Net recipes blamed for boom in uppers

SYNTHETIC drugs such as amphetamines and Ecstasy have overtaken
cocaine and heroin in popularity worldwide, according a UN
International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) report released this
week. The shift is creating a nightmare for drug enforcement agencies.
The report argues that the proliferation of recipes for
recreational drugs on the Internet has fuelled the surge in consumption
of synthetic drugs. Not only can any curious Net browser find detailed
instructions on the manufacture of Ecstasy from its chemical precursors,
they can also find recipes to obtain the precursors from accessible raw
materials.
Sandeep Chawla, who is senior research coordinator for the
UNDCP, says thatin theory, at leastit is possible to control the
supply of plantderived drugs such as cocaine and heroin by targeting
areas of cultivation. But the precursors of synthetic drugs are much
harder to pin down. "You have a nightmare on your hands if you have
to put every kind of chemical under control," he says.
Between 1978 and 1993, the world volume of seizures of
amphetaminetype stimulants such as speed and Ecstasy increased
ninefold. They are now consumed globally, and the focus of
manufacture has shifted from North America to Europe. More than
half the Ecstasy laboratories detected since 1990 have been in Europe,
and there is anecdotal evidence, says Chawla, that organised crime is
involved. The UNDCP is now looking at measures to tackle this new
wave of drug abuse, says Chawla, including encouraging member
countries to consult Net software companies about ways to filter out
drug recipe information.
But Mike Linnell of the Manchesterbased drugs charity Lifeline
argues that clamping down on Internet drug recipes will not have much
of an effect. He says the main reasons for the explosion in the use of
synthetic drugs are their low price and the fact that users are not
stigmatised in the same way as heroin "junkies".
Laura Spinney