CBS News Transcripts

THE TEST

Dancesafe, Program Set Up To Test Drugs For Its Content

(Footage of 48 HOURS logo; ecstasy emblem; rave nightclub
activities)

DAN RATHER, host: The feel-good effects of ecstasy experienced by a rising number of
users are not being lost on the suppliers. Most of the drug is made
in Europe, especially the Netherlands. Most of it is coming into this
country through airports in Florida and New Jersey. In just one year,
the amount of ecstasy seized by federal authorities quadrupled.
Costing pennies to make but selling for at least $ 20 a pill, this
illegal trade is becoming so profitable, authorities say it's giving
rise to another risky business, new and dangerous copycat drugs
falling into the hands of unsuspecting ecstasy users. 48 HOURS' Troy
Roberts and MTV's John Norris team up to investigate a controversial
program aimed at delivering nothing but pure ecstasy.

(Footage of church; Riches)

TROY ROBERTS reporting: (Voiceover) A beautiful Sunday, a beautiful service, but for Debi and
Rodney Rich, Sunday mornings are still just too painful.

Mrs. DEBI RICH: This is so very hard. It's hard for me to believe
that--that she won't just walk through the door.

Mr. RODNEY RICH: In Jesus' name, amen.

(Footage of Riches at dinner; photos of Shari Rich)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) On another Sunday morning just a few months ago,
police told them their daughter Shari was dead from a drug overdose.

Mrs. RICH: They said, 'We suspect ecstasy.'

ROBERTS: What was your reaction when you heard the word ecstasy for
the very first time?

Mr. RICH: I don't believe this has happened to me. This happens to
other people.

SHARI: (From videotape) Ready? Two bits, four bits,
dut-dut-dah.

(Photos of Shari)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) Shari was 19 years old...

Mrs. RICH: That was her graduation from high school.

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) ...a college student who was working part-time at
Disney World.

ROBERTS: We didn't even talk about drugs 'cause it was a non-issue in
our house.

(Videotape of Shari with others)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) But last summer Shari moved out of her parents'
house...

Mrs. RICH: She needs to spread her wings and get out in the real
world.

(Still shot of Shari; photo of Francisco Cordona)

ROBERTS: ...began dating a new boyfriend, Francisco
Cordona...

Mrs. RICH: I just didn't want her to get that far into the
world.

(Photos of Shari; Francisco)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) ...and with Francisco began experimenting with
drugs.

Mr. RICH: They were looking for the ultimate high--that was his exact
words--and that's how it started.

(Footage of police car; Francisco; ecstasy; photos of
Shari)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) It ended one night last August when, according to
police, Francisco bought pills from an ecstasy dealer in Orlando--six
of them, brown with black spots. He and Shari each took three. A few
hours after swallowing the pills, Shari passed out.

Ms. CELIAN QUINTERO: I never saw nothing like this
before.

(Footage of Roberts and Celian; apartment)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) Her roommate, Celian Quintero, says she returned
home to find Shari unconscious on the floor, Francisco just watching,
helpless.

Unidentified 911 Operator: (From 911 call) What's wrong, ma'am?

(Footage of Lake County Sheriff's Office Communications
employee)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) She called 911.

(Excerpt from 911 call)

(Photos of Shari; footage of apartment)

Ms. QUINTERO: (Voiceover) She's not breathing, man.

911 Operator: (Voiceover) OK.

Ms. QUINTERO: (Voiceover) She's not breathing.

911 Operator: (Voiceover) OK. Listen.

Ms. QUINTERO: (Voiceover) Shari, wake up.

(End of excerpt)

(Photos of Shari)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) But Shari Rich was already dead.

Detective RALPH FIORENZA: This is the apartment here, Apartment
104.

(Footage of Roberts and Det. Fiorenza)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) When Detective Ralph Fiorenza arrived on the
scene...

Det. FIORENZA: She was obviously dead.

(Photos of Shari)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) ...the first thing he noticed was Shari's body
temperature.

Det. FIORENZA: A hundred and four degrees.

