.

In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic has recently become

a staging area for Ecstasy destined for the United States. We believe that the Dominican Republic is serving as a transit area for

Ecstasy which originates in the Netherlands. Seizure and related

investigative activity by the Customs Service has identified three

primary gateway areas where Ecstasy is smuggled into the United

States. These are, New York, California and Florida. There is no

coincidence that these areas have emerged as focal points for Ecstasy-smuggling organizations. They are all transportation centers

with strong European ties, and they all have large concentrations

of young adults, who are the primary targeted consumers of Ecstasy. And they are all headquarters for the criminal organizations

who smuggle Ecstasy.

Florida’s party triangle has also emerged as a prime venue for

Ecstasy smuggling and trafficking. The tourist industry of Orlando,

the Atlantic beaches, Miami and South Beach and the many universities and colleges, and the annual pilgrimage of spring breakers from other States offer an attractive venue for Ecstasy trafficking and distribution. Florida’s warm climate also provides the opportunity for the year-round rave scenes.

These groups use couriers from all walks of life to thwart Customs enforcement efforts. We have arrested teenagers, bankruptcy

attorneys and members of the clergy who were attempting to evade

Customs inspection while concealing Ecstasy. Couriers have concealed it in luggage, body cavities, and have even ingested tablets

wrapped in condoms. This past March we arrested an individual at

JFK airport who had swallowed 2,800 Ecstasy tablets. Since then,

there have been five additional seizures in which Ecstasy has been

concealed by ingestion.

I have brought several exhibits with me today that illustrate the

concealment methods used to smuggle Ecstasy into the United

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States. Several of these exhibits were seized right here at the airport in Orlando.

Until recently, commercial air passengers presented the highest

risk for Ecstasy smuggling. But a recent series of large seizures at

the Memphis Express Mail Hub, and resulting controlled deliveries

and arrests suggest that mail and express consignment packages

may be a current method of choice for smuggling organizations.

Controlled deliveries which are an important investigative tool

allow special agents to identify the members of the Ecstasy smuggling organization by actually delivering the seized packages to the

intended recipients.

Express consignment packages have become popular with smugglers because they are reliable and they allow smugglers to track

the movement of their parcels over the Internet. Smugglers very

often call off the intended recipients if the package is thought to

be delayed by Customs for examination, thwarting our attempts to

conduct controlled deliveries and further insulating the organization from identification.

Penetrating these worldwide criminal organizations is extremely

difficult. They are highly compartmentalized and react instantly to

law enforcement pressure. Their distribution networks are decentralized and therefore present greater enforcement challenges. Our

seizures of Ecstasy and followup investigations have identified numerous criminal drug smuggling organizations that are involved in

this highly profitable activity.

Customs investigations have revealed that Ecstasy smuggling organizations have been primarily supplied and controlled by western-European-based drug smuggling organizations. Israeli organized crime elements appear to be in control of the Ecstasy trade,

from production through the international smuggling phase. Couriers associated with Israeli organized crime have been arrested

around the world, including France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, as well as locations here in the United States, such as Florida, New Jersey and New York. In some instances, Russian organized crime groups have been identified, working in collusion with

Israeli organized crime groups.

As I mentioned earlier, the introduction of the Dominican Republic as a transit point for Ecstasy has also meant the introduction

of Dominican cocaine and heroin smuggling groups to the Ecstasy

trade. These organizations are known for their violence and their

involvement with Ecstasy smuggling could lead to associated violence not seen thus far in the illegal Ecstasy trade.

There is intelligence that Mexican and Colombian traffickers are

also getting involved and reports that South American cocaine has

been exchanged for Ecstasy. Last month, investigators determined

that a seizure of approximately 300,000 Ecstacy tablets in Mexico

was destined for the United States. The profits from Ecstasy are

also attracting more traditional organized crime groups. A recent

joint Federal, State and local investigation in Phoenix demonstrated that Sammy ‘‘The Bull’’ Gravano, former New York organized crime figure, could not resist the astounding profits from Ecstasy smuggling.

