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Ecstasy Trafficking Penalties Hiked

On May 1 this year the U.S. Sentencing Commission increased the guidelines and penalties for the drug "ecstasy" by making punishment for having one gram the equivalent of having 500 grams of marijuana, or slightly more than one pound.

Steven K. Sharpe, a special assistant U.S. Attorney, of Cheyenne, Wyoming said the U.S. Sentencing Commission in its report to Congress in May said it was increasing the penalties for ecstasy trafficking after receiving hundreds of written comments from physicians, clinicians, academic researchers, users, defense attorneys and other interest groups.

The commission said ecstasy has the capacity to cause lasting physical harm, including brain damage, and is being abused by an increasing number of teenagers and young adults.

The commission chose a greater penalty structure for ecstasy trafficking than for powder cocaine trafficking because unlike ecstasy, powder cocaine is not neurotoxic nor is it aggressively marketed to youth as ecstasy is, the report said.

Moreover, powder cocaine is only a stimulant, but ecstasy acts as both a stimulant and hallucinogen.

"It is becoming the fastest growing abused drug in the United States," Sharpe said. "It's what's called a club drug. It is the ultimate "feel good" drug."

The National Drug Intelligence Center, a Department of Justice agency responsible for collecting strategic domestic drug counter intelligence information, said the use of ecstasy has increased at an alarming rate "making its potential threat equal to that of cocaine and heroin," the report said.

The commission's report said that while ecstasy has been widespread in dance clubs and at "rave" parties nationally it also has been reported in school areas and shopping malls.

The most immediate threat is harm to the user, Nationally, ecstasy-related hospital emergency department visits jumped from 250 in 1994 to 2,850 in 1999.

But many adolescents think the drug is harmless, the commission report said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has said that 90 percent of the world's ecstasy supply is manufactured in clandestine laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium. New York is the largest American gateway for ecstasy shipments.

Excerpt from a report in the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune on August 10, 2001.