ROBERTS: This was--What?--an hour, an hour and a half after she
died?

(Photo of Shari)

Det. FIORENZA: (Voiceover) It was about an hour and a half, two
hours.

ROBERTS: And Shari Rich's story could have ended right there, one more
tragic death from a drug overdose, except for one startling thing:
Toxicology tests performed here as part of Shari's autopsy revealed
that the drug that killed her, the drug everyone thought was ecstasy,
wasn't ecstasy at all.

(Footage of document)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) It was PMA, para-methoxy amphetamine, a drug so
new even the toxicologist who did the tests hadn't seen it before.

Dr. BRUCE A. GOLDBERGER (PhD, DABFT; Director of Toxicology &
Assistant Professor): To be honest I never knew what PMA was until we
came across this drug.

(Footage of Dr. Goldberger; PMA)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) Bruce Goldberger now knows PMA is a powerful
stimulant that drug dealers sometimes pawn off as ecstasy. To the
naked eye, they're indistinguishable, but PMA has one deadly difference.

Dr. GOLDBERGER: It releases our control over our body
temperature.

ROBERTS: It sounds like this drug cooks people from the
inside.

Dr. GOLDBERGER: You cannot survive this overheating.

(Footage of PMA)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) And he says PMA isn't the only copycat drug
peddled as ecstasy.

Dr. GOLDBERGER: Ketamine, caffeine, salicylate, ephedrine and
others.

(Footage of Florida scenery; PMA; rave nightclub activities)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) Of course, up until this summer, hardly anyone in
Florida had even heard of impure ecstasy, much less PMA, and then...

Unidentified Woman #1: (From newscast) Two young men died today after
a night of partying at an Orlando rave club.

(Footage of newspaper clippings; rave nightclub activities; photos of
young adults; PMA)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) ...all summer long, all across central Florida,
young people began dying--six in two months, a PMA epidemic. But how
can you keep kids from taking fake ecstasy when you can't seem to stop
them from taking the real thing?

Unidentified Man #1: It's really technical when we're at the
table.

(Footage of activist group; forest)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) So far the only suggestion comes from a group of
young activists whose approach, as you're about to see, is a bit off
the beaten path.

(Footage of MTV logo)

JOHN NORRIS reporting: I'm John Norris of MTV News on assignment for 48 HOURS out here in the
woods miles from civilization somewhere in the middle of Washington
state, which is just about the last place you'd expect to find a
solution to the problem of bad ecstasy, but just up the trail from
here, a controversial group says it has done just that.

Unidentified Woman #2: Put it on the table.

(Footage of DanceSafe setting up)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) It's called DanceSafe.

Unidentified Man #2: Duct Tape is the greatest substance in the
world.

NORRIS: (Voiceover) And right now the Seattle chapter is setting up
their booth at an all-night outdoor rave.

Unidentified Woman #3: We don't want to scare people with stuff that
looks like too--too clinical.

(Footage of rave gathering; DanceSafe)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) When the sun sets and the music starts, the
DanceSafe volunteers go to work testing ecstasy for adulterants like
PMA.

Unidentified Man #2: Did you buy it here?

Unidentified Man #3: Yeah.

(Footage of rave gathering)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Anyone can bring them a pill.

Unidentified Man #2: What was it called?

Unidentified Woman #4: That one's butterfly.

Unidentified Man #2: Butterfly.

(Footage of DanceSafe)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) First, they scrape it with a razor to obtain a
sample, add a few drops of chemical solution...

Unidentified Man #2: Sulfuric acid and formaldehyde.

NORRIS: (Voiceover) ...and if there's any ecstasy in the sample, it
turns purple.

Unidentified Man #2: That's a positive reaction.

(Footage of DanceSafe; rave activities)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Other drugs turn different colors. Most,
including PMA, don't change color at all. But whatever the
result--and this is the controversial part--DanceSafe returns the pill
to the user.

You know there are people who would say the really responsible thing
to do is to take that pill away from them regardless of what's in it.

