Most Ecstasy peddlers buy their drugs overseas, especially in the Netherlands, Superintendent Magno said. “Their parents have money, but don’t have the least idea what their kids are doing,” he said.

Moreover, the image of machine gun-wielding drug bandits is the furthest thing from the minds of users who have found themselves in handcuffs for selling Ecstasy, or sometimes for sharing a few pills with friends.

“They refer to drug dealers as ‘them,’ the guys in the slums,” Superintendent Magno said.

Drug laws in Brazil protect those who have completed a university degree, placing them in special prisons. But even one credit short of graduation means being dumped in with the general prison population.

Lucas, a 24-year-old native of Rio de Janeiro, was in his second year of university when he was caught by the police at a São Paulo airport after bringing in skunk, a more potent form of marijuana, from Amsterdam. The police accused him of having Ecstasy, and scoured his bags for pills to no avail.

After a failed negotiation between his lawyer and the police  he said he offered 30,000 reals or about $13,000 to avoid being charged as a dealer  he was convicted and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. He ended up serving two and a half.

“I was treated like a hardcore criminal and put in jail together with killers, kidnappers, you name it,” said Lucas, who agreed to be interviewed as long as his last name not be used, for fear of police retribution.

In prison, he said he endured twice monthly blitzes, in which guards would enter the cells and beat prisoners while in search of drugs, cellphones and guns.