In spite of a well-publicized police crackdown on designer drugs, the demand for ecstasy in Taiwan continues to rise unabated, a 'Taipei Times' special investigation has found.
Following trends in the West, over the past four years, ecstasy -- also known simply as "E" -- has become the ultimate recreational drug of choice among the island's well-heeled and upwardly-mobile youth.
Since 1996, police seizures of the drug have risen more than 60 times, government statistics show.
A new fad is clearly in the making.
"Everyone's just doing it for fashion," said Alan, a 20-year-old makeup artist and occasional club patron.
For him, the ecstasy wave is in the same league with aluminum alloy sun glasses, synthetic fabrics, the pounding of trance beats and all the other reprocessed psychedelia consumed in rave and dance culture.
In response, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou has declared a war on the drug, instructing the capital's police force to close down suspect night clubs and dance parties. Since July, police have closed down at least eight of Taipei's 11 better-known clubs.
Yet while the police's ecstasy hauls are still small in comparison with those of other drugs like heroin and amphetamines, Li Jih-heng, Director-General of the National Bureau of Controlled Drugs, suggests that is soon expected to change. He believes that ecstasy's low statistical presence may be the product of some confusion between ecstasy and amphetamines, which are chemically similar.
Like legitimate products, ecstasy makers use brand names and logos to market their pills. Many are appropriated from the slick designs of corporate pop-culture, taking names like Motorola, Mitsubishi and Ferrari. Other "E" brands are derived from cartoons, like Pokemon, Snoopy and Pink Panther. For the digital flower children types, still more lines play up a natural product image, like the currently popular Tai Chi series, white tiger and several different colors of butterfly.
So far, Taipei police have distributed pictures of at least nine different versions of ecstasy pills to help KTV and pub owners identify the drug.
But the problem exists not just in the clubs. Anecdotal evidence suggests the police crackdowns have served only to shift ecstasy use from the nightclub, into the home.
"If someone wants an `E' they will buy it," said a Taipei drug dealer, who once supplied the club scene. "All that's happening is that it goes underground."
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