Unidentified Woman #5: Right.

Unidentified Man #2: Not at all. OK. They come to the table. They
go, 'Can you test this?' And you go, 'Nope.' And you take it and you
put in your pocket or you throw it away. See, then, pull another $ 20
out of their pocket, go buy another pill and take it. It doesn't help
a thing.

Mr. EMANUEL SFERIOS (Founder, DanceSafe): We're not trying to make
drug use safer. We are making drug use safer.

(Footage of DanceSafe)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Emanuel Sferios founded DanceSafe. Now he
oversees 13 chapters across the country.

Mr. SFERIOS: If Shari Rich had had access to one of our testing kits,
she would still be alive today.

(Footage of lecture)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Now Sferios insists he's not encouraging ecstasy
use but just listen to him lecture.

Mr. SFERIOS: Everybody practically who does it enjoys
it.

(Footage of Web site)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Or visit his DanceSafe Web site and you'll see
it's a very fine line.

NORRIS: I do have one quote from the Web site. It says the following:
"By all indications, if used moderately and responsibly, MDMA seems
far less dangerous than most recreational drugs, especially the two
legal ones, alcohol and tobacco." Now how is that not advocacy?

Mr. SFERIOS: Oh, well, it's not advocacy at all. It's simply telling
the truth about a substance.

(Footage of rave nightclub activities)

Mr. SFERIOS: (Voiceover) If you respect the ability of teen-agers to
make their own decisions--and we have seen results.

(Footage of rave nightclub activities)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Case in point: Michael, who we met at a rave in
Buffalo, ecstasy in hand.

MICHAEL: It's got some sort of speckle in it.

(Footage of Michael; photo of Shari)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) And that's got him worried, because it sounds
suspiciously like the PMA that killed Shari Rich. Good news for
Michael, DanceSafe's Buffalo chapter is set up inside.

Unidentified Woman #6: So it tested positive for an MDMA-type
substance, so it means that there is some real ecstasy in it.

(Footage of DanceSafe; rave nightclub activities)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) But Michael's still not convinced and he's not
taking that pill. Of course, for every Michael there's a kid like
19-year-old Jenny. She asked us not to show her face. Keep watching
and you'll see why. Her pill tests negative for ecstasy but shows
signs of containing the powerful amphetamine known as speed.

Unidentified Woman #6: There could be other substances in there as
well, but it detects speed.

(Footage of DanceSafe)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) Lets just say Jenny takes the news in
stride.

JENNY: I'll probably take it anyway. What the hell.

(Footage of Jenny taking pill)

NORRIS: (Voiceover) And a few minutes later, that's exactly what she
does: swallows her pill, whatever it is, and disappears into the crowd.

For the record, we heard from Jenny the next day. She's OK, as was
everyone at that rave; proof, DanceSafe says, that their test saves
lives.

ROBERTS: But back here in Florida, at least one toxicology expert
wishes that DanceSafe would leave drug testing to the
professionals.

Dr. GOLDBERGER: This is a pill that's orange in color.

(Footage of Goldberger)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) When he tests a pill...

Dr. GOLDBERGER: Clean utensils, clean dish, clean tweezers.

(Footage of Goldberger; DanceSafe)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) ... Bruce Goldberger does it in a completely
sterile environment. Dancesafe, it almost goes without saying, does
not.

ROBERTS: Are the DanceSafe tests reliable?

Dr. GOLDBERGER: No. People in my laboratory have degrees in this
field, master's degrees or Ph.D. degrees in chemistry.

(Footage of church; Riches)

ROBERTS: (Voiceover) Of course, for Debi and Rodney Rich, the lesson
they want kids to learn requires no degree at all.

Mrs. RICH: Kids need to know even if you think you're on the right
track and your whole life is planned out ahead of you that you have to
beware because it just takes one pill and it's over.

(Footage of Debi; photo of Debi and Shari; Sue Stevens)

RATHER: (Voiceover) Still to come, turning to ecstasy as therapy to
cope with the death of a loved one.

