Ecstasy Produced for 'Riot Control' in South Africa
According to Reuters, on June 9 1998 a fomer South African government
scientist told South Africa's Truth Commission that in the final days of
apartheid the government ordered its chemists to make one tonne of ecstasy,
for 'riot control'.
The scientist, Dr Johan Koekemoer, former head of chemical and biological
weapons research at the secret Delta G facility, told the commission that
he did not approve of the project and did not trust the motives of those
who asked him to make the ecstasy, saying "I did not believe ecstasy
was a good incapacitant and I told my superiors that...ecstasy enhances
interpersonal relationships. I told Dr Mijburgh [overall chief of Delta
G] I did not want to kiss my enemy". He personally delivered the ecstasy,
in powder form, to Mijburgh between February 1992 and January 1993.
More details on the case from a correspondent in South Africa:
"At the moment, there is an ongoing commission of inquiry being
held into the activities of the secret service during the apartheid years.
The last few days of the inquiry have lifted the lid on the activities of
a clandestine government laboratory called the Roodeplaat Research Laboratory.
Evidence presented by former lab employees at the commission of inquiry
this week, reveal that the laboratory produced all sorts of exotic poisons
for use against anti-apartheid activists. These included cyanide, thallium,
botulism and paraquat - and, wait for it, ecstasy.
According to evidence presented this week, between February 1992 and
January 1993, no less than 912kg of Ecstasy `in pure crystalline form' was
manufactured by the laboratory. Working on a tab dosage of say 125mgs, that's
enough E for 73 million hits! The evidence being presented to the commission
is that the E was going to be used to `incapacitate the enemy'.
The shadowy figure behind the E production was the former head of the
army special operations called Wouter Basson who is now facing criminal
charges for being in possession of E a year or two back. The evidence presented
in court was that he was having the E manufactured for `incapacitating the
enemy', but the word is that he was was producing it for international distibution
in order to make himself a whole lot of money. In fact, quite a bit of this
E turned up last year amongst the local rave community. It came in brown
capsules and was judged to be 'very good stuff'.
The word from a journalist friend of mine who was been doing a lot of
research into the activities of the former apartheid government, is that
a lot of Basson's E found its way into the mouths of many of the army and
police personnel who were keeping the regime going. Well, it wasn't long
before the government capitulated and handed over the country to Mandela's
ANC party. One wonders how much of an effect the E had in this change of
heart!
Anyway, the word is that Basson has a great deal of the original 912kg
of ecstasy hidden away somewhere in South Africa. And if he manages to escape
a prison sentence, this E will doubtless continue to find its way onto the
local market. Since the quality of E here in South Africa has declined sharply
this year (in line with trends in Europe and the UK) the local ravers are
waiting with baited breath for the re-emergence of `Basson's Brownies' as
they have come to be known......"
