Ecstacy Production Threatens Rainforests in Cambodia

Something to Consider.

http://usercash.com/go/1/39992/http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090115/NATIONAL/789869245/-1/NEWS

PHNOM PENH // The illegal drugs trade is causing significant environmental damage to parts of Cambodia, according to an international aid agency.

In south-west Cambodia the production of sassafras oil, which is used when making the recreational drug ecstasy, is destroying trees, the local inhabitants’ livelihoods and wreaking untold ecological damage, according to David Bradfield, an adviser to the Wildlife Sanctuaries Project of Fauna and Flora International, who is based in the area.

The sassafras oil comes from the Cardamom Mountain area, one of the last forest wildernesses in mainland South East Asia.

“The illicit distilling of sassafras oil in these mountains is slowly but surely killing the forests and wildlife,” Mr Bradfield said. “The production of sassafras oil is a huge operation, which affects not only the area where the distilleries are actually located, but ripples outward, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake.”

The livelihoods of more than 15,000 people who depend on hunting and gathering to survive in the wildlife sanctuary are at risk from the sassafras production operations, which pollute water and kill wildlife.

Cambodian sassafras oil is highly sought as it is of the highest quality – more than 90 per cent pure, according to the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Cambodia, Lars Pedersen. It is a major precursor drug used in the production of ecstasy.

“Massive amounts of sassafras oil are smuggled every year into Vietnam and Thailand from Cambodia,” he said.

Sassafras Oil is made from the roots of the rare Mreah Prew Phnom tree – also known as Cinnamomum parathenoxylon. The roots are first chopped into small blocks of wood and shredded into fibre consistency. This is then put into large metal vats two metres high and about three metres wide. It is distilled over a wood-driven fire for at least five days before the gas is cooled and the oil created.

Apart from depleting the Mreah Prew Phnom, large numbers of surrounding trees are felled to maintain the fires, undermining the area’s biodiversity. At the current rate, Mr Bradfield said, the Mreah Prew Phnom and other species would become extinct in the near future.

Animal life is also threatened. Deep in the jungle, the factories, which have two or three distilling pots each, are heavily guarded and require dozens workers to maintain the stills. These workers live on the surrounding wildlife in the area, with many involved in the commercial poaching of such rare animals as tigers, pangolins, peacocks, pythons, wild cats and wild fowls.

Streams and rivers are being polluted too by the effluent from the oil production. “There are frequently dead fish and frogs floating in the streams near these distilleries,” Mr Bradfield said.

The contaminated water from this area flows down into the rest of Cambodia through the Mekong and Ton Le Sap rivers and, said Mr Bradfield, poses a threat to populations downstream who rely on the rivers for drinking water. “Water tests in the area need to be carried out as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Four years ago the Cambodian government made the production of sassafras oil illegal in an effort to protect the Mreah Prew Phnom tree. Since then the authorities have tried to eliminate the illicit production factories in the Cardamom Mountains with the help of international organisations.

“Law enforcement is the key to suppressing the illegal trade in sassafras oil,” said Mr Pedersen, the Cambodia UNODC chief. “It’s a very lucrative trade, worth millions and millions of dollars.”

About 50 rangers from the forestry ministry, with the support of independent conservation groups and the UN, are currently policing the area; Mr Bradfield refers to them as “the foot soldiers protecting the forests”.

The rangers spend half the month patrolling the dense, leech-infested jungle of the Cardamom Mountains for a meagre salary, Mr Bradfield said, and face the threat of the machine-gun-carrying mercenaries who guard the factories. Many of the factories are also surrounded by anti-personnel mines.

Flora and Fauna International has supported the rangers for years, providing them with uniforms, equipment and training. They assist in building ranger stations and provide technical advice. The UN Development Fund also supported the project between 2004 and 2006.

The rangers’ task is made all the more difficult because of the potential profits smugglers can make from the trade and the lengths they will go to protect their product.