In order to coordinate and focus our investigations, and particularly to enhance the flow of intelligence to our inspectors on the

81

front line, Commissioner Kelly has directed that we create an Ecstasy task force at U.S. Customs Service headquarters. This task

force is comprised of inspectors, agents and analysts who work fulltime on Ecstasy investigations. They coordinate the numerous foreign leads developed through our investigations with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

We also recently trained and graduated 13 canines in detection

of Ecstasy. We have one full-time assigned right here in the Orlando area. Commissioner Kelly has also created a Website to get

the awareness message out to as far reaching group as he possibly

can.

AS I noted earlier, our seizures and investigations have identified Florida as one of the gateway areas for Ecstasy that is smuggled into the United States. I would like to highlight some of the

recent seizure and investigative activity that has occurred locally.

I realize, Mr. Chairman, that I am out of time but I am near closing.

Mr. MICA. Go right ahead.

Mr. VARRONE. If that is OK?

Mr. MICA. Go right ahead.

Mr. VARRONE. In just the Orlando area alone, Customs has made

several significant seizures of Ecstasy this fiscal year. On October

9, 1999 Customs inspectors at Orlando International Airport seized

more than 14 pounds of Ecstasy tablets arriving from Amsterdam.

On October 29th, we discovered 26 pounds of Ecstasy concealed in

passenger baggage, also arriving from Amsterdam. As a result of

the subsequent investigation of these two seizures, Customs was

able to link one of the seizures to a major international narcotics

smuggling ring operating out of Philadelphia, PA, as well as south

Florida. This trafficking ring was responsible for moving approximately $1 million worth of Ecstasy into the United States on a

weekly basis, and in turn, moving cocaine shipments back to Amsterdam.

More recently, on March 29, 2000 Customs inspectors at Orlando

International Airport prompted another investigation when they

seized more than 10 pounds of Ecstasy from two individuals arriving from Belgium. A subsequent investigation by agents revealed

that both couriers had been recruited by and linked to the same

trafficking organization.

On March 6th, Customs inspectors made 67 separate mail seizures of Ecstasy, totally 20,000 tablets in 1 day that had all originated in Belgium and were destined to addresses in Florida. The

timing of these seizures so close to spring break has led us to believe that smugglers were building up their supplies in anticipation

of a large influx of college students to the area.

Customs has seized more than 219,000 Ecstasy tablets in Florida

thus far this fiscal year, which equates to more than $6.5 million

worth. In May, Customs agents in San Francisco arrested an individual for importing approximately 300 pounds of Ecstasy from

Paris to San Francisco. This particular seizure, which totaled approximately 490,000 pills, is currently the largest single seizure of

Ecstasy in the United States. The arrest and seizure was the result

of a Customs-led undercover operation.

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Ecstasy has emerged as a very popular drug of abuse threatening

our Nation’s youth. Nontraditional organized crime primarily controlled the manufacturing of it in the Netherlands region, and its

smuggling into cities across the United States, with New York,

California and Florida being the main areas where it seems to

enter. Customs is at the forefront of aggressively attacking Ecstasy

smuggling organizations and their related profits.

On behalf of Commissioner Kelly and the dedicated men and

women of the U.S. Customs Service, I would like to thank this committee for the opportunity to testify here today and for your continued support for our important mission. This concludes my remarks,

and I am prepared to answer any questions that you may have.

Mr. MICA. Thank you. We will withhold questions until the end

of testimony.

William Fernandez is the executive director of the Central Florida High-Intensity Drug Traffic Area operations that we have. Welcome sir, and you are recognized.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Varrone follows:]

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Mr. FERNANDEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also ask

that my comments be included in the record.

Mr. MICA. Without objection, your entire statement will be made

part of the record. Please proceed.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. The central Florida High-Intensity Drug Trafficking area [HIDTA], encompasses seven counties. It ranges from

Pinellas County to our southwest along the I–4 corridor to Volusia

County on the East Coast. It encompasses 7,000 square miles, a

year-round population of almost 4 million, and that includes 280

miles of coastline.

