ECSTASY SURVEY SHOWS NEED FOR MORE DINNER-TABLE DISCUSSIONS

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is making some progress -- but it
is frighteningly slow. The partnership's annual survey found that 45
percent of those between 12 and 18 saw a great risk in using the drug
Ecstasy once or twice, up from 42 percent a year ago. That's the progress.
But a majority of teens still see no danger in trying a drug that sent more
than 5,500 people to emergency rooms in 2001.

That's frightening, especially when three-fourths of those surveyed said
there is a great risk of Ecstasy addiction. Try it a time or two, just
don't get addicted? It's teen logic.

The survey also showed one generation gap hasn't disappeared. While one in
nine teens reported trying the drug, only one in 100 parents believed their
children had ever tried it.

Ecstasy produces an intense high, making it popular at all-night "raves,"
but it can also lead to kidney and brain damage. That teens recognize the
dangers but still say a little experimentation is OK shows how much
education still needs to be done to complete the message.

This drug is dangerous. It is best left untried at all.

The best place to convey that message isn't in a television commercial, but
in a frank conversation at the dinner table.