03-11-2019
The environmental impacts of MDMA production warrant consideration
By Casey Hofford
Earth.com staff writer
[excerpt]
Like most illicit drugs, MDMA is produced in clandestine labs with no regulation or oversight. These labs exist all around the world. They rely on heavily controlled compounds as the building blocks for MDMA synthesis. The production of these precursors is threatening a rare Cambodian tree and the wildlife refuge in which it is found.

Mreah Prew Phnom
Amongst this treasure trove of diversity is a tree called Mreah Prew Phnom (Cinnamomum parthenoxylon). This tree is endemic (found nowhere else) to these forests. Nearly all of them grow within the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. This species has not been well researched, and the IUCN has too little data to determine it’s population status.

What is known is that Mreah Prew Phnom is disappearing at an alarming rate. This Cambodian tree shares something with American Sassafras. The roots of this tree contain safrole. Because of this, the tree is being dug up and harvested to produce safrole oil for the illegal manufacture of MDMA.

Though it has been illegal to harvest this plant in Cambodia since 2004, the practice continues. Illegal factories operate within the forest. Trees are uprooted, and their roots are shredded. These safrole containing roots are extracted and then the safrole is distilled. Distilled safrole is then smuggled out of the country to laboratories that produce MDMA.

Environmental destruction on a massive scale
In order to produce a barrel of safrole, four Mreah Prew Phnom trees are killed. In addition, each tree harvested requires six more trees to be felled for firewood to power the extraction.

The scale of this deforestation is revealed by the amount of safrole seized by authorities. In one bust in 2008 1,278 barrels were seized. This equates to over 5,000 Mreah Prew Phnom trees and 7,000 other trees burned for fuel. The rate of destruction could wipe out the rare Mreah Prew Phnom trees in as little as 5 years.

This industry harms the environment in many ways. Operating unregulated, clandestine factories in the middle of a protected wildlife reserve has dire consequences. Dead fish and frogs float in the rivers downstream from these factories. The distillation of the oil requires cool water to condense the final product. The makeshift distillation equipment in these facilities leaks the carcinogenic safrole into the water. The pollution of these factories threatens the many rare and endangered species in these forests.

Human Impacts
These practices also affect the indigenous residents of this Wildlife Sanctuary. Poisoned water sources, damaged ecosystems, and risks of violence all threaten these people.

The safrole extraction industry is run by large criminal organizations. These groups are associated with human trafficking and wildlife poaching. Because of their unregulated, illegal nature, these facilities are heavily guarded. Land mines are even used to deter unwanted attention.
Full article: https://www.earth.com/news/environmenta ... roduction/

A look back in time from the NGO Wildlife Alliance:
How a rainforest in Asia supplied the world’s ecstasy
17 June 2020

Rangers stand by a destroyed safrole oil factory after a raid in 2009.

It’s 2009 and Wildlife Alliance rangers are patrolling deep in the Cardamom Mountains rainforest to destroy enough of the key ingredient in ecstasy to disrupt supplies to the UK illegal drug market. At one stage, Cambodia’s famous Cardamom Mountains were at the epicenter of global ecstasy production. Despite this, it didn’t take long before a series of major crackdowns led to the war on ecstasy in the Cardamoms being over.

The source of the key ingredient is a rare tree scattered throughout the Cardamom Mountains, known as Mreah Prew in Khmer. Grinding down and boiling the roots of the tree leaves you with the highly sought after key ingredient, safrole oil.

In 1999, neighbouring Vietnam outlawed safrole oil production and, in 2004, China decided to take a stronger stance on controlling its production, shifting the attention to Cambodia as a source country. By the early 2000s, criminal networks were capitalizing on the rare tree, with jungle laboratories scattered throughout the rainforest, desperately trying to meet global demand after the illegal drug had shot up in popularity in Europe.

Logging of Mreah Prew trees was not the only environmental effect that the rush for safrole oil had on the Cardamom Mountains rainforest. Forest was cleared for laboratories to produce the oil and leakage into nearby streams was causing an environmental catastrophe. Factory workers were also poaching wildlife to be sold into the illegal pet trade or as bushmeat to restaurants.

Despite the practice being made illegal in Cambodia in 2007, the peak of the crackdown didn’t come until 2009 when Government Officials and a coalition of NGOs, including Wildlife Alliance, destroyed 5.7 tonnes of Safrole oil, enough to produce 44 million ecstasy tablets with a street value of $1.2 billion. The knock-on effect was so large it affected global ecstasy production. Searching for new alternatives to the oil, criminal networks turned to similar alternative synthesizes to fill the drop in supply, some of which were deadly and possibly linked to ecstasy related deaths in the UK. In fact, in 2009 a survey found that half of ecstasy seized in the UK was found to contain no MDMA, the active chemical ingredient.

Since the major crackdowns in 2009, no safrole oil factories have been sighted in the 1.4 million hectares of the Cardamom Mountains patrolled by Ministry of Environment – Wildlife Alliance rangers. Despite this, with the constant threat of logging and poaching, the work of the rangers to protect one of Asia’s last great rainforests is never over.
https://www.wildlifealliance.org/how-a- ... s-ecstasy/

Forbidden fruit Always tastes better