http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3168623/Mind-busting-jungle-drug-hits-UK.html#ixzz130KUqllZ

New threat ... border cops seized record £13million of DMT arriving from Amazon

By ANTHONY FRANCE

Published: 07 Oct 2010

A BRAIN-bending jungle drug is set to become a bigger menace than crystal meth on
Britain's streets, it was feared last night.

Border guards have intercepted a record £13million haul of DMT - a powerful
hallucinogen used by Amazon tribes.

Smokers of the crystals almost immediately suffer intense and often terrifying visions.

Side-effects include paranoia and flashbacks weeks or months later.

The Class-A drug has also been linked to schizophrenia.

It is feared smugglers are now trying to flood the UK - as they have in recent years
with deadly methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth.

A senior police source said: "We've never seen quantities of DMT like this. This is
clearly the latest drug trend. Dealers have seen big money to be made here."

The UK Border Agency recently intercepted 126 kilos of DMT being smuggled into
Britain in 15 parcels from Brazil and Peru. Five found at the postal depot at Coventry
Airport were heading for London.

Amazonian spiritual healers have traditionally used vines naturally containing DMT to
make sacred brews, which they claim help users experience the afterlife.

Millions of television viewers saw adventurer Bruce Parry's agonising DMT trip in the
Amazon on the BBC's Tribe in 2008.

He was violently sick and had nightmares.

The drug extract is broken down into smokeable crystals by South American
smugglers. Peter Stoker, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: "We must get
a grip on this before it takes hold of our young. DMT is a nasty piece of work.

"Its consumption under the gaze of seasoned tribal leaders in the Amazon is nothing
like what a UK novice would experience."

DMT, first seen here in the 1970s, costs up to £100 a gram - twice the value of
cocaine because it is so rare. It has been linked to deaths across the world.

In May, Danielle Jacobsen, 17, was found in a pond in Connecticut, US. A coroner
cited DMT as a contributory factor to her death.

A Border Agency spokesman said: "We are determined to protect society from an
activity which can have such a destructive impact."


Read more:
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3168623/Mind-busting-
jungle-drug-hits-UK.html#ixzz131F5VUNS

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