Hunt for ecstasy drug ingredient destroying Cambodia's jungles

Jun 27, 2008, 10:01 GMT

Phnom Penh - Clubbers may claim it is the ultimate love drug, but conservationists Friday warned every tablet of MDMA, known as ecstasy, helps destroy Cambodia's already dwindling rainforest.

In a highly publicized burn earlier this month, Cambodia destroyed enough confiscated sassafras oil, a key ingredient in the illegal drug, to produce 245 million ecstasy tablets with a street value of approximately 7 billion dollars.

But conservation group Flora and Fauna International (FFI), which has been a key instigator in cracking down on the trade, said in a press release received Friday the drug's users may still not understand the serious damage their habit did to the environment.

'Sassafras oil, produced by boiling the roots of rare Mreah Prew Phnom trees, is illegally distilled in (Cambodian) jungles ... for processing into a chemical used to make ecstasy,' the group said.

'To make matters worse, the distillation process itself uses enormous quantities of fuel wood from other rainforest trees.'

As well, FFI said, sassafras oil processing plants are typically located beside streams, polluting the pristine water sources of the protected Cardamom mountains in the country's south-west.

The Mreah Prew Phnom tree (cinnamomum parthenoxylon) is a rare tree rated as data deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

FFI said it supports 49 wildlife officers to root out illegal factories and would continue its efforts to keep them from reopening.

It said the Cardamoms cover over 2-million hectares, and its destruction would potentially release 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide - a serious blow in the fight against climate change.