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- WORLD, Page 49World NotesWEST GERMANYMore Bad Chemistry
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- The noxious cloud hanging over Imhausen-Chemie keeps growing
- thicker. Under fire for its alleged complicity in the building
- of a poison-gas factory in Libya, the West German chemical
- company is besieged by criticism from its own employees, who
- fear their jobs will be lost unless President Jurgen
- Hippenstiel-Imhausen resigns. Two weeks ago Imhausen's
- second-in-command took a drug overdose in an apparent suicide
- attempt. Now comes news that the firm is involved in the
- illegal production and sale of MDMA, a designer drug commonly
- known as "ecstasy."
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- German prosecutors say Imhausen has supplied U.S. drug
- traffickers with 374 lbs. of MDMA, worth up to $27 million on
- the street. Two Americans and one Imhausen employee have been
- arrested. While Imhausen has admitted manufacturing the drug,
- company officials claim they were unaware the substance was
- illegal. Ironically, Imhausen could face stiffer penalties if
- convicted of breaking local narcotics laws than for helping a
- foreign country make deadly chemical weapons.
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