'HUG DRUG' INTOXICATING DENVERITES

As the drinking crowds continue to grow in LoDo each
weekend, an alternative counterculture is developing in the empty
warehouses just north of Coors Field.

Sipping nothing stronger than bottled water and fruit juices, the
mostly younger crowd gathers, not to preen and strut, but to dance the
night away. To them, appearances are less important than the experience.

Dressed in baggy pants and T-shirts, adorned with tattoos and
piercings, this crowd is content to gather in industrial settings on
concrete floors, the more remote the better. They don't care for fancy
bars and elegant seating. What they're looking for is a deafening
sound system and a hip disc jockey with his own collection of
industrial "electronica" music.

These crowds, for the most part, are "rolling" on ecstasy, the
ultimate party drug that's sweeping the dance and livemusic crowds
nationally. What hallucinogens were to the '60s and '70s, and what
cocaine was to the '80s and '90s, ecstasy has become to today's
dancing and live-music crowds.

Also known as X, XTC, Adam or E, ecstasy is one of the fastest-growing
club or party drugs among teenagers and young adults, say police,
health officials and dealers.

X excites a chemical in the brain known as serotonin, which produces
euphoria, as well as a feeling of emotional trust and empathy and a
heightened awareness of the moment, according to the National
Institutes of Health.

The drug first became popular in the early 1980s among
psychotherapists who prescribed it to patients suffering from mild
depression, grief and other temporary maladies. But the drug became so
popular in a few years that the Food and Drug Administration banned it
as a controlled substance in 1985.

And recent research has begun to show that prolonged use of the drug
can have a permanent effect on memory, concentration and cognitive
thinking.

Numbers of users are difficult to come by, say police and paramedics,
because they don't see many overdose cases and because the drug
doesn't cause 911-type behavior, unlike crack or heroin.

And its effects are the opposite of alcohol, a depressant that causes
combativeness, drowsiness and loss of control. In fact, people on
ecstasy say they actually prefer not to drink because alcohol
diminishes the effect of the drug.

If ever a drug was custom-made for the party crowd, ecstasy is it.
It's basically made from speed, so dancers can gyrate for hours. It
brings people together, alert and aware. It heightens all five senses,
to the point that the music becomes hypnotic and the sense of touch
becomes so pleasurable that a crowd is comforting.

"It's sensory overload," said Sara, a 22-year-old telemarketer who has
used ecstasy a couple of times a month for the past two years. "It's
totally sensual. Touching becomes so intense."

Since ecstasy amplifies the five senses, inside the raves and the
after-hours clubs, "rolling" partygoers frequently can be seen wearing
small paper face masks, smeared on the inside with Vicks Mentholatum
or eucalyptus oil. They say it gives them a cleansing feeling, a
fresh, clean feeling while breathing.

Ecstasy also produces an intense oral fixation, and ravers can be seen
sucking on lollipops, Tootsie Rolls and even infant pacifiers. Most
everyone walks around sipping from small bottles of water or juice,
which the clubs sell for $3 to $5 a bottle. Some rollers claim that
fruit juices, particularly orange juice, boost the effects of the
drug. Another popular way of boosting it is Red Bull, a highly
caffeinated sports drink sold in convenience stores.

Users who are rolling on ecstasy say the drug, unlike alcohol, makes
them feel closer to their companions and freer to share their feelings
with each other.

"It's the only drug I've ever used that brings out my true self," said
Liz, a 22-year-old singer and waitress who talked casually about her
drug experiences while serving diners at a crowded restaurant in
Boulder. "We're so afraid to be ourselves, and X lets me be so honest
with my friends and the people I care about."

The euphoria it produces has become hypnotic for users ranging from
young teenagers in baggy pants and skull caps to the middle-aged
beautiful people who frequent the upscale nightclubs in LoDo.

"It's fabulous," said a 39-year-old female marketing executive. "I'm
afraid of taking it more, but my girlfriends and I had a wonderful
time on it."

Another woman at La Rumba, a popular dancing spot in Denver's Golden
Triangle, said, "You can feel your spine loosen up; your whole body
loosens up. It's great for dancing."

It's difficult to walk into a nightclub and identify someone who is
rolling. Even other rollers sometimes have to ask. But based on
interviews with users, the drug has become extremely popular across
the country, particularly among the 18- to 25-year-old set.

"I don't have any friends who haven't done it, who aren't doing it or
who can't (buy) it," said Sara, the 22-year-old telemarketer. "I think
the cops are (frustrated) because there is so much of it around."

Michael, a bartender who has worked at many LoDo nightclubs, said he
moved to Los Angeles for a year and returned to Denver last October.
"When I came back, I was amazed how much X has grown here. It has at
least doubled in the past year," he said, asking that his last name
not be used because the drug is illegal.

Authorities acknowledge that ecstasy use is on a rapid rise. Dealers
say it's out of control. One dealer, who wouldn't be identified, said
the use of X just in Denver has more than doubled in the past year,
and he now is selling about 10,000 pills a month, marked up from about
$7 to an average of $25 each.

Police say they are well aware of the prevalence of ecstasy but that
it's difficult to catch. There is no paraphernalia, like syringes for
heroin or pipes for crack. It's a small pill taken once, unlike
alcohol or marijuana, which are consumed over a period of time.

"If we hear of a rave, we'll insert some undercovers in to try to make
some buys," said Lt. Tony Lopez of the Denver Police Department's Vice
and Narcotics Control Bureau. "Or else we'll shut it down.

"Ecstasy is a craze now, and we treat it very seriously. It's no
different than other drugs, and it's irresponsible to say it's not
dangerous. One overdose is too many."

