TAKING THE E TRAIN

Ecstasy: A Fast Drug For Fast Times?

"A most unbelievable surge of energy and gentle warmth rushed through my
body. It was so brutally intense, all I could do for several minutes was
inhale and let the breath come out as one long howl of indescribable joy.
Many around me joined in. It seemed as though half the stage was just
hollering in joint ecstasy."

- -A first-time ecstasy user

In the late '60s and early '70s when flower power ruled the scene, the
spiritual drug of choice for rebellious teens, besides pot, was LSD. Since
then, with the advent of a technological society, our drugs have become
increasingly technical, too. More formulas have created more drugs that can
pinpoint and treat specific ailments, or for abusers, have distinct
effects. Enter MDMA-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-the speedy so-called
hallucinogenic club drug of the new millennium, or under its street names:
E; X; XTC; Ecstasy; and rolls.

"Everybody wants to do E," observes Terry Martorano, captain of the
Waukesha County Metro Enforcement Drug Unit. Martorano also works security
at Carroll College and Alpine Valley Music Theater.

"It makes you feel awesome," says a Milwaukee-area suburban high-school
teen who has taken the white pill, each having a distinct logo. For
anywhere between $15 to $35 per pill, good feelings apparently can be
bought. "You love everything and everyone. It's a heightening of your brain
and of your mind. It sucks when it ends."

The '60s flower children would say that the effects of Ecstasy are
something like a combination of mescaline and speed. Fast drugs for fast times.

"If you're at a rave you probably want it speedy, but sometimes you can
just chill out and listen to music if it's not," says a young user we
talked to.

"Human be-ins" have given way to the rave party. Techno music is the new
acid rock, replacing the mellower tones of the incense-filled rooms of
yore. Even Timothy Leary had hosted rave parties held by his son. The elder
Leary called them "high-tech acid tests." Whippets (nitrous oxide, also
known as laughing gas) are still around, as is pot, but Ecstasy is the drug
of choice for a weekend gathering of the teen rave-dance set.

Like LSD users of the past, those "rolling on E" are generally from white,
middle-class suburbs, outside the usual stereotypes and police spotlights
of inner-city crack users. And that seems to make for fewer headlines,
despite Ecstasy's growing popularity.

A national survey of 45,000 students in grades 8, 10, and 12, released last
week, found that Ecstasy use rose significantly in all three grade levels
from 1998 to 1999. The 2000 Monitoring the Future Survey shows Ecstasy use
up 82% among 8th graders; 44% among 10th graders and 46% among 12th
graders. Heroin, cocaine and LSD use decreased. Among all kids surveyed in
those three grades, however, the percentage of those who use Ecstasy is
still in the single digits.

Alcohol still remains teens' drug of choice-about 34% purport to be regular
drinkers and about 22% smoke pot, according to a 1999 Wisconsin Youth Risk
Behavior Survey-but Ecstasy is gaining a following. Perhaps it's because of
the reportedly feel-good uninhibited feelings it creates, or the increased
touch and sound stimulation.

"Everybody's doing it," says one West Side teen. "Most people at my school
have done it."

That statement could be chalked up to a wide-eyed youth's idea of clique
acceptance, but "even a few honor students are doing it," we're told.

While teachers may not know entirely what's happening in the schools, and
certainly parents can't make that claim, cops say that the drug's
popularity is definitely rising.

"We're arresting people with 600 hits, 2,000 hits. We're buying it by the
thousands," Martorano attests. "There's a lot of it coming up from Chicago.
The stuff is easy to move."

Perhaps reflecting its suburban appeal, the Milwaukee County Metropolitan
Drug Enforcement Unit seized about 1,418 Ecstasy tablets this year through
late August, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
That's about enough pills to fuel one night of parties in the area. The
unit made 10 arrests so far this year, the last on Nov. 8. Those arrests
were mostly males in their early 20s who lived outside the city.

"It's at all the rave parties," one source says.

"It cuts across all age groups," Martorano says. "I've seen it with the
very young, 12-, 13-year olds, to 40-year-olds."

Ecstasy-also commonly called MDMA-made the rounds with no legal
interference until it became extremely popular. As recently as 1985,
Ecstasy could be found at yuppie parties in big-city high-rise condos. Back
then, it was touted mainly as "the love drug," and serving bowls filled
with pills were the norm. On July 1, 1985, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
outlawed MDMA, and it was put into the most restrictive of controlled
substances categories.

MDMA was actually first patented as a diet pill in 1913 by the German
company Merck, but because of the side effects, it was never marketed that
way. By 1953 the U.S. Army had gotten ahold of the formula and was testing
it for military use. Rumors were that it was for a "truth" drug.
Psychotherapists finally took a look at MDMA, and the University of
California-Berkeley's Alexander Shulgrin- "the stepfather of MDMA," as he
calls himself-touted its use in that arena. Shulgrin is best known for his
autobiography, Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved.

One psychotherapist, thrilled with MDMA's ability to open up patients'
inhibited thoughts and emotions, called it "penicillin for the soul."

After it became illegal in the States, MDMA made its way to Europe where it
took on its current status as the "fun drug," becoming a staple of
all-night dance parties, which it now is back in the States some 15 years
later.

