Six individuals, including three UW-Madison students, who pleaded guilty this fall to the largest known distribution of ecstasy in Wisconsin, were sentenced Friday.
UW-Madison seniors Ashkan Farhadieh, 22, and Matthew Louie, 23, along with junior Ghassan Majdalani, 22, were charged in April for conspiracy and distribution to sell the drug on or around the UW-Madison campus.
Farhadieh received five years and five months in prison, while Louie received two months less. Majadalani was handed the shortest sentence of the three, with three years and one month in prison.
The three other men involved in the ring were given sentences ranging from two years to five years and 10 months. The ring was found by U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb to have distributed 116,000 pills between January 2000 and December 2001.
Ecstasy, whose scientific name is methylenedioxymethamphetamine, alters the user's mood, sleeping patterns and emotional behavior. In large doses the drug causes an increase in body temperature leading to dehydration and possibly death. Recent studies have shown the drug also causes brain damage.
The prosecution said it was pleased with the sentencing, which it hopes served as a warning of the dangers of using and selling the drug.
\The popular idea that ecstasy is an innocuous 'hug drug' is wrong,"" U.S. Attorney J.B. Van Hollen said.