The central Florida HIDTA supports all of the national drug control strategy goals, but has determined to more specifically strive

to increase the safety of central Florida’s citizens by substantially

reducing drug-related crime and violence, and breaking foreign and

domestic sources of supply. The central Florida HIDTA believes

that cooperation between all levels of law enforcement and the

building of long-term coalitions are essential in attaining these

goals. In August 1998, the central Florida HIDTA received $1 million

in funding due largely to an alarming number of heroin overdose

deaths in central Florida. This funding was utilized to initiate

seven task forces specifically aimed at heroin, methamphetamine,

cocaine, money laundering and violent fugitives. In the latter part

of 1999, the central Florida HIDTA received an additional $1.5 million. This was utilized to fund a total of 11 task forces and a newly

operational investigative support center.

The support center will enhance the ability of Federal, State and

local law enforcement to identify, target and prosecute criminal organizations through the sharing of intelligence and the availability

of up-to-date hardware and software, investigative hardware and

software. The center will also serve as a deconfliction tool for all

of law enforcement in our area.

As of this date, the central Florida HIDTA funds a portion of the

operating expenses and overtime for 120 police officers in our

seven-county area. They work with 45 Federal agents. To date,

they are responsible for 3,355 arrests, including 210 for violent offenses. They have disrupted or dismantled 208 organizations,

seized 72 pounds of heroin, 445 pounds of cocaine, 217 pounds of

methamphetamine, including 9 labs, 5 pounds of Ecstasy and

21,000 pounds of marijuana. They have seized in excess of 350

weapons and over $15 million in U.S. currency. Our support center

has responded to over 350 inquiries from over 40 law enforcement

agencies in its 4 months of operation.

There were 70 heroin deaths in 1998 in our central Florida area,

80 in 1999, and it looks like we are going to see an increase again

this year. The purity of heroin remains fairly constant, there has

been a slight drop, and the price is down, indicating supply is leading demand. This is not good news. We have also seen an alarming

increase in the availability of methamphetamine, especially in Polk

County and, as you have heard today, Ecstasy is becoming a very

large problem.

I would like to thank Congressman Mica for his continued support and interest. In an effort to weave this into today’s subject

matter, of our task forces, one is a methamphetamine-specific task

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force, four of them are poly drug task forces, and by poly drug, I

mean, they go wherever their informants and their intelligence

lead, which would include the designer drugs and club drugs. Our

support center on a daily or weekly basis receives reports from

Interpol on arrests and other instances that have happened

throughout the world. We take that information, analyze it, digest

it, and have been contacting the appropriate law enforcement agencies throughout the State. We look primarily for Florida citizens

that we think will have an impact on our area.

Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Fernandez follow:]

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Mr. MICA. Thank you. I am interested, first of all, with asking

Customs, it appears that the Netherlands is one of the major producers of Ecstasy and some of these designer drugs. I had met with

the Minister of Justice last year, and they pledged cooperation, but

it appears that we are seeing more and more drugs coming in.

They also promised to bring before their parliament toughening of

the laws, since they liberalized the laws it had become sort of a

mecca for production and distribution.

Do you know if the Commissioner has raised this question with

officials in the Hague or the Netherlands?

Mr. VARRONE. Mr. Chairman, I am not sure whether the Commissioner has directly raised that question.

Mr. MICA. I think we need to seek their cooperation. It appears

to be getting out of hand, the seizures that you talked about, too,

coming into Orlando Airport were from Amsterdam, several of the

larger seizures. Unfortunately that now the production seems to be

spreading, and through that trademark, these trademark tablets, I

had never seen this before, but this obviously is not something

home developed. This is a pretty professional operation, is that correct?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir. Going back about 18 months, Mr. Chairman, and we have gone over and met with the authorities in the

Netherlands, and their authorities are aggressively pursuing it,

and we are coordinating all international leads that we develop domestically. Beyond that, in the Netherlands, I do not know what

else they are doing, but they have pledged full cooperation, and

they have demonstrated that cooperation.

Mr. MICA. Are the laws adequate to deal with some of these new

drugs we are seeing, and also we have heard over and over, the

Internet is sort of an access information point. Do we need to go

back and look at both the penalties for trafficking, and also providing some of this information on illegal substances? Maybe you

could both respond.

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, I believe so. I believe the penalties need to

be enhanced. Clearly by the sentencing that we have seen and

some of the violators that we have arrested and taken to Federal

court, on the State side I am not exactly sure, as each State has

imposed their own penalties.

