HARMFUL DRUGS ON RISE IN SEATTLE

Drugs create a fleeting and sometimes illusory enjoyment while narrowing or
even foreclosing prospects for the future. The number of American youths
willing to make that bad tradeoff rose steadily during the first half of
the '90s, then began receding in 1997. Despite this welcome development,
the percentage of schoolchildren using drugs in 1998 remained 1 1/2 to 2
times what it had been in 1991.

Seattle and Washington state have not been exempt from these national
trends. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has sponsored documentation of
the consequences in area emergency rooms, treatment centers and prisons. In
some instances, drug-related destruction continued to intensify into 1998.
For example, last year in King County 144 people died with heroin in their
blood, the worst annual toll in recent decades.

Next Wednesday NIDA will meet with Washington officials, policymakers,
organizations and members of the public to discuss the patterns of drug use
here and ways to address the problem. NIDA is bringing messages both
hopeful and alarming.

First, in recent years, revolutionary advances in the scientific
understanding of prevention and treatment. For individuals, families and
communities affected by the biobehavioral disease that is drug addiction,
the prospects for relief are greater today than ever.

The alarm arises out of current research findings on methamphetamine and
so-called "club" drugs. Because widespread abuse of these substances is
relatively recent, information about their hazards is incomplete but
developing rapidly. NIDA is concerned that communities -- and particularly
the youths who are most liable to use these drugs -- may not be aware of
their known hazards.

Methamphetamine (also known as "speed" and "crank"), a more powerful
variation of the stimulant found in some diet medications, has become a
major feature in the national and local patterns of drug abuse in the '90s.
For example, the number of people coming to publicly funded Washington
treatment facilities for help getting off this drug jumped tenfold from
1992 to 1998. Last year the number remained close to this peak, which
exceeds heroin and cocaine admissions combined.

Scientists using new brain-imaging techniques have shown that
methamphetamine can cause significant damage to an important class of brain
cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. The loss of these cells
may underline a syndrome of slowed thinking, depressed mood and motor
impairment that has occurred in some heavy users of methamphetamine.
Methamphetamine abuse also facilitates the spread of HIV/AIDS through
unsafe sex and shared injection equipment.

Several co-called "club" or "party" drugs are common in Seattle's all-night
"rave" dances and bars. They include ecstasy, GHB, Rohypnol and LSD ("acid").

Ecstasy ("X," "Adam" and "MDMA") is both a stimulant and a hallucinogen.
Rave-goers use it for energy to keep on dancing and for mood enhancement.
An artificially contented mind can run the body into the ground, however.
Ecstasy increases the heart rate and body temperature, occasionally to the
point of heart and kidney failure. The drug also appears to mask the sense
of thirst, which is extremely dangerous during the extended exertion of
rave dancing. Ecstasy users have died from acute dehydration.

Scientists have learned that Ecstasy doesn't necessarily leave the user
alone when the user leaves it alone. In a recent study, long-term Ecstasy
users had residual problems of verbal and visual memory two weeks after
stopping the drug. