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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Drugs
Bureau warns on ecstasy
Ecstasy pills popular among clubbers often contain hazardous additives that have the potential to kill, the National Bureau of Controlled Drugs warned yesterday. According to the Bureau's analysis, the amount of ecstasy in a tablet varied greatly from a low of 36mg to a high of 193mg. Tablets sometimes contain no ecstasy but other drugs such as methamphetamine, amphetamine, ketamine and sedatives like diazepam. "Drug users cannot discern how much ecstasy there will be in tablets. Neither can they predict what other drugs are contained in the ecstasy pill. One possible danger is that they will not stop taking pills until they get high. Unfortunately, this places ecstasy users at a greater risk of a fatal overdose," bureau director-general Li Jih-heng (李志恆) said.

■ Tourism
Kinmen wants tourism
Taiwan opened its doors to Chinese tourists wishing to visit Kinmen and Matsu as part of its "small three links" policies in January 2001, although China failed to give its approval until late September, when Fujian Province Deputy Governor Wang Mei-xiang (王美香) announced that the government was prepared to lift bans on tourism. Prior to the new tourism policies' implementation towards the end of last year, opportunities to tour Taiwan had been limited to Chinese officials on rare occasions. However, Lin Cheng-cha (林振查), director of Kinmen's Transportation and Tourism Bureau, admitted yesterday that tourism figures have not been ideal thus far and were in need of improvement. Just under 600 tourists have visited Kinmen since December.

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