ECSTASY, RITALIN ARE THE NEW DRUGS OF CHOICE ON THE STREET

Today club drugs and prescription drugs are becoming the narcotics of
choice for many young people. Popping ecstasy, which used to be fashionable
primarily at urban rave parties, has become mainstream, and snorting
Ritalin, a prescription drug, is well on its way to becoming a new fad.

While the percentages of young people who use such drugs may be low, the
drugs aren't hard to find at most area middle and high schools.

On a recent day at a prime teenage hangout, Keene's skate park, four 15-
and 16-year-old boys talk about the drugs they've seen at school and at
parties in the Monadnock Region.

Under the diffused light of a gray winter afternoon, they teens hang out on
the edge of a skate ramp. Like most days, they're catching a little air in
the brief window after school and before dinner.

One, a flush-cheeked, brown-eyed Keene High freshman in a tweed cap, plops
down, props elbows on knees, and watches his Rollerblade-clad feet roll
back and forth over the ramp's slick surface.

Next to him, a boy with reddish-brown hair, green eyes and a slight frame
sits with his feet on his skateboard, and unconsciously rocks it side to
side as he talks.

"You can get just about anything you want," he says. "Speed and Ritalin,
though, that's what there's the most of."

"Yeah," a third one mumbled, eyes cast at his skateboard, "and, I have a
friend who just got busted for coke. Six years."

A 16-year-old professed dropout, he wears a black sweatshirt and black,
fingerless gloves. Thinking perhaps of his 19-year-old friend who is now in
jail, he pulls out a pack of Camel filters from his hip pocket, knocks out
a cigarette, and lights up. Two of his companions join him.

The nonsmoker, a 16-year-old sophomore, says the last two years of walking
Keene High's corridors have proven that life as an upperclassman is much
different from life as a middle-schooler. On a Friday afternoon a few weeks
ago, he got a pass from his teacher to go to the bathroom. When he came
out, the hallway was blocked.

"I couldn't get back to my class. They had closed the doors," he remembers.
"And, when I finally did, the teacher got mad at me." The group of
teenagers chuckles ironically.

It was Nov. 17, and the doors were shut because four freshman girls thought
they were overdosing on ecstasy, a popular mind-altering drug. They were
swiftly carted off in ambulances to Cheshire Medical Center.

Police believe the girls actually took ephedrine -- an over-the-counter
antihistamine -- and panicked after they felt their heart rates pick up.
All four girls walked out of the hospital fine.

Police sent extra pills to state labs for testing. Until the results
return, which could take a few months, the suspect in the case can not be
charged, Keene police detective Timothy Peloquin said.

The pills "were tentatively ID'd as ephedrine by their markings and other
things," Peloquin said. "But, beyond that, I can't comment because it's an
open case and it's a juvenile case."

Peloquin, the police department's right-hand man at the high school,
handles most situations involving juveniles. Though the detective couldn't
say whether the girls purchased the drugs or were given them, a 15-year-old
Keene High sophomore was taken to the station that day. However, the
teenager has not been charged with any crime, Peloquin said.

"When certain analyses are complete, it's fairly certain that charges will
be forthcoming," he said.

Keene High School Principal William Savage said the event was an isolated
incident.

"One would have to have their head in the sand" to think there aren't drugs
at the high school or in Keene, but it's not just young people who are
taking them, Savage said.

"We do run into marijuana or some paraphernalia, a pipe, but that's about
the extent of what we see," he said. "This is a far more restrictive area
than out on the streets or during the weekends. There are a couple hundred
of adults in this building all of the time."

From Peloquin's perspective, drug use runs in highs and lows; it's in a
high right now. He's seen a lot of fads come and go, and recalls when it
was all the rage to sniff carpet cleaner.

What's different right now isn't so much the amount of drugs teens are
taking, but the type.

"A couple of years ago, crack made its debut. Nowadays, there's more club
and designer drugs," he said.

