ECSTASY DRUG NOT YET AN EPIDEMIC IN REGION

Drug Use Expected To Increase As Popularity Grows In Chicago.

The death of a Naperville teen who overdosed last week after taking what
she believed to be the drug "ecstasy" has created a heightened awareness of
the drug's potential impact on the region.

But local officials who work to prevent illegal drug use admit much remains
to be known when it comes to the latest designer drugs, including ecstasy's
newest and more lethal cousin PMA, or paramethoxyamphetamine.

The office of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Chicago said 18-year-old Sara
Aeschlimann of Naperville died after taking PMA, apparently after it was
sold to her as MDMA, which is also known as ecstasy.

Local police in both the south suburbs and in Indiana said they had not
encountered many users of MDMA, and almost nothing was known about the
deadly PMA.

Lake County HIDTA Director Garnett F. Watson Jr., said little information
is available about PMA because it is so new. But the fact that it was
derived from MDMA doesn't surprise him.

"That's not unusual with the new designer drugs," he said. "Just as soon as
the government gets around to saying this drug is illegal, somebody makes a
slight variation on it ... and you come up with a drug that gives just
about the same reaction, but it is slightly different."

Authorities are also investigating the death of 17-year-old Steve Lorenz,
who died a short time after taking a pill identical in appearance to the
one Aeschlimann took. Test results are anticipated soon to determine of the
two ingested the same drug.

Use of MDMA, a mild hallucinogenic, is growing among more affluent suburban
teens, especially during massive underground rave parties.

"It's a problem in middle class and upper class suburbs rather than the
inner city," said Michael Hillebrand of the DEA. "MDMA is bad ... PMA is
much worse."

Although using MDMA rarely results in death, PMA can raise the body
temperature to 106 degrees in those who overdose. In 13 months, 15 people
in Ontario, Canada, have overdosed and died taking PMA.

In Homewood, police try to keep abreast of the latest trends too, but no
arrests have been made in the village for possession of the drug "ecstasy"
or MDMA, said Det. Sgt. Bernie Hogancamp.

"We may well have kids that are abusing ecstasy in town, or adults for that
matter," he said. "It just that it hasn't reached that point where we have
those big rave parties like they do in the city, because we really don't
have a place for that."

Most agencies are concerned about the danger to the unsuspecting teen who
ingests the party drugs, not knowing what they are made of or where they
came from.

"Not only should they not be taking the ecstasy, but you don't even know
what it is," Hogancamp said. "How do you know what you're getting is even
what you expect it to be and what it might do to you? That is the
frightening thing."

As the popularity of trendy drugs like MDMA grows in Chicago, officials
expect the epidemic to spread into the south suburbs and northwest Indiana.

Police in Porter County have not yet learned how much the drug has
infiltrated that area, said Bob Taylor, coordinator of the county's
narcotics unit.

"I don't know how bad it is now," he said. "I want to focus right now on
how bad it is and see where it coming from."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.