POPULAR 'CLUB DRUGS' OVERFLOW RAVE SCENE, ENTER MAINSTREAM

Club drugs, popular for years at all-night rave parties, are
moving steadily mainstream, and kids say the drugs, particularly
Ecstasy, are easy to get in schools and neighborhoods.

Experts cite the emerging club-drug scene as one of the two key
changes -- the other being an increasing supply of exceptionally pure
heroin -- in the "otherwise stable" illicit drug landscape since 1999.

"Availability of club drugs has increased dramatically across the
nation, especially for Ecstasy, which has increased in nearly every
city," according to Pulse Check, the twice-yearly drug abuse trend
report from the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy.

Pulse Check reports that the use of club drugs, which include Ecstasy,
ketamine and GHB, has emerged or intensified over the past year in 17
cities: Boston; Chicago; Columbia, S.C.; Denver; Detroit; El Paso;
Honolulu; Los Angeles; Memphis; Miami; New Orleans; New York;
Philadelphia; Portland, Maine; Seattle; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and
Washington, D.C.

"The data are clear that it's moved out of the club scene," says Alan
Leshner, executive director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in
Bethesda, Md. "We are now seeing the drugs used by everybody. Parents
can't just say, 'My kid doesn't go to clubs, so I don't need to worry
about it.' "

Law enforcement authorities in Miami say that club drugs are
"everywhere, even at ice skating rinks," Pulse Check reports. In New
York, Long Island youths are buying the drugs from the Internet and
from dealers at local malls. In Seattle and Billings, Mont., the drugs
are sold on high school and college campuses, police say.

Last year, more than 1.4 million people ages 18 to 25 reported taking
Ecstasy at least once, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
found. Among students surveyed in 2000, 8.2% of 12th-graders, 5.4% of
10th-graders and 3.1% of eighth-graders say they used Ecstasy in the
past year.

"That means 165,000 eighth-graders, kids who are 13 and 14 years old,
are experimenting with their own brains," Leshner says.

Ecstasy, by far the most popular of the club drugs, produces both
stimulant and psychedelic effects, and users often dance all night.
Ketamine, an anesthetic used mostly on animals, is a disassociative
drug that produces hallucinations. GHB is a tasteless, odorless
depressant that sedates and intoxicates users and may be used to come
down from Ecstasy.

GHB also has been used by rapists to subdue their victims.

Club-drug users and sellers, Pulse Check says, tend to be "young,
white, middle-class males and females" who use the drugs in
combination with other drugs, such as hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin,
marijuana, methamphetamine and prescription drugs. Teens or
college-age students may gather to "trail mix" at a potluck drug party
where various drugs are pooled and shared.

Most club-drug activity occurs in the suburbs, the report
says.

"Ecstasy user and seller groups are also expanding to include more
blacks and Hispanics, and use and sales settings continue to expand
from exclusively nightclubs and raves to high schools, streets and
open venues," the report says.

The use of Ecstasy and other club drugs has spawned an entire culture
and lingo. An Ecstasy high is called "rolling." Ecstasy users become
bewitched by flashing lights and music with a steady bass beat. Teens
may attend all-night rave parties featuring techno music and light
shows that cater to an Ecstasy user's heightened sensitivities to
light, sound and touch.

To capitalize on their heightened senses, partiers wave light sticks,
tape flashing "belly lights" to their navels or wear luminescent,
flickering bracelets called Toobies. Users may wear fuzzy sweaters or
other soft fabrics. Some Ecstasy users coat surgical masks with vapor
rubs for the cooling rush sensation.

Ecstasy also causes involuntary jaw clenching, so users suck on
pacifiers and candy necklaces to alleviate the effects.

Abuse experts and law enforcement authorities say that as users get
bored with Ecstasy alone, they are experimenting with dangerous drug
combinations. Ecstasy users may snort a "bump" of ketamine to
intensify the hallucinatory aspects of Ecstasy at the peak of a
"roll." As the Ecstasy wears off, users may drink a shot glass or
capful of GHB to ease off Ecstasy's speed effects.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks emergency-room visits in
21 metropolitan areas, reported 4,969 emergency-room visits for GHB
overdoses, 4,511 visits for Ecstasy and 263 visits for ketamine in
2000.