Ecstasy scarce in Medan after police raids

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Ecstasy is hard to come by here after police raided two factories making the drug in Serang, Banten and Malang, East Java recently, an ecstasy user says.

Consequently, the price of the so-termed recreational drug has gone up.

Yudi, not his real name, said the ecstasy circulating in the city came mostly from Jakarta or Tangerang. The pills are dispatched to drug dealers in Binjai who distribute them in Medan.

Fake ecstasy pills, made by profit-driven drug dealers who often do not care which chemicals they use, are also on the market. "Normally two ecstasy pills are mixed with other chemicals to make five," said Yudi.

Because the product is inferior the price is also lower. Whereas an ecstasy pill is usually Rp 100,000, a fake or mixed pill is Rp 50,000, said Yudi.

However, due to the shortage of the drug, an ecstasy pill now costs Rp 200,000 and a mixed one Rp 130,000, said Yudi. "I used to take five pills a week, but now I have reduced my consumption to just one," said Yudi.

The ecstasy factory in Serang, Banten province was raided by police three weeks ago. The factory could produce one million ecstasy pills or tablets a week worth Rp 100 billion (US$10 million).

During the raid, which was led by National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, 62.4 tons of precursor chemicals for the making of methamphetamines was discovered and 6.7 tons of chemicals for ecstasy production. Police also seized thousands of ecstasy pills and hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamines ready to be transported to Hong Kong.

According to the police, the factory was the third largest ever raided after ones in Fiji and China. The factory raided in Malang, East Java had a lower production capacity but several arrests were made and the police are investigating the case.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of the Communication Center for the Antidrug Community in Medan, Ahmad Dayan Lubis, confirmed the shortage of ecstasy in Medan.

Ahmad said ecstasy transactions had dropped by 30 percent since the police raids.

Between January and September this year the Medan Police confiscated 1,599 ecstasy pills from drug suspects.

The use of ecstasy has been linked to a wide range of abnormalities such as impaired memory, chronic depression and panic attacks.