EXPERTS SAY U.S. USE OF ECSTASY DRUG RISES SHARPLY

BETHESDA, Md, July 19 (Reuters) - Use of the drug ecstasy is exploding
among young people in the United States and could become as destructive as
the crack cocaine epidemic that swept the country 20 years ago, a
conference heard on Thursday.

The international conference at the National Institutes of Health outside
Washington coincided with the introduction of bipartisan legislation in the
U.S. Senate to boost education efforts against the drug and set up a
federal task force to coordinate efforts to combat it.

"Ecstasy dealers are selling the lie that by taking ecstasy, young people
can get high without harming themselves," said Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida
Democrat who is the chief architect of the bill.

"But the truth is, what we know about the effects of ecstasy on the brain
is frightening. And what we don't know is likely to be more so. We need to
get the word out and fast, before one more teen-ager 'raves' himself to
death," he said.

The explosion in Ecstasy use means a large population of young Americans
may be prone to cognitive impairment and depression in years to come,
experts say.

Known as "E" or "X" by its users, the drug's full scientific name is 3-4
methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Most scientists usually refer to it as MDMA.

RECALLS DEADLY CRACK EPIDEMIC

On Wednesday, New York City police seized 1 million ecstasy pills worth $40
million from a Manhattan apartment, the largest ecstasy bust ever in the city.

But New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said approximately 2
million pills were believed to move through New York airports into the
country every week.

James Hall, who directs a drug information center in Miami, told the
conference use of MDMA was following a similar trajectory to that of the
crack cocaine epidemic that swept the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

Once confined to small sub-cultures, the drug was breaking out into the
general population, being sold in schools, gas stations and on street
corners as well as at clubs and all-night music parties, known as "raves."
One notable aspect of ecstasy use is that users often combine the drug with
other substances, including heroin, marijuana, other designer drugs and
alcohol.

Jean Schensul, conducting a study of ecstasy use among urban youth in
Hartford, Connecticut, said the drug, formerly used almost exclusively by
white youths, had become popular in black and Hispanic populations, pushed
by hip-hop magazines and rap musicians.

"MDMA has become big business in urban neighborhoods today," she said.

The conference, due to run through Friday, was scheduled to hear the latest
evidence that ecstasy may well cause permanent brain damage.

"In the short term, ecstasy can cause dramatic changes in heart rate and
blood pressure, dehydration and a potentially life-threatening increase in
body temperature," said Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse.

"In the longer term, research shows that ecstasy can cause lasting changes
in the brain's chemical systems that control mood and memory," he said.

RISK OF MEMORY LOSS, DEPRESSION

H. Valerie Curran, a researcher from University College, London, said
animal experiments showed conclusively that brain damage resulted from even
small amounts of the drug and lasted for years. Among humans, there was
strong evidence of memory impairment that persisted after they stopped
taking MDMA.

"It could mean that a very large population using ecstasy might be prone to
cognitive impairment and depression in years to come," she said.

Harvard Medical School researcher Patricia Case, who conducted a study of
MDMA use among homosexuals in New York and Boston, said almost all the men
in her sample were using the drug in association with a cocktail of other
drugs.

Such cocktails were known as "trail mix." Most snorted the drug using a
device called a "bumper."

Robert Carlson, of Wright States University in Dayton, Ohio, said young
people overwhelmingly saw MDMA as a benign drug and did not believe
warnings that it was dangerous.

"Convincing young people there is a major health risk is a major challenge
to future prevention efforts," he said.