Ms. SUE STEVENS: (Voiceover) It's going to be confronting a lot of
stuff for the first time, stuff I've been running from.

RATHER: (Voiceover) It's also against the law.

Unidentified Therapist: This is like doing five years of therapy in
one afternoon.

Bottoms up.

RATHER: (Voiceover) Just ahead.

(Footage of ecstasy emblem)

(Announcements)

(Footage of 48 HOURS logo)

Ms. SUE STEVENS: Hey, wait, wait.

Unidentified Teen: We should get that one. That one is the biggest.

BILL LAGATTUTA reporting: (Voiceover) Of all the people you might imagine using the drug ecstasy...

Ms. STEVENS: The colorful one. The colorful one.

(Footage of Sue; Sue with children)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) ...Sue Stevens is one of the least likely: a single
mother from Grand Rapids, Michigan, holding down a full-time job with an
airline trying to make ends meet. But Sue does use ecstasy. In fact, she
swears by it.

Ms. STEVENS: I could word it as the miracle drug. I really could.

LAGATTUTA: You would call it a miracle drug?

Ms. STEVENS: Yes. This entire house was filled with a lot of animosity and
hatred, and then all of a sudden it was gone.

(Photo of Shane Stevens)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) She first used the drug four years ago with her
fiance Shane Stevens...

Ms. STEVENS: First time I laid eyes on him, went, 'There's my future.'

(Photo of Shane and Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) ...who was the love of her life.

Ms. STEVENS: Soul mate--you just know when you meet that person that that
is the person you're meant to be with.

(Photo of Shane with child)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Though he wasn't the father of any of her three
children, he was very much a part of the family.

(Photo of Shane with child)

Ms. STEVENS: (Voiceover) Loved taking the kids out, playing ball with them,
taking them out to the beach.

(Videotape of Shane)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Sue and Shane didn't use ecstasy just to have a good
time.

Ms. STEVENS: (From videotape) I'm, like, taping you for all posterity.

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Early in the relationship Shane was diagnosed with
kidney cancer.

Ms. STEVENS: From the time he was diagnosed up until the first session, he
would do anything and everything he could in his power to push me away and
make me hate him.

(Videotape of Shane)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) The cancer was eating away at their relationship,
too.

(Excerpt from videotape)

Ms. STEVENS: He's just cranky. So now we're going to end this.

Mr. SHANE STEVENS: Yeah, because I have to do this. I don't feel good and
you won't help me.

(End of excerpt)

Ms. STEVENS: He knew right from the get-go it wasn't going to get any
better.

LAGATTUTA: And he didn't even want to talk about it with you because he
knew that you would...

Ms. STEVENS: I would cry.

(Photo of Shane)

Ms. STEVENS: He was trying to make me run to protect me.

(Videotape of Shane)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) They were fighting, and they both knew the clock was
ticking down.

Ms. STEVENS: (From videotape) Don't get it all wet, dumb-ass!

LAGATTUTA: This period that you're describing, this frustrating kind of
period, how long did that last?

Ms. STEVENS: About two and a half years of hell, two and a half years of
trying to emotionally kill the person we were with.

(Footage of Lagattuta and Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) At that point Sue and Shane didn't know where to
turn, and then a friend told her about ecstasy.

Ms. STEVENS: He's the one that told us of the research and said, 'Here, let
me send you some books. Let me send you some pamphlets, start checking this
out. You might benefit.'

LAGATTUTA: What the books and pamphlets talked about was ecstasy's history
before it was banned in 1985. It was used in the '60s and '70s by
psychotherapists here in Northern California, the epicenter of the
experimental drug movement. They said ecstasy was remarkable in its ability
to get patients to open up and deal with their problems.

Professor SASHA SHULGIN (Chemist): He let people in.

LAGATTUTA: Sasha Shulgin, a chemist, has been called the godfather of
ecstasy. He and his wife Anne were early advocates of the drug for
therapeutic use.

Mrs. ANNE SHULGIN: What it seems to do is allow the--the person to look
inside at themselves so that you can look at your own faults and things
that need to be changed.