But while some comparisons with LSD can be made regarding Ecstasy's
emotional and hallucinogenic effects, Ecstasy can kill you. It affects the
serotonin metabolism in the brain, which, researchers say, is what likely
leads to the higher body temperatures, blood pressure and pulse rates that
are regularly reported from users.

Users we talked to realize this, and say they are conscious about taking
only one pill at a time. That wasn't true for one north shore youth in
September, whose kidneys failed after she combined several Ecstasy pills
with LSD in a short period of time.

"We would never have thought that would have happened," says a friend of
that youth. "She almost died."

That group of friends says they swore off the drug after the incident.

Madison police say 16-year-old Brett Zweifel died Sept. 11 from an overdose
of Ecstasy after attending a rave party at the Barrymore Theater. After a
29-year-old overdosed at a rave party held in Madison's Alliant Center,
officials there say no more parties will be booked.

When all goes well, after the drug wears off, the person is tired and wants
to sleep. "You feel like absolute crap," is the consensus of a group we
talked to. "But it's worth it."

Studying long-term effects of MDMA are a relatively new science, but a
report released last month by Swiss MDMA researcher Alex Gamma rehashed 13
other studies looking into the effect MDMA has on memory. Gamma concluded
that heavier, long-term use leads to some memory loss and recall ability.

"I think the safe conclusion to draw is that being an Ecstasy user is a
risk factor for having worse memory performance," he writes.

When it is combined with the intense dancing at rave parties, it can cause
dehydration and raise the body temperature. That's why most rave parties
and partiers are well-equipped with water for sale.

Some advice offered in Ecstasy Internet chat-rooms sound similar to the old
amateur offerings for acid trips.

Do's: Trip with good friends; get some daylight hours in your trip; listen
to music; go to a place with natural stimuli; talk with your friends.

Don'ts: Don't take it when you're sleepy; get impatient; rush to take it if
you're unsure; take it with alcohol; mix it with other speedy drugs; take
more than one.

Like the memorable announcement at Woodstock that some bad acid was being
sold at the show, there are fakes in the MDMA business, too. A South
Milwaukee man was arrested for selling what he said was Ecstasy but were
actually sleeping pills; one youth we talked to says a friend did the same
thing at a rave party and got away with it-like in the cult rave film Go,
where the protagonist's journey starts after buying Ecstasy for some
friends, but ends up selling fakes at a rave party instead.

One fake has been exposed: Word is out that users should avoid the
three-diamond Mitsubishi-logoed pills, since they contain what's known as
PMA, instead of the ecstasy drug, MDMA. PMA has been responsible for three
suburban Chicago deaths this spring, and in fall, two men near Orlando died
from using it. PMA is a cranked-up speed that burns out the central nervous
system, with body temperatures reaching 108 degrees. Organ failure comes next.

According to the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, PMA shares the
hallucinogenic qualities of mescaline and ecstasy, but the first sign of
impending death is a soaring temperature. After an hour, stupor can set in
because of widespread bleeding of the brain and organs. Emergency medical
attention doesn't guarantee survival, says the journal.

A Chicago Drug Enforcement Agency spokesperson called the difference
between MDMA and PMA "like making angel-food cake and coming up with
chocolate-chip cookies."

Waukesha County's Martorano says they haven't confiscated any PMA in
Waukesha. "All of our stuff has tested out to be what MDMA consists of. But
you never can be sure what's mixed in with this stuff."

Customs officials think that more altered MDMA is coming into the country
because their drug-sniffing dogs, which are trained to sniff out MDMA,
can't detect additives that may cover up MDMA. Customs seized about 5
million Ecstasy pills during the first four months of the year.

One of our sources says there hasn't been word of PMA in Milwaukee.
Needless to say, no one's checking on the purity of what they're eating.

Various educators see Ecstasy on the school scene from different angles.
Sharon Wisniewski, an educational consultant for health and safety in
schools and communities among 44 school districts in southeastern
Wisconsin, says "we're always watching for it," but she hasn't heard any
first-hand reports of students using it. "We are really aware that it's out
there. It's the topic of discussions in meetings."

A conference for educators-"The Training on Club Drugs, What You Need to
Know"-is sponsored by the U.S. Attorney's office and is scheduled for Jan.
13 at UW-Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Public Schools drug prevention specialist Dave Kucej says Ecstasy
is better known in white middle-class schools than in MPS. "I haven't heard
anybody really talk about it."

He says MPS was more concerned about the highly potent, extremely pure,
black heroin that came to town this year. So far, it has been blamed for 15
deaths statewide.

As for confronting students with the reality of drugs, "we try to focus on
health, prevent peer pressure, and look at the positives of health
realization and resiliency-that you can change thoughts and feelings
without chemicals," Kucej says, adding a cautionary note of drug education.
"What we found out is that when we teach what the drugs do, the kids become
fascinated and try doing it themselves. We focus on the parents with that
information."

One of our suburban high-school sources agrees with Kucej's assessment.
"They just tell us what it does and that it isn't good for us."

Kucej and Wisniewski offer this for skittish parents: "The majority of
students are not on drugs," Wisniewski says.

"Most kids believe more kids are using drugs than really are," echoes Kucej.