MORE TEENS DYING FROM ECSTASY DRUG

CHICAGO -(AP)- One dead after a party in suburban Chicago. Two more in
Memphis, Tenn., and another two in Portland, Ore.

The fatal consequences of Ecstasy -- an illegal drug that some say is
this decade's version of LSD -- are becoming increasingly apparent
nationwide, further stirring the debate about how to deal with the large
numbers of young people who are using it.

"It's the hottest drug going right now," says Michelle, a 19-year-old
former Ecstasy user from New York City, who is now in rehab, and spoke
on the condition that her last name not be used. "Anybody can get it
anywhere, anytime."

While it is most often associated with dance parties, or "raves,"
federal officials say the drug also known as MDMA is so readily
available that teens can buy it at school and on the street corner.

In a survey of American teens released in February, one in four said a
friend or classmate had used Ecstasy, while 17 percent said they knew
more than one user. It was the first time the nonprofit National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse conducted a survey on the drug.

In recent months Dr. Vasilios Pitsios said he had treated patients as
young as 14 who had arrived unconscious at the emergency room at Saint
Vincent Hospital, in the heart of Manhattan's club scene. He says many
had come from New Jersey and Long Island. Two died on his watch.

Pitsios said he has a frank talk with those who survive. "But how much
of that sticks?" he asked. "It's probably very little."

Some young people are taking matters into their own hands, preaching
"harm reduction" methods that they hope can save lives. Rather than
telling others to just say no, they believe it is more realistic to give
users information about Ecstasy, which, they say, can lessen the drug's
damage.

"It's obvious that zero tolerance simply doesn't work," says Andrew
Epstein, a senior at Amherst College in Massachusetts who helped
organize an information session about Ecstasy on his campus this week

Among the tips he and others are spreading to young people nationwide:
Stay hydrated to avoid severe, and sometimes deadly, overheating.

They also tell users to avoid "stacking," or taking more than one tablet
in a night to enhance the drug's euphoric "I love everyone" effect.

Epstein says he first tried Ecstasy when he was a 17 but has cut back
from nearly monthly use to two or three times a year.

Steve Svoboda, a 24-year-old Web site designer from Chicago, says he has
done the same.

"If it's used sparingly and people know the risks, I believe the
potential for harm is greatly reduced," says Svoboda, who heads
Chicago's chapter of a California-based harm-reduction group called
DanceSafe.

Among other things, the group offers to test Ecstasy tablets for other
drugs that police and health officials say are increasingly being passed
off as Ecstasy.

On the Net:

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:
http://www.casacolumbia.org

DanceSafe: http://www.dancesafe.org

"When somebody tells me they've taken Ecstasy these days, I have no idea
what they've taken," says Dr. Charles Grob, director of child and
adolescent psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.

Grob, who conducted the first Food and Drug Administration-approved
study of MDMA's effects in mid-1990s, says the furor over the drug has
overshadowed its potential as a psychiatric treatment for such ailments
as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Michelle, the New York City teen, started using Ecstasy at 17 and
developed a four-day-a-week habit. About a month ago she checked into a
rehab center in Millbrook, N.Y.

"You wake up in the morning with dark circles under your eyes. You're
pale. And you feel down -- like you can't do it anymore without
Ecstasy," she says. "It's not worth it at all."