MAN PUTS CLUB DRUGS TO THE TEST

Emanuel Sferios has just received a package.

With the afternoon sunlight streaming into his downtown Oakland office,
Sferios tugs at the tape wrapped around a cardboard box and spills its
contents onto the coffee table.

Dozens of glass vials pour out. Each contains pills pressed from powdery
substances into a variety of shapes and sizes.

"These are the (pills) sending kids to the hospital," says Sferios, pointing
to the lime-green tablets shaped like triangles.

They're marketed on the street as the designer drug Ecstasy, but with the
help of a laboratory that contracts with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency,
Sferios has discovered they contain dextromethorpan, or DXM. An ingredient
in cough suppressants, DXM taken at the high doses packed into these pills
can cause nausea, convulsions and other symptoms.

At a rave in October, Sferios watched as nine kids suffering from severe
dehydration and overheating were carted away in ambulances. According to
their friends, eight of the victims had swallowed green triangle tablets.

"It was amazing to me that they all recovered," says Sferios, explaining
that a rave that size - about 10,000 people - usually produces fewer than
five medical emergencies.

"That was our first indication that DXM was extremely dangerous," he says.

Sferios, 30, is the founder and director of DanceSafe, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to decreasing the risks associated with drug use in
the late-night dance community.

Operating under the assumption that the government's just-say-no approach to
curbing drug use has backfired, Sferios and his supporters argue that people
are inevitably going to gamble and take drugs. Why not provide the
information they need to use as safely as possible, he asks.

DanceSafe's focus is on raves - all-night dance parties attended mostly by
teens and young adults where Ecstasy consumption is popular.

Sferios contends that, although under certain circumstances it can be
dangerous, pure Ecstasy rarely results in lethal reactions.

So he invites kids to have their Ecstasy pills tested for free - either at a
rave site or by sending them to a laboratory. The results of the lab tests
are then posted on DanceSafe's Web site.

In addition, about 15 volunteers in the Bay Area take turns manning the
DanceSafe tables at some six raves a month.

Before proceeding, DanceSafe volunteers check with security guards or police
officers at the event to make sure users won't be arrested for possession of
Ecstasy.

Sferios says a majority of the law enforcement officers he encounters are
willing to grant the users amnesty. And San Francisco District Attorney
Terence Hallinan has assured him neither DanceSafe workers nor users seeking
their services will be prosecuted, he said.

The test is simple and quick.

When a user approaches the table, volunteers write down the name of the pill
and whether it was acquired at that event.

Next, the tablet is measured with calipers and a small portion is shaved off
onto a white plate for the test.

Using a dropper, a volunteer applies a Marquis reagent - a substance which
changes color in the presence of certain drugs - to the pill's powder. The
shavings will turn black within 10 seconds if the pill contains Ecstasy. If
it turns any other color, it is not Ecstasy.

The procedure tests only for the presence of Ecstasy, not the absence of
other substances.

After completing the test, DanceSafe volunteers warn users there's no
guarantee the pill is safe.

Pills that contain Ecstasy tend to be pure, according to Sferios.

However, everything from over-the-counter medications and harmless
substances to illicit narcotics and lethal drugs are sometimes passed off as
Ecstasy, says Sferios.

"We see all kinds of users bringing us pills that are clearly
pharmaceuticals," he says, describing a yellow tablet that contained nothing
but an over-the-counter expectorant.

"It's a lucrative market and scam dealers will sell anything," he says.

At labs around the world other drugs have been found mixed in with Ecstasy.

"Anything could be in the pill besides Ecstasy," he says. "In other
countries they've found speed, Ketamine and PCP. We just haven't found
anything yet."

He maintains that although no drug is 100 percent safe and even one tablet
of Ecstasy can kill, there are steps users can take to lower their risk.

"The greatest danger facing Ecstasy users is dehydration and overheating,"
says Sferios.

Classified as an illegal drug in 1985, Ecstasy floods the brain with
serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep, memory and
body temperature. This deluge of the brain's "feel good" chemical enhances
sensations of touch, feel, sight and sound but also inhibits the body's
temperature-regulating system.

When combined with hot, poorly ventilated spaces where kids exert themselves
on the dance floor for hours, Ecstasy can be deadly, according to James
O'Callaghan, a neurotoxicologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta.

"If you're in a hot environment, you're going to get very hot and stay hot
and it can kill you," O'Callaghan says.

DanceSafe advocates taking breaks from dancing and drinking water to prevent
overheating.

In recent months, Sferios' efforts have caught the attention of a community
some say was built by ravers.

Internet and high-tech gurus have contributed the bulk of more than $150,000
to DanceSafe since August, prompting Sferios to relocate the organization's
headquarters from his Berkeley apartment to a downtown Oakland office
building. He's also taking a one-year leave from a master's degree program
in religion to work at DanceSafe full time.

"This time last year I was $3,000 in debt," says Sferios, whose fund-raising
streak began with a $10,000 contribution from one of the founders of the
Internet search engine Go2Net.com.

DanceSafe's four employees received their first paychecks last month.

"We finally have enough to pay ourselves," says Sferios, whose own check was
about $1,000.

Founded in 1998, DanceSafe chapters are located in Vancouver, Canada,
Seattle and Portland, Ore., with plans to open in Los Angeles and on the
East Coast as well.

But not everyone is a fan of DanceSafe's work.

Vacaville police Detective Todd Dye says handing Ecstasy pills back to
teenagers, even with warnings, is an endorsement of drug use.

"Even if you've tested (the pill), you've just handed that kid something
that can kill him," Dye said. "Would you hand a suicidal subject a gun
that's loaded?"