CLUB DRUG'S USE NEAR EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS

WASHINGTON -- No longer confined mostly to Los Angeles, Miami and New
York, use of the illegal drug Ecstasy is reaching epidemic
proportions among teen-agers in the nation's heartland, an educator
and Missouri law officers said Tuesday.

Kids and even some parents mistakenly believe Ecstasy is safe,
educators said during a video teleconference hosted in Washington by
the White House's drug policy office, which has begun a $5 million
radio and Internet campaign to make people aware of Ecstasy's dangers.

"Parents are very uneducated about Ecstasy," said Janet Nease,
assistant principal at Park Hill (Mo.) High School. "It's happening
right under their noses."

Ecstasy is a pill that produces euphoria and dramatically elevates
blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature. It can cause heart
attacks or strokes and may cause brain damage that is long term or
even permanent, said Glen Hanson of the National Institute of Drug
Abuse.

It gained popularity in the 1990s at all-night dance parties known as
raves. In rural areas, kids gather at abandoned barns and machine
sheds to use the drug, said U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, who organized the
forum.

The drug's use in more affluent Kansas City suburbs, such as Blue
Springs and Park Hill, is "popping up more so than in the urban
core," Graves said.

Emergency rooms are also seeing more and more Ecstasy users, and
Nease said school officials worry their nurses are unprepared for
medical emergencies resulting from the drug's use.

As Big A Problem As Meth

Ecstasy is becoming as much a problem as methamphetamine, said Dave
Barton, director of the government's meth-fighting task force known
as the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

"But our funds are very, very limited," Barton said, adding, "Our
meth problem has not lessened in any way."

The Senate Government Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., held a hearing Monday on Ecstasy's quick growth.

Philip McCarthy, 17, testified he knew nothing of the anger and
depression that would hit after Ecstasy's high wore off. Soon he was
hooked and stealing televisions and VCRs to support a $300-a-week
drug habit.

"It was a high I definitely wanted again," said Mc-Carthy.

The drug is manufactured mostly in Belgium and The Netherlands.