STUDENTS HEAR CALL FOR SAFER DRUG USE

Monarch High School Hosts Lecturer Who Says Teens Will Do Things They Shouldn't

SUPERIOR -- Students at Monarch High School -- the epicenter of a drug
debate when a local teen died after using Ecstasy -- listened to a
30-minute lecture Monday on the safe use of club drugs.

It was an unusual presentation for a school where drug information is
handed down with abstinence and zero-tolerance messages attached. But it
seemed to answer, for now, criticism that kids aren't getting useful
information based on the reality of teen drug use.

A former Monarch High School student, Brittney Chambers, died Feb. 2 after
an Ecstasy-related coma. The pill she took was bought in a Monarch
bathroom. While she was in a six-day coma, the community boiled over with
claims the school was overrun by drugs and that educators were minimizing
the problem.

Emmanuel Sferios, executive director and founder of San Francisco-based
DanceSafe, spoke Monday at the school. His organization promotes a "harm
reduction" concept in the rave and nightclub community.

His appearance was arranged by this week's Conference on World Affairs at
the University of Colorado, where Sferios is part of seven panels.

One of those panels will discuss Ecstasy at 10 a.m. today at Boulder High
School.

"We neither condemn it nor encourage drug use," Sferios told the Monarch
students. "But we recognize that, like premarital sex, young people are
going to do it."

DanceSafe is best known for testing pills at raves. But Sferios'
presentation, to about 200 students and their teachers, was low on
controversy. Brittney's death never was mentioned. For a visual aid,
Sferios carried with him a cylinder of fake Ecstasy pills -- containing
neither Ecstasy nor any other illicit drug -- but didn't bring it out.

He cautioned them on side effects of Ecstasy use, such as depression and
brain damage believed to come from long-term use. He said there is no way
to tell what's in a pill just by its design or color.

"Less is more," he said about taking the pill, "if you're going to

use Ecstasy, lower doses less often decrease the chances of an adverse
reaction."

School officials were alternately concerned and skeptical regarding his
message.

"We talked to (Sferios) about what the message would be, and are concerned
about (students) getting good information," said assistant principal Jamie
Kane. "Our hope was the message would be Ecstasy is not something students
want to experiment with."

Kane said she was "a little disappointed" with the lecture, which seemed to
lose students in a complex discussion of Ecstasy's physiological effects.
"It was good information, but probably above their heads," she said.

Brittney Chambers' mother, Marcie, attended the lecture. Afterward, she
called it "a step in the right direction for Monarch."

"We've spent billions, and `just say no' doesn't work," Chambers said. "So
we need to be open to alternatives."