I'M PROOF THAT YOU CAN SURVIVE ECSTASY

Re Boy, 16, dies after swallowing pills at downtown rave, July 9.

I read with great sadness and anger about the death of one so young
at Digital Night Club over the weekend. As always, it was an
avoidable death. Yet as your report reads, the boy swallowed
"several" pills.

As a partier myself, I must wonder at his decision to take more than
one pill at a time. One of the most important and oft-repeated pieces
of advice available regarding the use of party drugs is "less is
more." Taken moderately and responsibly, ecstasy provides a high that
is very easy to handle and presents zero risk. Taken excessively,
results can become fatal.

So how do we make sure people don't die at raves and nightclubs? One
solution has been to make criminal penalties harsher. Is this really
realistic, though? Given the sentences that people can now receive
for drug use and trafficking, the use of the drugs and the highs they
provide just are not worth doing that sort of time. Yet people
persist and I think people would be blown away if they could know
just how much ecstasy was consumed by Canadians over the past weekend.

Who's not being realistic here? Law officials and legislators are
going to try and blame the promoters, the clubs, the drugs and the
whole electronic music scene. But we all know who is responsible for
this boy's death. It was his decision to ingest the quantity of pills
he did that then overwhelmed his system. The fact of the electronic
music scene is secondary to his own personal and unfortunate decision.

People are going to use drugs regardless of what the law says.
History has shown us this. It is time for governments and legislators
to take a more sane and realistic look at drug use and the laws that
govern drug use. As long as alcohol and cigarettes, two vile scourges
of public health, are readily available to all, all other drug laws
are hypocrisy and the law is rendered weak. It is inconsistent and,
as such, it is ignored. People can use ecstasy and live. The fact
that you are reading this is proof of that.

Glenn Curry, Toronto