ECSTASY'S APPEAL RISES, AND SO DOES CONCERN

The drug is more dangerous than its users think, experts say. Yet keg
parties have become passe, as teens throw "E parties."

The arrest of a Philadelphia man this week on charges of recruiting Lower
Merion High School students to sell ecstasy, LSD and marijuana underscored
a concern expressed by local police and teen counselors: that ecstasy's
popularity is rising.

The illegal euphoria drug, long a staple of the dance scene in the United
States and Europe, had been expected to sell for $20 or more per tablet to
students at the Lower Merion school prom on May 26, Montgomery County
authorities said. The arrest of Joel Meltzer, 31, and a 17-year-old Lower
Merion student derailed the delivery.

The use of ecstasy, also known as E or XTC, by young people throughout the
Philadelphia suburbs is well known to police and drug and victim
counselors. New Jersey authorities say they are especially concerned about
its availability to Shore visitors this summer.

Ecstasy (3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA) is more dangerous, the
experts say, than users believe.

"It's a methamphetamine-based hallucinogen, the likes of which we have
never seen before," Terrance Farley, a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J., said.

Yet ecstasy has a positive image among young people, which troubles
authorities, who say the side effects can be fatal. It is associated with
all-night raves where alcohol is shunned and good feelings are said to abound.

Farley and others said they were also alarmed about the widespread use of
ecstasy among teenagers, some as young as middle schoolers. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration says it is rapidly becoming the number-two drug
of choice in the country, after marijuana.

"Parents, teachers and police officers are so, so naive about this drug,"
said Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles narcotics officer who lectures
nationwide about ecstasy and other so-called club drugs.

"The problem is this is a sneaky drug," Porrata said. "At a rave party, you
don't see any violence. Well, the sound of kids' brain cells hitting the
floor is not something you hear. But these kids are frying their brains,
with no clue as to what they are doing."

Stacie Brown, a spokeswoman for Women Organized Against Rape in
Philadelphia, warned that young women under the influence of the drug
become vulnerable to sexual attack.

"It lowers inhibitions, interferes with reasoning," she said. "You want to
participate in everything with everyone."

Brown's group has started an awareness campaign about ecstasy and other
drugs, offering posters and brochures and training for club employees to
help them spot signs of drug use.

So why does the drug appeal so strongly to users? (Those who would discuss
their experiences with it didn't want their full names used.)

"It starts with this warm rush through your body," Tina, 26, of
Philadelphia, said. "And it's very sensual, not in a nymphomaniac kind of
way, but if anybody touches you, you want to touch them back. You feel
happy and loved and lovable."

Some described it as "a very social drug." Others said it inspires uncommon
empathy.

"You care so much about how everyone in the room feels," Sara, a junior at
the University of Pennsylvania, said. "You can become best friends
overnight with someone you really didn't like that much before. It breaks
your heart to see someone who isn't happy."

Tina said users rarely "lose control" when taking ecstasy.

"You're very conscious of everything around you," she said. "You don't wake
up the next day and say, 'What happened last night?' "

Some teenagers say the drug is growing in popularity with mainstream youth.

"Ecstasy seemed like a much bigger deal three years ago than it does now,"
Kelly, 17, of Chester County, said. "Three years ago, it was the edgy kids
who took it. But now there are a lot of normal people who will take it
every once in a while."

Use of the drug has moved beyond the rave scene to what users call "E
parties," get-togethers that revolve around a supply of ecstasy instead of
a keg of beer.

"It's definitely an event drug," Tina said. "You take it for a specific
party or a specific concert. It's not a drug you want to take alone or for
a casual night [of] watching TV."

At Lower Merion High School, several students said after Meltzer's arrest
that ecstasy was used by only a small minority of their classmates.

"I think it's fair to say that there is a problem with drinking and
marijuana here, like [at] a lot of high schools," said Michael Caputo, a
Lower Merion High senior and president of the student body. "But I don't
know that there are more than 15 or 20 kids in the whole school who use
ecstasy.

"Students, teachers, everybody was really surprised that the media was
talking about a major ecstasy ring at the school because nobody sees that."

Bruce Castor, the Montgomery County district attorney, said the arrested
student's sales records and police interviews with his classmates revealed
"widespread drug use and drug dealing involving many students at Lower
Merion High School." He declined to specify which drugs.

At an average of $25 a pill, ecstasy's cost, combined with its wipeout
feeling a day or two afterward, may limit how often it is used.

Wali Bennett, a senior at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware
County, agreed with Farley, the Ocean County prosecutor, that today's teens
are "polydrug users," willing to try unknown drugs and even to mix them
with marijuana or alcohol.

"To me, all kids are just trying to get high, from 14 years old and up,"
Bennett said. "They're getting high at school, in clubs, at dances."

Teens who can afford it, he said, try ecstasy.

"To them, doing ecstasy is a lot easier than smoking weed, because all you
have to do is take a pill," he said. "That's all. It's just that simple."