Specifically, ecstasy. A hallucinogenic amphetamine, ecstasy -- described
by enthusiasts as "happiness in a pill" -- can be made in the kitchen, with
a combination of sassafras or nutmeg oil and synthetic chemicals.

The drug gained popularity in the early 1980s, and had been taken primarily
at urban rave parties. Today, its enthusiasts exist outside the underground
dance-scene subculture. A recent report by Partnership for a Drug-Free
America found ecstasy use has doubled among teens since 1995, and one in 10
teens has experimented with the drug.

"You can get anything you want at the high school," Peloquin said. "And,
you can probably get everything at the middle school. Without question,
getting a bag of marijuana at the middle school is no problem."

The Keene High students at the skate park agree: "If you know the right
people, you can get anything," the redhead says. They said they've seen
coke, speed, crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy.

INCREASE IN NUMBERS

A study of 509 randomly selected Keene State College students reported a
significant increase in the number of students who had tried ecstasy or
other designer drugs in the last six years. In 1994, only one student of
509 said they had tried a designer drug, including ecstasy. Last spring,
that figure shot up to more than 40 students.

But, looking at the big picture, this is only a small percent of the entire
college, which has 4,600 students, said Jim Matthews, special assistant to
the vice president for alcohol and other drug programs at Keene State College.

"The use of ecstasy has risen dramatically. I know that from research and
from what students tell me," Matthews said. "But most students don't do it,
and they don't get talked about. It's the others -- those who overdose and
die -- who get the high profile."

Dr. Mark Parker, medical director of emergency care at Cheshire Medical
Center, is the one who handles the high profile, or near high profile,
cases. As he puts it, Parker takes care of those who "didn't get what they
bargained for, the ones who had seizures or bad trips, or somebody got
scared and brought them in because they weren't acting right."

He has seen an increase of patients in the past few years on ecstasy trips
gone awry. In one case, a Keene State College girl was brought in last
summer in a continuous seizure, he said. It took him and other emergency
doctors two hours to get her out of the seizure. They put her under and got
her on a respirator. Luckily, she walked out of the hospital after a couple
of days in the intensive care unit.

"She could have had significant brain damage," Parker said.

Parker said the girl's reaction wasn't that rare, because ecstasy causes
sodium levels to drop, resulting in high fevers and seizures.

"The real scary part is that a certain percentage, probably below 10
percent, even in the normal dose, a certain percentage will have an
idiosyncratic reaction," he said. In other words, they could end up in the
hospital or worse, he said.

Another drug that has recently been landing young people into Parker's care
is ketamine, an anesthetic used on horses and other large animals.

Over Halloween, several teenagers were brought to Cheshire Medical Center's
emergency room uncontrollably drooling and sweating, he said. The drug,
which goes by street name Special K, basically has the affect of getting a
full-body shot of Novocaine. It induces general anesthesia while keeping
its user awake. The withdrawal from Special K induces hallucinations.

"That's what the kids are aiming for, the withdrawal phenomenon," Parker
explained. But, sometimes the withdrawal is terrifying, unpleasant
hallucinations and excessive excretions. More than being in physical
danger, the teenagers were scared, and they walked out of the hospital
fine, Parker said.

However, in the bigger picture, the latest, trendiest way to get stoned is
- -- and has always been -- outranked by abuse of the age-old favorite, alcohol.

Parker estimated 90 percent of emergency cases stem from alcohol abuse.
Right now, he places ecstasy and ketamine in second and third places.

Dr. Joseph Bergman, medical director of psychiatry at Cheshire Medical
Center, counsels teenagers with behavioral and emotional problems.

He said 60 percent of his patients have moderate to significant
substance-abuse problems, and the majority of the abuse is alcohol- and
marijuana-related. The hospital has 10 beds for overnight patients, who can
stay for up to a week.

"Keene's not a leader in the new experimental street drugs that come out,
but we're pretty much around with the norm," Bergman said. "In terms of
access and amount per population, I think we're right up there" with cities
of similar sizes.

