Cambodia to destroy all Ecstasy stocks

Prak Chan Thul (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 MDMA (methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine), 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. More>>

• "Ecstasy" Damages the Brain and Impairs Memory in Humans

These brain scans show the amount of serotonin activity over a 40-minute period in a non-MDMA user (top) and an MDMA user (bottom). Dark areas in the MDMA user's brain show damage due to chronic MDMA use.