A year ago the Thai authorities seized more than 50 tonnes of sassafras oil near the Cambodian border on its way to China and the US, according to western anti-narcotics agents who declined to be identified, reported to be worth US$150,000 (Dh550,000).

Had it found its destination, where it would have been used to make ecstasy – it would have produced 7.5 million tablets worth more than $150 million, a western anti-narcotics agent said.

 

Yeah it sucks but all i can think about when i see this is "its a holiday in cambodia...."

 

its not a holiday. read the damn article.

they dont produce the E there, they fucking destroy rainforests and support poachers with money selling the precursors to make it. the E is made in other parts of asia, europe, and the US..they just get the shit to make it from cambodia.

 

Cambodia isn't the only place to get sassafras oil...so why should we feel bad because some lowlife pieces of shit from Cambodia don't care about their own land? Yeah of course it's sad...but I don't think this has anything to do with US. I am sure some of the chemicals and or pills DO make their way to the states, but doesn't mean every E tab we take we should think "Cambodia's rainforests are being killed to get me high..."

Just my opinion. Fucked up shit happens all over the world because of the illegal drug trade.

But yeah, it seems like you are under the suspicion that the ONLY place to get sassafras oil is from Cambodia. If it was, this might seem really fucked up...but it's not.

 

typical childish raver denial.


don't even fucking kid yourself. what little bit of sassafras oil that is manufactured in the united states under industrial scale setting is a list one chemical. its closesly watched. the very reason that the safrole oil trade is so lucrative is the huge demand for it and unavailability. to produce commercial scale ecstacy you need huge barrel drums of the shit. the camphor and other trees of asia contain much more saffrole by weight than american sass. S albidum is only 50-60% sassafras in the raw. you need a fuckload more of the north american species to make the same content of essential oil. the species they are using in cambodia are up to 90% in the unrefined oil! . all the raw oil goes back to china where it is processed and shipped by the barrelloads to other countries.

huge shipments of such barrels have been busted en route from asia to north america. especially mexico and canada where it is easier to smuggle them in by sea route.

did you hear about the biggest drug cash seizure in history? 260 million dollars in cash was found in this mans house in mexico. but guess what, the man wasn't a drug dealer and he wasn't a mexican. he was chinese. and he made all of his money dealing in wholesale methamphetamine and ecstacy precursors which he had the bomb connect for back in China.
http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V2122

If you are in the west coast US, Australia, or Asia, you are eating these pills.
if you have any self respect or compassion and havent fried your brain into something resembling a subhuman troglodyte's , you will boycott ecstacy.

only pure MDMA (most of which is made small scale, with the small amount of sass we have in the US and western Europe) should be taken.

 

Should I feel bad that I didn't read the article and just looked at the pic and thought of col. Kurtz camp in Apocolypse Now and how awesome that movie would be on ectacy?

 

Yes, you should.

 

This is important, but I can see it being used to stigmatize people who take ecstasy, and fuel drug myths. Not to make light of it, but each of us contribute to way more damage to the planet every single day with the food we eat, the cars we drive, the clothes and appliances and electronics we buy, the energy we use, etc. If someone takes ecstasy and it leads to them realizing the damage they do to the planet on a daily basis, and they take action to limit it as much as possible, doesn't it almost balance out? Not that it's ok that this is happening, but it's not unique. It's really not. It goes way beyond the drug issue.

And if ecstasy were legalized there would be no real value in smuggling the oil.

 

don't worry soon all the "rolls" being made will just be BZP...

 

dam, glad to see the war on drugs at work once again.

 

if anything this should stigmatize prohibitionist governments. they are more at fault than the users themselves.

 

i watched that on acid....s'fucked up.

 

I haven't taken ecstasy in over 2 years, so I could care less about your snide remarks.

Not saying it's not fucked up, it is, but regardless it happens everyday, no matter if you stop taking pills or not. The demand will always be there.