NO ECSTASY

Congressional hearings this week are confronting the problem of an illegal
drug called "ecstasy" - a stimulant that can cause brain damage.

The scientific name of this substance is MDMA
(3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), and it is skyrocketing in popularity.
The drug is synthetic, meaning it isn't found in nature.

Ecstasy has the properties of amphetamines along with psychedelic effects
that make users feel peaceful.

Different recipes are used for ecstasy, all of which can produce serious
harm. Ecstasy is sometimes called "Adam," "X," "X-TC," "Stacy," "Clarity,"
"Essence," "Lover's Speed," "Eve," or "e." It is usually taken by mouth in
tablet, capsule or powder form, but it also may be smoked, snorted or injected.

Ecstasy costs $25 to $40 per pill. Sometimes, users combine MDMA with LSD,
marijuana, or other "club drugs" like GHB, PCP or ketamine (an animal
tranquilizer dubbed "special K") to counteract jitteriness. The drug may
remain in the body up to 24 hours although effects usually last three to
six hours.

MDMA generally reduces inhibitions and creates a sense of euphoria, but it
also can evoke anxiety and paranoia.

Heavier doses generate depression, irrationality and psychosis.

Side effects include hypothermia, vomiting, blurred vision, chills,
faintness, sweating, tremors, loss of control over body movements,
insomnia, convulsions, muscle tension, rapid eye movement and teeth
clenching. Individuals with heart problems, high blood pressure or epilepsy
have increased risk of adverse reactions.

Ecstasy destroys serotonin-producing neurons and reduces serotonin, a
neurotransmitter involved in controlling mood, sleep, pain, sexual activity
and violent behavior.

Unfortunately, little is known about long-term consequences of sustained
use. One study, published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, and
supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National
Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, examined serotonin receptors to
determine whether prolonged, regular use of ecstasy can produce
irreversible damage to neurons.

Some of today's heavy users may be burdened with chronic depression later
in life. A study at Johns Hopkins, conducted on non-human primates,
confirmed that MDMA causes long-lasting damage to areas of the brain
critical for thought and memory.

"I am very worried about ecstasy," said Dr. Jan Walburg, director of the
Jellinek Clinic in the Netherlands. "We must be wary of a drug that has the
potential of causing long-term brain damage, and this one does. With our
tolerant attitudes, we just didn't want to see the danger here until
ecstasy had spread everywhere like a virus." NIDA Director Dr. Alan Leshner
explains: "At the very least, people who take MDMA - even just a few times
- - are risking long-term, perhaps permanent problems with learning and
memory." The body quickly builds up tolerance to MDMA, so the drug is said
to have a honeymoon high - after which users take more to recapture the
initial sensation.

A British study demonstrated that use during pregnancy can cause birth defects.

Between 1997 and 1998, emergency room mentions of MDMA nearly doubled.

In 1999, 8 percent of 12th graders used MDMA at least once - up 38 percent
from the previous year ("Monitoring the Future"). Use escalated in the
1990s among college students and young adults, particularly those who
participate in "raves" - all-night dance parties held in fields or
abandoned warehouses.

Raves provide open spaces for dancing amid psychedelic lights, video, smoke
or fire. At such clubs, kids have died from overheating due to MDMA, which
increases heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. Polydrug abuse
is common.

Lethal combinations include ecstasy with heroin or cocaine. (Many raves
don't serve drinks since clientele are frequently underage. Alcohol
diminishes the effect of MDMA.) Raves typically cost $20 per ticket, draw
6,000 to 25,000 people, and bring organizers $100,000 per night. Attendees
may take ecstasy - called the "hug-drug" - in order to dance all night and
"feel close" to friends.

Raves have become way stations for large purchases of ecstasy that are
transported to college campuses, suburban high schools, and rural areas of
the country.

Most MDMA in America comes from the Netherlands (or Luxembourg and
Belgium). Dutch police estimate that the average lab there produces 80,000
tablets per day at less than a guilder per pill, or about 50 U.S. cents.
The tablets are the size of Advil and stamped with logos like Playboy
bunnies, lightning bolts or signs of the Zodiac.

U.S. Custom seized 3.5 million ecstasy tablets in FY 1999, more than four
times the amount in 1998. Much MDMA is bought by youthful American tourists
financing summer vacations by smuggling home a few hundred tablets.

Some 150 Dutch "Smart Shops," which feature drug paraphernalia, help
foreigners sneak ecstasy home by selling containers for Faberge shaving
gel, deodorant sprays, Campbell's soup or Heineken beer with secret
compartments for drugs. Organized crime increasingly is becoming involved
with MDMA.

Dr. Ernst Buning, formerly with the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service,
argues: "There is no simple solution to the drug problem.

No one nation - not the U.S., not England - has the answer." Together, we
must warn young people about the threat ecstasy poses to their health and
well-being.

Barry McCaffrey is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.