Asian Speed Shows Up, Feds Feed USA Today "New Drug" Story
"Fed Raid Targets New Asian Drug," screamed the
headline in USA Today on August 21, as Gannett Corporation headline writers dutifully regurgitated a story spoon-fed their reporter by US Customs officials. The feds had busted 10 people in the Sacramento area on conspiracy charges for attempting to import a "new drug," known as "Ya Ba," into the United States. The "new drug," however, is not so new: Ya Ba (Thai for "crazy medicine") is plain old methamphetamine, produced in pill form by mass production laboratories operated by Burmese rebels the
United Wa States Army.
The stuff has fed a speed frenzy across Southeast Asia and has been dribbling into the US for at least the last two years -- Customs said it had seized 45 shipments since 2000 -- but the Sacramento bust appears to mark the coming out party for a new "drug threat." Ya Ba packs a "powerful and long-lasting high stronger than that provided by the club drug Ecstasy," worried USA Today, and more insidiously, the pills are often flavored, "apparently to make them more appealing to young people," Customs told the newspaper.
The "powerful methamphetamine from Asia is gaining favor among teens and young adults on the West Coast," Customs warned USA Today. Heck, maybe they'll stop blowing themselves up with kitchen meth labs.
from DRCnet
[ 31 August 2002: Message edited by: johnboy ]