Cambodia to destroy all 'ecstasy oil' stocks

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Cambodia to destroy all 'ecstasy oil' stocks


Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:05am EST

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Cambodia is cracking down on a raw ingredient for the club-drug ecstasy by wiping out stocks of an oil made from the roots of a rare rainforest tree, an official said on Thursday.

Cambodian authorities, with help from Australian police, will destroy 14 tonnes of sassafras, an ingredient for cosmetics but also a precursor chemical to make methylenedioxymethamphetamine, more commonly known "MDMA" or the party drug ecstasy.

The amount represents all known stocks of sassafras oil in Cambodia and will be the second-largest volume destroyed since the authorities made the oil illegal in 2007, said Cambodia Police Major General Meas Vyrith.

"It is dangerous," Meas Vyrith told Reuters. "It would make people become victims of the drug."

The crackdown is also aimed at preserving a rare tree found deep in Cambodia's jungles. The roots and trunk of the M'rea Prov Phnom tree provide the source of the oil. Illegal logging is threatening the tree with extinction.

"Without the right measures, they would all be destroyed," said Meas Vyrith, who is also a deputy secretary-general of Cambodia's anti-drug committee.

The oil will be destroyed on Friday in Battambang province, about 300 km (186 miles) northwest of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, using an Australian Federal Police technique aimed at minimising smoke and environmental damage, Meas Vyrith said.

Cambodia destroyed 35 tonnes of the oil in 2007. (Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Alex Richardson)
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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE60Q05U
 
Yeah I'm sure THIS mass oil dump will be the one that works to stop people from wanting to do drugs! I'm SUUUURE this will eliminate the demand.. I mean sure it didn't work before, but this time will be different!

Stupid twats, they're just speeding up the destruction of the forests, all that oil will be replaced, and will probably be more violently protected. Way to go guys, keep tryin to stop drug usage, it's workin out so well for you so far..
 
oh SHIT.

wtf?!?!

If they destroy 14 tonnes of it, ...

The fucking workers are going to DECIMATE the forest to replenish their stocks

Isn't this the logical outcome??
 
How is destroying oil going to stop trees being cut down. for fucks sake im sick of stupid shit being done in the name of drugs.

How about we allow the synthetic production of this precursor chemical to tackle th demand??

Or how about we invest the money used to stop the unwinnable war on stopping illegal logging??
 
sdripper said:
oh SHIT.

wtf?!?!

If they destroy 14 tonnes of it, ...

The fucking workers are going to DECIMATE the forest to replenish their stocks

Isn't this the logical outcome??
Click to expand...

This is exactly the type of thing that Cambodia should have thought about before greenlighting this. Does a tree really need to go extinct over something like this? Like they are really ever going to give up as long as there are trees left.
 
all that money could have been spent replanting a controlled forest, now more trees and in all probability PEOPLE will die because of this

"It is dangerous," Meas Vyrith told Reuters. "It would make people become victims of the drug."
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Those pills wouldn't have shot people, the guys out in the jungle protecting their stocks will
 
^they must be going off all the success of burning coca fields.. haven't you noticed there's no more cocaine anymore?..oh wait..
 
"It is dangerous," Meas Vyrith told Reuters. "It would make people become victims of the drug."
Click to expand...


I don't mind being a "victim of the drug", it's being a victim of the government that worries me. The "harm" of prohibited drugs is way overblown and too little is said of the benefits. Even prescription drugs come with a list of potentially harmful effects.
 
A deal between the Australian Government and Cambodia.

At the expense of Cambodia....

I'm sure the Australian Government couldn't care a less about the ecology or social stability of such a poor country.

So long as it is in the interest of Australia to make itself 'safe' from Ecstasy.

Throw the Cambodians a few million dollars to destroy their forest !

Yeah right. :X
 
It would be rather naive to assume that what's reported here is entirely factual. Poor SE Asian countries and 3rd world countries in general aren't well known for being free of corruption, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if someone in the Cambodian govt or with access to the Cambodian govt or this particular enforcement action is bringing this valuable oil to market. This enforcement action could serve the Cambodian govt politically and financially in a number of ways, better relations with the Aussies being only one. I'm sure Hun Sen has calculated how this should effect the govt's popularity in Cambodia and factored that in to this decision too.

Some kind of oil will be destroyed in front of the Aussies and some oil warehouses/labs were found or documented with the Aussies, but do you believe the Aussies are holding on to the bulk of this oil between when it was found or documented and when it'll be destroyed? The black market value of what they are claiming to destroy could probably be expressed as a non-trivial percentage of Cambodia's GDP... It would be worth risking a career (not that there'd be much risk if played right and the right people got their share of profits) for just about any Cambodian with opportunity to do something corrupt here. Also, who knows how many orgs in this industry got invited to pay the Cambodian govt to keep their oil biz and stockpiles safe.

Maybe the Aussies and some Cambodians involved believe in the war on drugs, but for this to have taken place in Cambodia it has to seriously benefit all the right people in Cambodia politically and financially. It's all money and politics.
 
thinctwo said:
It would be rather naive to assume that what's reported here is entirely factual. Poor SE Asian countries and 3rd world countries in general aren't well known for being free of corruption, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if someone in the Cambodian govt or with access to the Cambodian govt or this particular enforcement action is bringing this valuable oil to market...

Maybe the Aussies and some Cambodians involved believe in the war on drugs, but for this to have taken place in Cambodia it has to seriously benefit all the right people in Cambodia politically and financially. It's all money and politics.
Click to expand...

Nail on the head.

A) The Cambodian government does fuck all to stem the tide of drugs. Sure, they'll occasionally burn a pile of crystal meth or heroin in some public anti-drug show to appease aid donors, but too many powerful people in the military are linked to the drug trade for any serious action to be taken. Hell, they found 8,000 meth pills in the desk of one of Phnom Penh's main anti-narcotics chiefs a few months ago.

B)Even if there was some concentrated effort to crack down on drugs, it would be very hard to implement, given the lack of resources and the remoteness of the Cardamom Mountain range (where the trees are harvested from). The last major lab to be busted was actually discovered by the World Wildlife Fund.

C)Barely anyone in Cambodia uses ecstasy, so I'm not sure why the government is all of a sudden so keen to crack down on this "menace", unless someone in Australia is pumping lots of cash into this.
 
Mike E said:
A deal between the Australian Government and Cambodia.

At the expense of Cambodia....

I'm sure the Australian Government couldn't care a less about the ecology or social stability of such a poor country.

So long as it is in the interest of Australia to make itself 'safe' from Ecstasy.

Throw the Cambodians a few million dollars to destroy their forest !

Yeah right. :X
Click to expand...


agreed. i cant believe i was ever fool enough to want to live in oz. this totalitarian shit seems to be the new norm for the land down under
 
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