Ecstasy is taken as an aspirin-size pill. Some of the pills are named,
depending on what they are mixed with. Mitsubishi is frequently cut
with additional speed, which causes hyperactivity. Mercedes can be cut
with heroin, which produces a slow, mellow mood. Or it can be cut with
LSD, which causes hallucinations known as "candy flipping." Other
names include Ferrari, 007 and Sex X.

Rollers can "peak" on the drug anywhere from two to six hours after
taking it, depending on their body size and the amount taken. Many are
known to "reload" after peaking. Paramedics from Denver Health Medical
Center rarely receive calls for assistance from people who have overdosed.

"My four partners and I can't recall a single ecstasy call in the last
year," said Rob Shiller, a six-year veteran of the ambulances based
out of Denver Health.

"Typically, a mild overdose or usage won't bring a 911 call. Their
friends will take care of it, and they don't want us to come because
the cops will come, too. We get more calls for overdoses from
marijuana, usually young or first-time users suffering from anxiety
attacks. Heroin is still the real big one for us on the streets."

Dr. Kerry Broderick, an emergency-room physician at Denver Health,
said she sees ecstasy abusers come in waves. "It usually depends on
what band is in town. When Phish or the Grateful Dead are here, we see
a lot. It's been slow lately," she said.

Broderick said patients who are hallucinating are usually left alone
and watched. Some patients stop breathing, and they are treated
immediately.

"Usually they snap out of it pretty quickly. One moment they're
unconscious and the next they're sitting up in bed," she said. She
described ecstasy as "definitely a LoDo drug, usually caucasian." Club
owners refused to discuss the drug in relation to their customers.
Dimitrius Bossoukos, one of two owners of Amsterdam's, where some go
to "roll," said he didn't have time to meet with a reporter until
April. A few nights later, he refused to allow a reporter into
Amsterdam's.

Some of the empty warehouses are rented one night at a time, for
clandestine "rave" parties that police are forever on the lookout to
close down. Once a warehouse has been secured by a party promoter,
it's a hit-and-run affair, with truckloads of speakers, turntables and
refreshments lugged inside in a matter of hours the night of the
party. The week of the party, postcards are printed with the name of
the party and a telephone number for the location, then distributed in
nightclubs and music stores.

Two weeks ago, for instance, cards were dumped in key locations
advertising "The Pyropornographic Apocalyptic Love-In," a rave that
would feature Fire Performance, Nude Body Painting and The Wheel of
Havoc. Another was The White Party, which was held at 23rd and Champa
streets until police broke it up. The more permanent version of the
parties are the after-hours clubs, particularly Amsterdam's on 29th
and Walnut streets and Synergy at 32nd and Larimer streets. Licensed
as "social clubs," they don't sell alcohol, which allows them to stay
open four hours beyond the bars, until 6 a.m. They only sell bottled
water, fruit juice and some caffeinated sports drinks.

If ecstasy is the fuel, the engine that carries the crowd through to
sunrise is the music: an industrial, metallic version of disco music
with a throbbing beat and a virtually unrecognizable melody. There are
no words, no tunes and certainly nothing that will stick in your head
the next day.

The music is composed and arranged on state-of-the-art digital
equipment, with an array of synthesizers and rhythm machines, then
recorded on vinyl records right out of the '40s and '50s. Disc jockeys
sit on their electronic thrones with four turntables, spinning their
individual themes as the crowd dances endlessly amid confetti and
strobe lights.

Groups can join in a circle with each person giving the person in
front of them a back massage. Dancers draw up very tight to each other
without the music slowing. X is known as the "hug drug" because
touching and hugging almost become a craving. Strollers through the
nondancing crowd make little or no effort to avoid rubbing against
each other as they pass by.

"Making out when you're rolling is the absolute best," said Sara,
adding that, for her, it rarely leads to sex.

"It's sensual, not sexual," said Michael, the bartender. "You don't
really think about sex, until maybe when you come down."

Scientifically, ecstasy is known as MDMA, the last two initials of
which stand for methamphetamine, or speed. It is "cooked" similarly to
speed and uses many of the same precursors, predominately ephedrine
found in cold medicine.

"With about $5,000 worth of equipment and supplies, someone with a
little bit of knowledge could cook up $10,000 to $15,000 worth of
ecstasy," said Dr. Frank Daly, a toxicology fellow at the Rocky
Mountain Poison Center. "You don't need to go to college to do this;
you can get it off the Internet, although some of the reactions can be
explosive and the byproducts are pretty irritable. Fires are common."

The downside to X, in layman's terms, is that it uses up the brain's
serotonin faster than the brain can replenish it. Once the high is
over, users can go into a deep depression for several days until the
serotonin is replaced. Effects of long-term use include loss of
memory, mood instability and confusion, according to the National
Institutes for Health.

One of the problems with ecstasy that's beginning to emerge is that
long-term use of ecstasy can burn up pathways where the brain can't
manufacture serotonin anymore.

That can lead to cognitive difficulties, like the inability to
concentrate, and cause permanent mood and depression problems," Daly
said.

But despite the risks and apparent longterm hazards, ecstasy continues
to excite many. Justin Donegan, 31, a promoter from San Francisco,
says Denverites want to keep partying after the after-hours clubs shut
down. So today he opened his "First Call at Sunshine," a party at the
Sunshine Lounge at 2712 Larimer St. Doors open at 4:30 a.m., liquor
will be served starting at 6 a.m., and DJ's will spin music until
noon. He's hoping to make it a regular thing.

"Right on," said several Downtown club hoppers when told there now
will be a place to go after dawn. "We'll be there."

If there is an acid test about a drug's popularity and profitability,
it may be when organized crime gets involved. Last Thursday, Sammy
"The Bull" Gravano, the former Mafia hit man who testified against mob
boss John Gotti, was arrested in Phoenix in connection with a drug
ring selling up to 30,000 hits of ecstasy a week.