EDUCATION KEY TO ARMING TEENS AGAINST DRUG USE

The Partnership for a Drug Free America recently launched a national
advertising campaign focusing on the new teen party drug of choice -
Ecstasy. The number of teens using the "love drug" is expected to double in
the next five years and currently ranks behind only alcohol and marijuana
in use by teens. In a survey of nearly 7,000 teenagers nationwide, the
Partnership found that 12 percent of teens tried the drug at least once, an
additional 11 percent say they are likely to try it. Ecstasy is really
methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. It costs from $10 to $25 a pill and teens
pop up to five pills a night to experience its full hallucinogenic
properties that offer users a sense of energy and well-being. Actually what
they're experiencing is damage to the brain's serotonin cells. Once
destroyed, nerve cells in the brain don't grow back.

The insidious effects of Ecstasy are twofold: It lulls users into believing
that peace and love are the only asking price of the drug and that sex is
the natural outgrowth of feelings they're experiencing.

All of a sudden the words of former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders are
hitting home for parents whose teens have died as a result of a single
night of partying with Ecstasy. And their numbers are rising as this
dangerous drug takes root in the youth culture.

"Education, education, education." Elders has made a career of advocating a
change in the way we address social problems that affect health and safety.
When she spoke again recently at Western Carolina University, she
reiterated the need to change the way we think about health by putting
prevention first. Educating teens about the harms of drug use and
particularly about the consequences of unprotected sex is the only way to
turn around the highest teenage birth rate, pregnancy rate and abortion
rate in the industrialized world. For her promotion of thorough sex
education, including the use of condoms, Elders continues to be vilified
from all quarters. She has been called everything from "condom queen" to
crackpot. But the fact of the matter is, given the rates of pregnancy among
teens and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, teen-agers do
need to hear frank discussions about drug use, sexual outlets and the
connections between the two. "We need to just stop lying to our children,"
she proposes.

And she's right. Teens need to be armed with all the information parents
can supply in order to counter the offers their children may get to party
with Ecstasy. Teens need to know that the temporary feelings of "love"
aren't real, but the consequences are. America needs to adopt a sane and
progressive health agenda that includes listening to teens' questions and
providing them with complete and truthful answers.

With the use of most other drugs declining or holding steady and Ecstasy
enticing youths to get high and get naked, Elders' advise is sounding less
extreme and more visionary. Her words are no longer the butt of the joke,
but rather the basis for a new preventative strategy.