Bergman said teens, like adults, turn to alcohol and marijuana first, with
cocaine in close pursuit, followed by the trend of the moment.

He said most drug abuse is a symptom of larger problems -- not having
enough to do, wanting desperately to fit in, not getting enough from family.

"A lot of them are just experimenting. And a lot want to fit in," he said.
"The drug groups are accepting. They don't care if you're good-looking or
if you're popular. They don't care if you're thin or fat, nice or not nice,
so long as you are using. It's a place where a lot of kids who don't feel
welcome otherwise feel welcome."

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

In the psychiatric unit, Bergman has observed an increase in the number of
teenagers using drugs in the past several years -- especially prescription
drugs.

One trend he has noticed picking up is snorting Ritalin, a prescription
drug used to treat attention deficit disorder, which, when snorted, has
similar effects as speed. It increases heart rate and blood pressure.

"The number of kids that are using has increased. The number of different
medications kids are using has increased. They seem to be trying all
different kinds. Either prices are down or kids have more money," Bergman said.

In fact, Bergman said his patients have told him they also have snorted
anti-depressants, and claimed it got them high, though that's not
physiologically possible.

Peloquin, too, has noticed an increase in Ritalin showing up in drug busts
in the past year. He estimated having confiscated Ritalin five times in the
past year, when the prescription drug was never seen before.

"Kids with prescriptions are selling drugs," Peloquin said. "It's a
national trend. It's nothing unique to Cheshire County."

These reports coincide with what the teenagers at the skate park had to say:

"Ritalin's the easiest to get because kids with prescriptions have it," the
redhead said.

Though snorting Ritalin doesn't typically land you in the emergency room --
indeed, Parker has not seen any patients on it -- the fad raises a couple
of issues. One, it's illegal to possess prescription drugs without a
prescription. And two: What's happening to all the students who should be
taking the medication, but instead are turning a profit?

"They're the ones getting suspended from school, getting in trouble and
failing attendance," Bergman said.

BIG WORRIES REMAIN

ALCOHOL AND MARIJUANA

Despite the documented rise in the use of ecstasy at the college (and
nationwide), and a rise in the use of heroin and cocaine, "the majority of
students are not using it," Matthews said.

In addition to heading alcohol and drug prevention program at the college,
Matthews is a member of the adjunct faculty in the chemical dependency
department, and he points to the delicate balance of informing the public
about drug abuse while not exaggerating it. Last week, two major television
networks, MTV and CBS, ran specials on ecstasy.

"One of the problems we face is that, if we keep hitting the public with
statistics of how great a problem it is, we tend to forget about the
majority of students who are not using," Matthews said.

That point is pivotal to preventing abuse in the first place, Matthews
said. Ecstasy and other designer drugs get a high profile in the media,
which may form young people's opinion of how "cool" the drugs are.

"Their perception of using comes from the media. You want to educate them
about the dangers and risks, but you don't want to create the perception
that everyone's doing it," Matthews said.

Furthermore, recipes for ecstasy are easily found on the Internet, which
not only makes it easier to manufacture, but raises the issue of what
ingredients are being added, "if it's being made correctly, if I could use
that word," Matthews said.

But, in talking about drugs, Matthews focuses on marijuana, which he
categorizes as the No. 2 drug of choice, after alcohol, at Keene State
College -- and a major problem for the emotional and intellectual growth of
his students.

"They say, well, it's natural, so it must be fine," Matthews said, but then
quickly debunked the point, pointing to a study that showed 100,000 people
went to rehabilitation for marijuana addiction in 1995. He said the drug
stunts the learning process and emotional development of its users.

"The perception is that it's not addictive. But there's enough evidence
that indicates that chronic users will go through withdrawal when they
stop," he said.

In Matthews' view, the key to getting drug use to decline is for people to
have the perception that it's dangerous.

"Two things about ecstasy," Matthews said. "It's perceived as not being
very dangerous. And users don't see it as being dangerous. Many people are
able to use it without having anything occur.

"That feeds the perception of it not being dangerous."