Mr. MICA. But federally, you would advocate strong or tougher

penalties for trafficking?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. MICA. And what about the use of the Internet as the vehicle

for distribution, sale or information on illegal narcotics?

Mr. VARRONE. Clearly, I think that if new legislation is proposed,

that they should include elements that involved transmission on

the Internet or procurement on the Internet of illegal substances.

Yes, sir.

Mr. MICA. Did you want to respond?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. Yes, sir, please. In reference to the sentencing,

one of the problems we face here in central Florida, I am advised

by some of the task force commanders, especially for heroin, on the

State side, you can arrest them. The sentencing is excellent but you

cannot keep them in jail because they meet bond. On the Federal

side, you can bond them, but the sentencing fails us.

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For 400 grams of heroin, if I am not mistaken, I think you can

get 25 years in State court. You can get off for, I think, 60 months

in the Federal system.

Mr. MICA. So we need to look at those penalties at the Federal

level; of course, we do not have control over State legislation.

The other question I raise today is, our efforts, I know they are

initial efforts with the HIDTA, the High-Intensity Drug Traffic operation, some of them were initial in setting this up. Do we have

adequate resources to deal with the magnitude of the problem we

are seeing now?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. No, sir, I do not think we do. I believe our investigative support center, I think we need one on the west side of the

State to interface with ours here in—it happens to be in Seminole

County. Mr. McDonough referred earlier to an interconnectivity.

That is in the process of national HIDTA. We are going to try and

connect the support centers by region, the southeast region, the

northeast region. But no, we do not have adequate funding, in answer to your question. We could use quite a bit more.

Mr. MICA. Mr. Varrone, you brought some things with you to

show distribution, but you did not describe them. Can you describe

them for the subcommittee? What do you have?

Mr. VARRONE. These are Ecstasy tablets from a variety of seizures that we have had here, that we thought we would bring for

the committee to see.

Mr. MICA. Where were they seized?

Mr. VARRONE. These were seized at Orlando International Airport.

Mr. MICA. How did they come in? Commercial airline?

Mr. VARRONE. These were passenger seizures, and one of them

was on the seizure in the photograph over on the left there, inside

the box. We have had them in a variety of ways. The engines in

this photograph came in C cargo through Jacksonville, if you can

see that one, and the rest of these photographs that you see are

airport-related seizures.

Mr. MICA. These all also have the stamps on them. Are we able

to detect these through some of the electronic or x-ray equipment?

Or can we also detect them with dogs sniffing?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, we have the 13 canines, and we have one

right here in the Orlando area. The x-ray machine will identify a

substance, just a substance in a false compartment or a displacement. As in the suitcase here, you will see a false bottom on the

suitcase, if you went and x-rayed that through our portable x-ray

machine. We also have one of those here in Orlando.

Mr. MICA. Go right ahead, Mr. Towns.

Mr. TOWNS. Canines cannot detect LSD.

Mr. VARRONE. We have not traditionally trained our canines in

the variety of different types of pill detection. I do not know if they

can specifically detect LSD. I do not think so.

Mr. MICA. Do you have what you consider adequate personnel

and resources, technical equipment to deal with this problem we

are seeing here and around the State and country?

Mr. VARRONE. We have a bill, I believe you are aware of it, Mr.

Congressman, the H.R. 1833, which is a large resource request for

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the Customs Service to address all of our issues, our resource

issues, our staffing issues for increases.

Mr. MICA. So basically you want to tell the committee that you

are requesting additional technical personnel, other resources to

deal with this problem?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. MICA. Mr. Towns, do you have any questions?

Mr. TOWNS. Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I guess raising along the same line, Mr. Chairman, I am concerned that the Federal mandatory minimum sentencing law,

which are based on the weight of the drug may not appropriately

look at designer drugs. And I would like for us to look into that

issue. Let me go to my question.

Can any of the witnesses tell me the maximum sentence that

someone receives for trafficking Ecstasy?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. I cannot.

Mr. VARRONE. The average sentence is 5 to 6 years. I do not

know what the maximum sentence has been that has been imposed.

