ECSTASY'S LURE MASKS DANGER

Some Young People Like The Warm-fuzzy, Confident Feeling They Get From The
"Love Drug," But It Is Illegal And It Can Be Deadly

The seduction is this: You feel confident. You have energy. You feel
sensual; being touched is more pleasurable than usual. And you're more
empathetic, more emotionally naked.

That's how users describe why they take the "love drug" called ecstasy.

But the drug also killed Jefferson High School student Peter Vu, making his
the first death known to be ecstasy-related in the state.

Although dying from the drug is uncommon, drug prevention counselors and
law enforcement officials say this tragedy should be a wake-up call to the
community that the colorful pills that bring on the warm-and-fuzzies can be
very dangerous. It also can come come mixed with other lethal substances.
They've been fighting the euphoric allure that is drawing a growing number
of young people to ecstasy. "You don't know what you're getting or how
you're going to react to the drug," said Anne Valdez, a drug and alcohol
counselor for DePaul Treatment Centers' youth outpatient program in
Portland. "That's the scary part about it."

In the past year, ecstasy's presence in Portland and the Northwest has
exploded, and in the past six months, the Portland Police Bureau's drug and
vice division has had five cases in which police seized several thousand pills.

"I think Portland has really emerged, not only as a market," said Capt. Jim
Ferraris the division's commander, "but a hub for off-loading to other points."

While the pills cost pennies to make, they sell for $20 to $30 a pop.

A stimulant and mild hallucinogen, ecstasy is used mainly in social
settings, such as all-night dance parties called raves; in bars that
attract young adults or private clubs; and on college campuses. "If there's
not a unified effort in terms of parents, educators, the medical field,
community folks and law enforcement to deal with this particular dilemma,
it's just going to get worse," Ferraris said. "And who's at risk? Our
children are at risk."

As in Portland, ecstasy's presence and popularity continues to grow nationwide:

While cigarette smoking among teens dropped significantly last year and
drug use, including that of marijuana, generally remained unchanged,
ecstasy use -- for the second year in a row -- increased among 10th- and
12th-graders nationwide. For the first time, its use among 8th-graders
grew, according to the 26th annual Monitoring the Future Survey, released
last month by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. Customs Service confiscated 9.3 million ecstasy tablets in 2000,
compared to 400,000 three years earlier, according to available statistics.

In March, 1999, federal authorities arrested former Mafia hitman Sammy
"The Bull" Gravano for allegedly running an ecstasy ring in Arizona that
distributed 25,000 pills a week, worth $500,000 on the street.

Ecstasy's history

The drug's chemical name is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA. But
it's commonly known as ecstasy, X, Adam, lover's speed and E. It comes in
pills, capsules and powder.

German chemists developed MDMA in 1912 as an appetite suppressant, but it
was never manufactured. In 1953, the U.S. Army secretly tested the
substance on animals to see if it could be used as a weapon. Then in the
1970s, psychiatrists began using MDMA in therapy to help patients feel less
inhibited. It was around that time that it became known as ecstasy.

In 1985, the Drug Enforcement Administration declared ecstasy illegal.

Production, however, continued. Today, it's manufactured primarily in
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to the National Drug
Intelligence Center.

"Rolling" -- or being high on ecstasy -- generally lasts three to six hours
as the drug floods the brain with chemical serotonin, which regulates mood.
If you take enough, it can raise your body temperature, speed up your heart
rate, increase your blood pressure and cause seizures -- sometimes to fatal
levels, as was the case with Vu.

Other conditions -- such as the heat and nonstop dancing of a rave party --
don't have to exist for ecstasy to be fatal. In a laboratory setting,
enough pure ecstasy also kills, says Cynthia Kuhn a neuropharmacologist and
professor of pharmacology at Duke University Medical Center and co-author
of the book "Buzzed," about drugs of abuse.

Scientists, however, don't know how much is too much, she says.

Short-term side effects can include sexual dysfunction while rolling --
even though users report increased sexual desire -- and afterward,
depression, sleep problems and paranoia, a reaction users sometimes call
"Terrible Tuesdays" or feeling "E-tarded." And increasing evidence supports
the theory that long-term use of ecstasy can damage the brain, causing
memory loss, Kuhn says.

"But people view it as a real benign drug because if you take a modest
dose, you can do so safely," she said. "The real frustration I have with
this drug is you can't feel the neurotoxicity happening . . . there's this
damage going on and it's invisible to you."

Substance impurities harm

What's more, users aren't always sure what they're getting. Ecstasy is
increasingly laced with other substances, including caffeine and
dextromethorphan or DXM, an ingredient in cough suppressants. Sometimes,
pills are cut with cocaine, LSD or methamphetamine. And they come in all
sorts of colors and names.

Some who attended the rave party at Pine Street Theater the night Vu
collapsed say the place was dangerously hot and crowded and suggest that Vu
died from a combination of the environment and drugs cut with other
substances. But Dr. Karen Gunson, the state medical examiner, says only
ecstasy was found in Vu's blood. His family thinks the drug was slipped
into something the teen-ager was drinking. To warn people of the dangers,
volunteers with such groups as California's Dance Safe have become regulars
at some parties, handing out information about the effects of drugs and
free water to keep people hydrated. They also test pills at raves and tell
kids whether ecstasy is cut with other substances to help people who are
going to do it make safe, educated decisions.

One of ecstasy's strongest proponents says raves should be regulated to
ensure the environment is safe for young people. He also suggests that
brain damage from using ecstasy is subtle and praises the drug's
therapeutic benefits.

"You get a glimpse at what your potential is in terms of operating in a
more open, less vulnerable, more honest context. . . . It's never gone out
of fashion in therapeutic or personal growth use," said Rick Doblin,
founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in
Boston. He adds that ecstasy continues to be used privately by an older
generation, including himself. Now 47, Doblin first tried ecstasy when he
was 29.

Doblin's association has financed a study in Spain that uses ecstasy in
psychotherapy for rape victims diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder. He plans to lobby the Federal Drug Administration to approve a
similar study in the United States.

Despite its supporters, ecstasy is deemed by the government to have the
potential for abuse and no accepted medical benefit.

And in light of its growing presence and use in Portland, counselors say
the community needs to keep informed about the drug's dangers. Others also
want to see more safety precautions taken at raves, where some kids use
ecstasy.

"Education, education, education," is the key, Valdez said. "Giving kids
really truthful information about the drug . . . and what can occur."