CAMPAIGN TO CURB RISING USE OF ECSTASY

Maryland and federal officials yesterday began an education and law
enforcement campaign aimed at curbing the skyrocketing popularity and use
of the party drug Ecstasy.

"If you see this kind of paraphernalia around your kids, know it is a
problem," Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend told an audience at
the University of Maryland at College Park.

Among the seemingly benign items Mrs. Townsend listed were baby's
pacifiers, which help Ecstasy users cope with involuntary tooth grinding
that often follows taking the drug.

Also displayed as Ecstasy "tools" were candy tablets that can be used as a
medium and disguise for the drug and a respiratory mask and nasal inhaler
used to increase the drug's more pleasurable effects.

Almost undetected in 1998, when only two Maryland counties reported its
use, Ecstasy now has been seized in 21 of the state's 23 counties and
Baltimore.

Just last week, police raided a home-based Ecstasy manufacturing operation
in Salisbury, demonstrating that users no longer rely on illegal mail and
courier shipments from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to supply
demand for the drug.

"It's now one of the top-20 substances encountered in emergency rooms in
the United States," said Frank L. Sapienza, chief of drug and chemical
evaluation for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Physicians and police said Ecstasy has become a top drug of choice because
its promoters - who can manufacture a dose for about 25 cents and sell it
for more than $5 - have marketed it on the Internet and by word of mouth as
"happy," "safe" and socially acceptable.

Using the drug can heighten sensations, allowing users to dance all night
at parties called "raves." But Ecstasy use also increases the heart rate,
blood pressure and body temperature, which can damage the brain and
internal organs, and even kill, said Dr. Leigh Vinocur, an emergency-room
physician.

And studies show long-term effects of Ecstasy - whose chemical name is
methylenedioxymethamphetamine - can include visual, cognitive and motor
impairment, as well as psychiatric disorders such as paranoia, depression
and anxiety.

"All my friends love it, but don't think it's good," said Melissa, a
University of Maryland senior who declined to give her last name.

Melissa said her first and only experience with the drug actually made her
sick. "I started shivering and sweating - you never know what's in that -
anything could be," said the kinesiology major.

But a young man who identified himself as a sophomore computer-science
major said he believes government efforts to stop people from using Ecstasy
are a waste of time.

"I'm kind of like against drugs," he said, between drags on a cigarette,
"but I'm for people trying things if they want to change. When you smoke
weed, it helps free your subconscious to the conscious. But in the end, it
[messes] you up. You need to grow out of it."

Enforcement and education efforts, including public-service announcements
that will air in the Washington area and throughout Maryland, will require
extra coordination, but not extra funds, Mrs. Townsend said.

Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. David B. Mitchell said the state
Fire Marshal's Office will work with local zoning officials to identify
dangerously crowded clubs that may be hosting raves, the giant dance
parties where Ecstasy use is common.

Officials also intend to increase penalties for possession and distribution
of the drug, which now are limited, respectively, to four and five years in
jail, plus fines.

Of the 10 deaths associated with Ecstasy use in Maryland since 1998, one
was a woman and nine were men ranging in age from 18 to 30. Among the most
recent fatalities was a 26-year-old black man in Montgomery County. All
other persons determined to have Ecstasy in their system when they died of
drug-related causes were white.