ECSTASY IS LATEST CONFLICT MILITARY IS CONFRONTING

WASHINGTON - After a two-decade decline in drug abuse, the U.S. military
now is confronting a surge in GI use of the "club" drug Ecstasy, the
nation's fastest-growing illegal intoxicant.

While only a tiny portion of the 1.4 million-person active-duty force is
believed to have used the amphetamine-related substance, a series of recent
arrests has focused the Pentagon's attention on the matter.

Among the Ecstasy cases surfacing in the armed services in recent months:

Eleven soldiers in the Army's 16th Military Police Brigade at Fort Bragg,
N.C., were busted for using Ecstasy, along with LSD and marijuana. Two were
accused of dealing in the drugs.

Five Air Force Academy cadets were charged with possessing Ecstasy, with
two of them drawing prison time.

Four sailors on the Navy's aircraft carrier Stennis were arrested on
charges of selling thousands of dollars' worth of Ecstasy and other club
drugs to undercover agents. A lieutenant commander on the carrier
Constellation was busted for Ecstasy dealing.

Seventy Marines from California and Arizona bases have tested positive for
Ecstasy in the past year and the brass recommended that all be booted from
the service with less-than-honorable discharges.

"Ecstasy is dangerous and the military is taking steps to" combat its use,
an in-house Pentagon publication announced this month.

Military leaders are quick to note that only a tiny minority of troops have
been documented to have used or trafficked in the drug, which is both a
stimulant and mild hallucinogen, and is popular at nightclubs, college
campuses and all-night dance gatherings called "raves."

In fiscal 2000, 2.3 million urinalysis drug tests taken by GIs turned up
1,070 positives for Ecstasy. That amounts to more than double the number
detected in 1999, and a fourfold jump from 1998, according to Pentagon figures.

Even with that increase, Ecstasy use still falls far behind that of
marijuana and cocaine.

In 1999, for instance, drug tests registered 12,000 positive for marijuana
use and 2,800 for cocaine, military statistics show.

And drug use overall in the services is a shadow of what it was in the
1970s and 1980s, when as many as a third of the troops reported using
illegal drugs in the previous month.

To combat the rise in Ecstasy use, the Pentagon is attacking on several fronts:

A new, improved test that is better at picking up traces of Ecstasy is
being used.

Random drug tests are being given on weekends, holidays, Mondays and even
the middle of the night in order to try to catch more recreational users.

More anti-drug instruction and abuse prevention education programs are
being established.

Military dogs are being trained to detect Ecstasy in living and work spaces.