YOUNG ADULTS' DRUGS OF CHOICE: ECSTASY, 'SPECIAL K'

Ecstasy and its lesser-known traveling companion - "special k" - are among
the so-called designer drugs dominating the teen and young-adult drug
culture these days.

Both are pricey, and potential killers, yet their popularity is on the
rise. So are arrests for possessing them. Witness the felony charges filed
last weekend against six area residents in connection with a drug ring
apparently based at a Glastonbury pizza shop. The suspects range in age
from 17 to 24, with more arrests expected.

Use of Ecstasy - a mood-altering amphetamine that typically results in
high-energy euphoria - has been prevalent in Connecticut for at least five
years and has reached "epidemic" proportions among suburban teens, college
students and patrons of the all-night music and dance festivals known as
"raves."

But use of special k is a relatively new trend here. It is the street name
for ketamine hydrochloride, an anesthetic commonly used during surgery on
cats. It is cooked to powder form, then snorted or injected. A dose
typically costs $20 and produces a trance-like high, often referred to as
being "in the k-hole."

Federal officials only last year added ketamine to their class of Schedule
III controlled substances, meaning possession of any amount could be
punishable by as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ecstasy is a Schedule I controlled substance, with no recognized medical
value and a high potential for abuse. Federal penalties vary with the
quantity, but start at a minimum of five years in prison.

What makes both drugs especially attractive to young users and alarming to
parents is that any indication of drug abuse vanishes along with the high.
There is no odor, no dilated pupils or other outward signs of the drugs'
influence. Even those who inject special k do so into muscle, not veins, so
needle tracks do not occur.

"There's no long-lasting high effect you're able to detect like you would
with marijuana, cocaine, heroin or even alcohol," said state police Lt.
Dale Hourigan of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force.

Patrick Connors, high school liaison for the Capitol Area Substance Abuse
Council, said special k became popular in this area just a few years ago.

Most of the Ecstasy is manufactured in illegal drug labs in Belgium and the
Netherlands, and shipped by mail. Connors said other labs have sprung up
and are now manufacturing a double-strength knockoff called doublestacks,
which sell for an average of $40 a tablet.

Ecstacy is methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, and also goes by the
nicknames of XTC and Adam. It was developed in Germany as an appetite
suppressant in 1912 and created controversy and interest when used
experimentally by a group of avant-garde psychotherapists several decades
ago. But it has never been medically recognized or approved.

Ecstasy produces in the brain a rapid release of serotonin, a biochemical
that plays a key role in moods, learning and sleep patterns.