DANCING WITH DANGER

The numbers don't look good for teens using "designer drugs" which
remain popular despite a rising death count related to their use.

Users say ecstasy makes them feel enlightened and loving. The
anesthetic GHB gives people a profoundly intoxicating effect. Ketamine
can put people in a dreamy state.

Ecstasy also can increase heart rate and cause dehydration. GHB easily
can send someone into a coma. Ketamine, better known as "Special K," a
dissociative anesthetic, can practically immobilize users.

Whether mixed with other drugs or alone, these drugs and other
so-called club drugs are killing at a scary pace, say substance abuse
and drug policy experts.

"It's alarming. Teens are doing it like people used to drink beer,"
said Mary Naples, a licensed mental health counselor in Boca Raton.
"These kids can use these drugs anywhere, and they are."

State Drug Control Policy spokesman Tim Bottcher said the situation
with club drugs, or designer drugs, is "absolutely" at a crisis mode.

"We consider club drugs to be the chief threat to the younger kids,"
Bottcher said.

The state reported in February that at least 72 people died in Florida
as a result of club drugs during the past three years. State autopsy
were still being reviewed so that number saw expected to grow.

Ecstasy, or MDMA, a mixture of a stimulant and hallucinogen, was
listed as the direct or related cause of more than 27 deaths in
Florida during that period. The anesthetic GHB, or
gamma-hydroxybutyrate, has caused at least 19 deaths; methamphetamine
and nitrous oxide, at least eight deaths each; Fentanyl, at least
seven deaths; and Ketamine, at least three deaths.

Kelly Hendershot, a 19-year-old from Pinellas Park, died in June 1998
when she fell after inhaling nitrous oxide at a Tampa rave club. Just
four days earlier, five young people were treated at Bay area
hospitals for GHB overdoses. None died.

Authorities say these designer drugs are popular among people in their
teens and early 20s who populate the rave scene.

"Having these kids use a single drug is one thing, but what we've
found is kids like to mix these drugs," Bottcher said. "If you mix GHB
and alcohol, there's a good chance you're going to go into a coma and
die."

In March, four young adults in South Florida almost overdosed after
taking GHB at a party. Richard Julian of Davie and his three friends
were on life support; their conditions later improved.

"I don't know that much about 'G,' " Julian said afterward. "But I
know I won't do it again. GHB sucks."

They were more fortunate than Troy Perry, 37, of Largo, who died in
May 1999 after overdosing on GHB at a party in Oldsmar. Four other
people were hospitalized and recovered.

TEENS, COLLEGE students and other party attendees frequently take GHB
for its immediately intoxicating effects and its relatively low price.
It is also easy to find, according to police and several users
interviewed.

"What's worrisome about GBH is if you have the raw ingredients, you
can make it at home," Bottcher said. "You don't have to be a chemist."

Timothy Condon, associate director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, said GHB is one of the easiest and cheapest drugs to make.

"I've heard reports from people in Florida that they were literally
giving it away," Condon said.

GHB and Rohypnol, known as roofies, can easily be slipped into drinks
without detection because they are odorless and tasteless. Both are
referred to as "date-rape" drugs because they can render someone
helpless and produce amnesia in a victim.

Rohypnol belongs to the benzodiazepine class of drugs and has never
been approved for medical use in the United States, making it more
difficult to find.

Condon said he thinks GHB has taken the place of roofies among teens
because of its accessibility. And while the sometimes deadly effects
of GHB are scary enough to Condon, he is more concerned about two
other drugs.

" I'm not an alarmist when it comes to drugs, but I am very alarmed
about methamphetamine and ecstasy," Condon said,

Methamphetamine, also known as speed or crank, is a highly addictive
stimulant, Effects include anxiety, paranoia and cardiovascular problems.

A SMALL FACTION of psychotherapists who prescribed MDMA before it was
outlawed in the mid-1980s has long argued that there is no proof that
ecstasy is harmful. But the latest research shows otherwise, Condon
said. Brain imaging research at Johns Hopkins University shows that
ecstasy damages brain cells that produce serotonin.

Heavy ecstasy users also had memory problems that persisted for at
least two weeks after they stopped using the drug, according to a study.

"One reason we're having such a problem is that people find it hard to
believe that something that makes you feel so good can be bad for
you," Condon said. "But you don't really want to have your brain changed."

Ecstasy, sold in tablets for $20 to $30, is not physically addicting,
but many people are hooked on its psychedelic effects, which include
feelings of peacefulness and acceptance. Ecstasy sometimes is referred
to as the "hug drug" because users experience feelings of closeness
and have desires to touch others.

One 18-year-old from Boca Raton said she first did ecstasy two years
ago with friends, most of them white, upper-to middle-class teens.

"Some nights, we'll plan a big night out and we know we need to get
our stuff," she said. "It just depends on how much money we have."

The teenager said she has done ecstasy, cocaine and GHB, but she
doesn't plan to do GHB anymore after seeing one acquaintance overdose.

Even though she has undergone drug rehabilitation therapy and said she
isn't addicted to ecstasy, the high school senior said, "mentally, you
just keep wanting that feeling."

"It sounds ignorant and stupid, but it's kind of hard to stop," she
said.

One Wellington teen said he has been doing ecstasy and Special K for
the past three years and his parents are oblivious. He said most high
school students have tried designer drugs at least once.

"It's like this collective, 'Let's do drugs,' " the 18-year-old said.
"Mainstream kids have moved from keg parties to rolling parties."

Bottcher said the "rave' culture is largely responsible for a good
part of what's happening out there."

McAfee said that even though club drugs aren't street-corner drugs,
they are easy to find outside raves. GHB is part of the bar scene in
larger cities, he said.

"If you're a college-age individual, you're going to be able to get it
really easy at a bar, just as at a gym you can get steroids."