Ms. STEVENS: The goal is to be able to--if we were taking it, be able to
sit and connect with you, just like this, to be able to feel everything
that you have inside of you.

LAGATTUTA: Does it make you feel freer to talk and express yourself?

Ms. STEVENS: Yes. You don't feel the emotional pain. You don't feel the
mental pain. You're not scared of being judged. You just--you're not afraid
of being hurt.

(Photo of Shane and Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Sue and Shane took ecstasy five times over three
years.

Ms. STEVENS: We just started talking about everything from the day he was
diagnosed--from the day we met up until that point.

LAGATTUTA: All these things that the two of you wanted to say to one
another all along but you didn't...

Ms. STEVENS: We couldn't.

LAGATTUTA: ...until you were under the influence of this drug.

Ms. STEVENS: Mm-hmm. One night we solved two and a half years worth of
problems, and we never fought after that night.

(Videotape of Shane and Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) And the final session they recorded on videotape.

Ms. STEVENS: We did the last session because that's when we figured out it
wasn't getting any better. At one point in the evening, he said, 'It's so
nice not to have cancer tonight.'

(Excerpt from videotape)

Ms. STEVENS: State it, Hank.

Mr. STEVENS: I feel no pain.

(End of excerpt)

Ms. STEVENS: Totally cleared his mind and his body of all the cancer for a
night. Oh, boy.

LAGATTUTA: And he died a month after that?

Ms. STEVENS: Twenty-eight days.

LAGATTUTA: When the federal authorities say that this is a dangerous drug,
make no mistake about it and that's why it's illegal, what do you say?

Ms. STEVENS: Give me a cigarette and a bottle of whiskey. Those are legal.
They're more dangerous. This has benefits. There's so many things out there
that are legal that do not have any benefits.

(Footage of rain-drenched highway; Sue)

LAGATTUTA: Today is the one-year anniversary of Shane's death.

Ms. STEVENS: In another hour and 40 minutes, it'll be one year exactly.

(Footage of Bistro)

Ms. STEVENS: (Voiceover) This is the restaurant where Shane and I met.

We worked here for about two and a half years together. It just seemed
fitting to have lunch here today. This is where I first met him, through
the back kitchen doors back there.

(Footage of Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Sue is still struggling with Shane's memory.

Ms. STEVENS: (Voiceover) A couple of weeks ago on the way to work I started
crying so hard, I had to pull off to the side of the road, couldn't catch
my breath, pretty much wanted to die all over again.

(Footage of Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) So once again, Sue is turning to ecstasy to deal
with her pain.

Do you think this drug should be legalized?

Ms. STEVENS: I think it should be legalized for people to be able to use
therapeutically.

(Footage of forest; therapist; Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) She's about to leave for a secret location in
California to see an underground therapist who will treat her with the
illegal drug.

How important is it for you to take this--this trip and go through these
sessions?

Ms. STEVENS: I didn't want to go on any more, and I can't keep living like
that.

(Photo of Shane; footage of Sue)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) Later, on 48 HOURS...

Unidentified Therapist: Bottoms up.

(Footage of Sue taking ecstasy)

LAGATTUTA: (Voiceover) ...why Sue Stevens is so willing to break the law.

Unidentified Therapist: What do you want today?

Ms. STEVENS: To be happy.

(Footage of Rodney and Debi Rich; photo of Shari Rich; footage of ecstasy)

DAN RATHER (Host): (Voiceover) Still to come, what these parents learned
the hard way--not everything labeled ecstasy really is.

Mr. RODNEY RICH: She didn't have to die.

(Footage of DanceSafe setup; John Norris; rave nightclub activities)

RATHER: (Voiceover) And a special report from MTV's John Norris: the
controversial program to protect ecstasy users.

JOHN NORRIS (MTV): The really responsible thing to do is to take that pill
away from them regardless of what's in it.

(Footage of DanceSafe setup)

RATHER: (Voiceover) That's next.

(Footage of 48 HOURS logo)

(Announcements)