THE DRUG MENACE CALLED ECSTASY

"Teenagers everywhere have begun experimenting with it," Time magazine
reports in its June 5 cover story on a drug called Ecstasy. Only crack
cocaine has won more users faster, reports U.S. Customs.

The word on the street and in the rave clubs is that popping an
aspirin-sized Ecstasy tablet is safe, and Time does call it safer than
cocaine, which is not saying much.

U.S. Sen. Bob Graham is more accurate to label it a proven killer. Graham, a
Florida Democrat, is co-sponsoring a bill called the Ecstasy
Anti-Proliferation Act of 2000, and the measure comes none too soon.

Because penalties for importing the illegal drug, sometimes called MDMA, are
much softer than for trafficking in heroin, cocaine or marijuana, drug
smugglers are making big profits with minimal risks. A pill that might cost
a dime to make sells for $20 or more.

The drug is said to make a user feel wonderful - talkative and uninhibited -
for a few hours. But it can also kill. A user's temperature can soar to 110
degrees. It can cause panic, vomiting and loss of sleep.

And it will make you do things you may later regret. Aftereffects include
memory loss and depression.

Time pictured a dazed looking young woman, sucking on a pacifier, who was
"coming down" after an Ecstasy party. The drug is not addictive like
cocaine, but users seem to want to repeat the experience, regardless of the
consequences.

Graham is rightly concerned that the federal sentencing guidelines consider
the sale of one gram of Ecstasy equal to the sale of 35 grams of marijuana.
His bill would make the penalty much steeper, equal to the sale of one gram
of methamphetamine, which is the same as the sale of two kilograms of
marijuana.

Stiff punishment would discourage the drug gangs that Time reports are
"meeting the astonishing demand."

One Internet site designed for Ecstasy users offers some advice for what to
do while using the drug at home. One suggestion is to sit in the bathroom
"whispering to yourself quietly, 'This is so cool!' Your voice will echo
throughout the bathroom."

The confused youngsters using this drug clearly need additional protection
from their own bad judgment. There is nothing cool about risking your life
and damaging your brain.