CLUB KIDS ENDURE AGONY OF ECSTASY'S SIDE EFFECTS

Footballer died doing Ecstasy.Lollipops help with the teeth-grinding,
but do nothing for the "second-day killers" -- side effects an
increasing number of New York teens endure to enjoy the buzz of their
favorite drug, "Ecstasy."

Last week's high-profile Ecstasy busts, including a huge ring in
Queens and former Mafia hit-man Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano's
alleged new gang in Arizona, have brought fresh attention to the drug
- -- but apparently done nothing to stem its popularity at Gotham's
nightspots this weekend.

"It's like the adrenaline rush without the adrenaline," said Joey, 18,
a high-school senior from Westchester who was partying at Chelsea's
The Roxy early yesterday. (His name, like others in this story, has
been changed.)

An hour and a half after swallowing a pill he purchased elsewhere from
a friend for $13, Joey, wearing a baseball cap, scruffy goatee and
tropical shirt, sat on the dance floor, flattened momentarily by an
upset stomach.

"'Trippin,' that's acid," Joey said after, explaining the lingo of an
Ecstasy experience.

"We call it 'rolling' because your eyes get so f-?-?-?ing
big."

He said his stomachache was caused by heroin in the
pill.

He wanted it to wear off so he could feel "liquidy."

"These pills suck," he explained. "They're dopey."

Kids such as Joey are money in the bank for big-time drug
dealers.

"A lot of guys are looking at this as a quick way of making huge sums
of money," said Lewis Rice Jr., New York head of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration.

"We saw crack in the '80s, heroin in the '90s and now it's
Ecstasy."

In the city, the DEA seized fewer than 1,000 tablets of the designer
drug between 1990 and 1995. But last year, its agents confiscated
300,000 tablets -- part of the astounding 2.3 million pills seized in
the city by federal, state and local lawmen.

Nationwide, U.S. Customs seized 3.5 million tablets last year -- up
from 350,000 in 1997. This year, Customs officials estimate 8 million
will be confiscated.

Outside Twilo in Chelsea, James, 27, a drug dealer from Bay Ridge, was
peddling $25 Ecstasy pills he said come from California and Amsterdam.

"People won't come to clubs if there ain't no drugs there," he
said.

He sells 100 tablets on a good day and nets between $100,000 and
$150,000 a year, he said.

The tablets are often stamped with or shaped like cartoon characters
and popular symbols such as the Smurfs, Teletubbies, Tweety Bird,
"Flintstones" pet Dino, cloverleafs, valentines, the Nike swoosh and
Buddha.

Ecstasy was first synthesized in 1914 as an appetite suppressant and
was later used by psychiatrists to help repressed patients open up
about their feelings.

Clubgoers prize the drug they call X, E, Bomb or MDMA, because it is
part stimulant, part hallucinogenic, and they believe it heightens
their senses, boosts energy levels and breaks down
inhibitions.

One clubber, who said X "makes you happy," admitted it delivers a
nasty, energy-sapping hangover, an effect one partier termed the
"second-day killers."

"The day after sucks. You don't want to eat, your stomach hurts, your
jaw hurts," said Tara, 18, a high-school student from Brooklyn.

Ecstasy has claimed a number of lives, including that of former Dallas
Cowboy offensive tackle Mark Tuinei, and is sending more and more
users to emergency rooms nationwide.

At clubs, Ecstasy "rollers" chew on lollipops or other candies to
limit the teeth-grinding it causes.

Law-enforcement sources said organized-crime figures are turning to
Ecstasy trafficking because they face relatively short federal prison
terms.

A dealer nabbed with 1,000 tablets faces only 15 to 21 months behind
bars under federal law, and the pills cost as little as 50 cents each
to manufacture.

Meanwhile, the ever-renewing club scene continues to feed itself on
Ecstasy's druggy energy.

"Yeah, I'll eventually grow out of the phase," said Lulu, 17, a senior
at a Westchester County high school who was at The Roxy.

"It's a teenage phase."

Then she sprang from her hardwood seat and began to dance --
E-phorically.