DEA CHIEF: ADULTS NEED DRUG EDUCATION TOO

Asa Hutchinson wasn't too thrilled last month when his 18-year-old son said
he wanted to go to a rave.

Hutchinson, a Republican congressman from Arkansas, was hand-picked just
weeks before by President George W. Bush to take charge of the Drug
Enforcement Agency. Hutchinson knew raves were connected with club drugs
like Ecstasy, a hallucinogenic wrapped up in a small, $25
euphoria-producing pill. But his son persisted, and offered a surprising
proposal.

"He said, 'Dad, I'm just going for the music, and if you have any doubts
about it, why don't you go with me?' " Hutchinson recalled Wednesday in a
packed hotel ball-room in Oak Brook.

The room was filled with Chicago suburban detectives, as well as law
enforcement officials from 13 states, all attending "Dancing with
Darkness," a two-day conference on club drugs.

Hutchinson said his own education as a father then came swiftly. The
promoter had billed the rave as alcohol- and drug-free. It was to have a
full security staff. It was supposed to be safe.

So Hutchinson agreed to go. His son, who Hutchinson didn't want named, was
so happy he announced his dad's intention to attend on the rave's Web site.

That, in turn, got the Little Rock area buzzing, Hutchinson said. The
rave's promoter even asked to meet Hutchinson.

The day of the rave, a call came from DEA officials who apparently also
kept an eye on the promoter's Web site. The message: Don't go to the rave.

Within hours, federal agents arrested the promoter and charged him with
conspiracy to distribute 1,000 Ecstasy pills.

Hutchinson said he told the story of his son to drive home his main theme:
Battling club drugs - which local suburban narcotics officials said is a
rapidly growing problem - is less about enforcement and more about education.

"The point of the story is how difficult it is for parents, how difficult
it is to get the right information, to make the right decisions," he said.
Hutchinson had the benefit of getting advance information from law
enforcement, he said.

"But every parent does not have access to that kind of information," he said.

Hutchinson's message comes at a time when many in law enforcement have
admitted they are just learning about the dangers of club drugs.

The wake-up calls have been three deaths attributed to club drugs,
including the fatal overdose of Naperville teen Sara Aeschlimann, who died
last year on Mother's Day.

The conference, which continues today with a speech by Aeschlimann's
mother, Jan, is sponsored by the DEA's Chicago office, Cook County Sheriff
Michael Sheahan and the Naperville-based drug awareness organization
Educating Voices Inc.

Hutchinson pressed the point that enforcement alone isn't the answer to
preventing more deaths.

"The government just cannot control the activities of everybody,"
Hutchinson said.

"The best opportunity for steering kids away from drugs is the influence of
the family," he said. "In our society, the parents are ultimately the
right, and the strongest, role models."

Sheahan, Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard, U.S. Attorney Scott
Lassar and Michael A. DeMarte, who runs the DEA's Chicago office, all agreed.

"We have to educate ourselves about the horrible problems of club drugs,"
DeMarte told the audience. In a later meeting with reporters, he said club
drugs have exploded into a plague in the suburbs because law enforcement is
"playing catch-up."

Club drugs like Ecstasy first made their mark in DuPage County about two
years ago.

Since then, the drug's popularity has increased steadily across the entire
suburban area, federal and local law enforcement officials said.

With education being central to Hutchinson's battle plan, he admitted being
hard-pressed to figure out why suburban teens and young adults - perceived
by some to have been exposed to drug education programs in school - are the
very demographic using club drugs in what some officials called "epidemic"
proportions.

"If the answer were simple, we would've accomplished our goals a long time
ago," Hutchinson said, adding that what's needed - in the face of law
enforcement's recent lack of knowledge about club drugs - are new anti-drug
lessons.

The drugs are dangerous, he said, adding that misinformation leads club
drug users to believe otherwise.

"(Club drugs) caught us off-guard," Hutchinson said. "And we didn't get
good information out there. The challenge is to get it out there as soon as
possible."

Drug Conference will continue today