Mr. TOWNS. That is the whole problem, in terms of this whole

weight issue. You know, I see that as a problem, I guess you see

it as a problem too?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. TOWNS. The other thing is that, from a coordination standpoint, you know, are you able to really coordinate the activities between Customs and DEA and the local sheriff and local police department? Do you feel that you have the right kind of cooperation

and coordination at every level?

Mr. VARRONE. I truly believe that, Mr. Towns, the cooperation

between Federal, State and local is, in my opinion, at a level that

I never would have thought a decade ago we could have reached.

But through mechanisms like the HIDTA, through joint investigations, through task force at our major ports of entry, like right here

in Orlando, I think cooperation is outstanding. And there is no case

where we will not ask each other for help, or we will not share information for a common law enforcement purpose.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. If I could, I would agree. It has been a long time

coming, I think it could probably be always improved, but it is better than I have ever seen in my 30 years in narcotic enforcement.

Mr. TOWNS. I am happy to hear that because, in the old days,

you were locking each other up. [Laughter.]

Mr. FERNANDEZ. An understatement.

Mr. TOWNS. But let me ask, just recently this subcommittee had

a hearing about the use of U.S. mail and private couriers to smuggle drugs into the United States. Is the use of mail a problem now?

Mr. VARRONE. Yes. Clearly, the exploitation, if you will, of the

mail to smuggle drugs into the country continues to present a problem to us. There is a lot of effort, there are a lot of seizure activity.

We work closely with the Postal authorities, and we try to make

deliveries to those violators and arrest them.

But it allows anonymity in the process, and people building in

other people who may be unwittings. So it is a real challenge for

us. And the volume of activity, both in the U.S. mail as well as in

the express consignment mail presents a great challenge for us.

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Mr. TOWNS. All right. Thank you very much.

Mr. Chairman, what I am getting ready to say now is for another

hearing and another day. But I must admit that I am a little concerned that a lot of the countries that the drugs are coming from

are countries that we have a treaty with. And that bothers me.

That is a subject for another day.

But anyway, I yield back.

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Towns. Ms. Brown.

Ms. BROWN. Yes. First of all, Mr. Chairman, what kind of street

value is this? You say this came in from Jacksonville?

Mr. VARRONE. I would have to see the seizure and match it up

with the paperwork on it to give you an approximate value of just

that package.

Ms. BROWN. Was this in one shipment?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. If I may?

Ms. BROWN. Yes, sir.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. I would imagine if it is in that bag with one

number, it was seized at one time. I am sure he will—— Ms. BROWN. While he is looking at that, you head up the

HIDTA?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. Yes, ma’am.

Ms. BROWN. We in Jacksonville have been trying to get a

HIDTA, the sheriff applied and the law enforcement have joined together, and I think they even met with the drug czar.

What is your opinion about the need for another HIDTA in the

Jacksonville area, considering that we have the ships come in

through Jackson harbor?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. I would certainly support it. I was born in this

State, I was with DEA for 14 years in Jacksonville, Orlando and

Miami. I believe this entire State should be a HIDTA area, I will

be very honest with you.

Ms. BROWN. The whole State?

Mr. MICA. Would the lady yield?

Ms. BROWN. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MICA. This is a question that, of course, we will have to consider in the next few weeks and months with the drug czar. But

another one of the proposals has been to expand the central Florida

HIDTA on up to Jacksonville. Currently the Federal judicial circuit

runs, I believe, across form Jacksonville all the way to Tampa.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. That is correct.

Mr. MICA. Would you have objection to expansion of the current

HIDTA? I know you will want additional resources—rather than

create a third HIDTA? Do you think that makes sense?

Mr. FERNANDEZ. I think there are some good aspects and some

probably negative aspects.

Mr. MICA. Could you just briefly——

Mr. FERNANDEZ. I probably do not have the—staffed properly, it

would make good sense. You know, someone would certainly have

to be there to oversee the day-to-day things as I do here. Those people and those coalitions need to be tended to by someone that is

familiar with those sheriffs, chiefs, and the players. But either way,

if the funding were available, I would very much like to see

Brevard County brought into the HIDTA. That is a very major

port. There are two ports there. Very major port in Jacksonville.

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Mr. MICA. Thank you, Ms. Brown.

