BRAIN DRAIN

SEE YEE AI provides the facts on Ecstasy and the damage it can do.

YOU may have tried it, you may know the rush and the high it gives you. How
it makes you keep shakin' your head and dancin' from night till dawn, or
even noon the next day. How it removes all inhibitions. How it gives you
that great feeling like everything is cool and it makes you feel loved.

But there are things about Ecstasy the pushers don't tell you. That the low
you feel after the effects of Ecstasy have worn off could be just the
beginning of worse things to come.

Most Ecstasy users pop the designer pills in the mistaken belief that they
are harmless. While Ecstasy has not been proven to be physically
addictive--unlike cocaine and heroin--it is not completely benign either.

In fact, recent scientific studies have turned up disturbing evidence about
Ecstasy use. But more on that later.

Ecstasy is made of a synthetic compound known to chemists as
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. German pharmaceutical company
E. Merck took out a patent on it in 1914, though they had no real use for
it then.

The compound resurfaced in 1953 when the United States Army funded research
into the possibility of developing MDMA into a chemical weapon. The plans
were later scrapped.

According to a fact sheet from the Pharmacy Division of the Health
Ministry, Ecstasy is a stimulant with mild hallucinogenic properties. That
explains why people who take it feel energised enough to dance all night
and feel good about themselves.

Now for the down-side.

Ecstasy's most immediate side-effect is that it raises body temperature and
affects water balance. When you're dancing in a crowded, hot discotheque,
your body temperature could easily shoot up to 43 degrees C (above our
normal 36.9 degreesC)--which could make you comatose.

Drinking water may not help all that much because Ecstasy reduces urine
production. Alcohol and caffeine-based cola drinks might interact with
Ecstasy and make things worse.

In fact, dehydration and overheating are the most common reasons why
Ecstasy users are rushed to the emergency wards of hospitals. Admission
data on Ecstasy-related problems here are sketchy but, in Italy, about 20
people are rushed to hospitals every weekend in the resort towns of Rimini
and Riccione.

Other side effects have included heart palpitations and insomnia, for as
long as the effect of the pill lasts--which could be as long as six to
eight hours.

People with heart or kidney disease are at greater risk from Ecstasy's side
effects.

In the long-term, Ecstasy effects are even more frightening.

According to a US National Institute of Drug Abuse report, even small doses
of Ecstasy--as little as the amount in one pill--is enough to cause brain
damage.

Dr George Ricaurte and his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Medical
Institution conducted a series of studies with rats and monkeys. They found
that MDMA--in doses equivalent to what party-goers take--damaged the brain
cells that produce serotonin, which is the chemical that regulates mood,
appetite, sleep and other body functions like temperature control.

About 12 to 18 months later, some of the cells stopped growing in areas of
the brain that controls learning and memory but grew excessively in the
areas which controlled sleep and appetite.

"This means that when we evaluate humans previously exposed to high doses
of MDMA, we should be looking for loss of serotonin function in some brain
regions, but perhaps normal or increased serotonin function in other
regions,'' Dr Ricaurte is quoted as saying in the report.

What is more disturbing is that the brain damage persisted in monkeys seven
years after being off the drug. Scientists believe that it may have the
same impact on people.

In other tests, Ecstasy users who stopped taking the drug for more than
three weeks performed more poorly in visual and verbal memory tests than
those who didn't use the drug. Ecstasy also affected their verbal reasoning
and attention spans.

The lower levels of serotonin in Ecstasy users may be the cause.

While there is no evidence that Ecstasy can be addictive, you do become
tolerant to its effects. It works like this: you take it for a few nights
and your body starts to wise up to the effects--the highs don't get so high
anymore and the lows get lower. So you need more. And, before long, you
realise that days without Ecstasy don't feel so good anymore.

Besides, not everyone who has used Ecstasy felt good. Time magazine
reported that a San Francisco schoolteacher became severely depressed after
she recalled, in horrible detail, an episode of sexual abuse. She had to
seek psychiatric help.

Since Ecstasy amplifies the mood you're in, if you are already feeling
depressed, taking E isn't going to drive away the blues. It'll make them worse.

Psychological trauma is another big reason for hospitalisations from
Ecstasy. People have broken down, unable to cope with the rush of emotions
that Ecstasy induces artificially. Those with a family history of
psychiatric illness are especially at risk.

And all that is just what you have to deal with if your pills are pure.

In more than half of the cases, what you think are Ecstasy pills aren't
MDMA at all.

Since they're usually produced illegally by amateurs, your pill could be
contaminated with a host of chemicals that might be even worse than
Ecstasy. Common contaminants act more like LSD or speed, which give you a
greater high and a worse withdrawal.

Because of all these contaminants, which might be physically addictive,
using Ecstasy isn't just harmless fun. You could get hooked.

The cheaper stuff that you get for RM25 a pop are made locally in someone's
backyard. What you think is Ecstasy might not be it at all, but a mixture
of contaminants which could kill you.

Doctors in the United States and Europe believe that most hospitalisations
related to Ecstasy are caused by these contaminants, which are difficult to
trace, and whose side effects are hard to treat. Two Chicago teenagers died
after taking what they thought were Ecstasy pills. It was actually another
illegal drug masquerading as Ecstasy.

Even the imported stuff you get from the Netherlands have dubious origins.
Most of them are manufactured in barns and backyards under terribly
unhygienic conditions.

One drug enforcement officer in the Netherlands described the containers
used to make Ecstasy as being "so filthy I wouldn't put my garbage in it.''
So much for pricey designer drugs.

So now you have the facts on Ecstasy. It isn't harmless and you could get
into a lot more trouble than it's worth.

Not everyone involved in the rave scene does Ecstasy. Moby, one of the most
influential rave DJs in Europe, says in an interview with Time: "I've never
tried Ecstasy. I've never tried cocaine. I've never tried heroin ... The
reason I stay away from drugs is that I value my brain too much. I don't
want to trust my synapses to some stranger that I met in a nightclub. I
hope to use my brain for the rest of my life.''

Give your brain and body a break. Say No to Ecstasy.