Mr. VARRONE. Yes, I have the answer for you. This package is

approximately 30 pounds, and its street value would be about $2

million.

Ms. BROWN. $2 million.

Mr. MICA. A lot of profit in that.

Ms. BROWN. Mr. Chairman, just a technical, several people in the

hall mentioned that they would like, since they will not have opportunity to testify, I suggested that you have a procedure they can

submit?

Mr. MICA. Right. And Mr. Towns has requested that the record

be open for a period of 2 weeks, and anyone who would like to submit testimony—again, we had many, many requests for testimony.

Because again, we are already running out of time, given the

schedule of members, but because of the limitations we have, we

have had to have representative presentations here.

But everyone is welcome, and if they will address their request

to have testimony made part of the record, that will be done so.

And just to contact us, or Ms. Brown or Mr. Towns will be glad to

work with them to make certain that their testimony is a part of

the permanent record of this hearing.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Did you have any other questions?

Ms. BROWN. No. I think that this has been very, very educational

for all of us, and I am hoping that we will move forward on two

or three fronts.

One, I think we seriously must look at the Internet. I do not

know the answer to that, but I think we need a hearing, as it relates to the availability of drugs and other kinds of problems that

we are experiencing. With some of the positive, there is some negative to protecting our young people.

And in addition, we all agree that education and prevention is

important, but we also probably need to move forward with some

additional law enforcement in the area of Florida, as far as HIDTA

is concerned, and perhaps Jacksonville, in addition to other areas,

we look toward expanding the program.

Mr. MICA. Thank you.

Well, we have had an opportunity to just really touch the surface

of some of the problems we are seeing, both in our community and

across the Nation, and particular focus today on Ecstasy. As to our

own local community, I grow even more concerned, the numbers

you cited, what was it, 78——

Mr. FERNANDEZ. Pounds of heroin?

Mr. MICA [continuing]. Heroin deaths a year ago, and then—or

2 years ago, and we are up to 80 this past year.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. That is correct.

Mr. MICA. Plus in previous meetings I have had with HIDTA

representatives and law enforcement representatives, that only

shows part of the picture, because the overdoses and the emergency

room admissions for heroin are up again dramatically in this area.

The only thing that is saving more lives is the availability to medical treatment and a little bit more sophisticated, quicker approach

in saving people. But even so, we are seeing an increase in that

area.

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Now the problem of club drugs, in particular Ecstasy, which is

another plague in this community and across the country, we have

taken several hits of dramatic proportions. We are going to have

to redouble our efforts. The HIDTA is new, and we may have to

refocus some of our attention in the law enforcement area.

This hearing has also demonstrated the need for education and

prevention methods, and they really need to be developed on an unprecedented scale. We are never going to get a handle on this if we

do not. And then also treatment, how important that is, effective

treatment. So it is going to take a multi-faceted approach, the

international problems that we face, seeing the flood of these drugs

coming in across our borders also needs to be addressed.

But I want to thank the two witnesses for being with us. I look

forward to working with Customs, the Commissioner has done an

outstanding job, Mr. Kelly and others there, with sometimes

strained resources. To our HIDTA representative, also, thank you

and the local and State officials for your efforts in trying to organize an effective and coordinated law enforcement effort.

And I particularly want to again thank my colleagues, Ms.

Brown who has joined us today taking time out of her schedule,

and concerned about this community, and the larger problem we

face across the Nation. And then also salute my former chairman,

who I worked with and who has joined our panel, the panel I have

the honor to chair, and thank him for his cooperative efforts on this

hearing and many other issues we have worked together on in Congress.

Did you have any other further business, Ms. Brown, Mr. Towns?

Mr. TOWNS. No. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to

working with you.

Mr. MICA. Thank you. We will excuse the panelists at this time.

We may have additional questions we would like to submit for the

record, some additional data we would like to make part of that,

and we will try to do that within the period left open.

There being no further business to come before the Subcommittee

on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources at this

time, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

[Whereupon, at 12:44 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

[NOTE.—The publication entitled, ‘‘Drug Identification, Designer

and Club Drugs Quick Reference Guide,’’ by Detective Scott W.

Perkins may be found in subcommittee files.]

[Additional information submitted for the hearing record follows:]

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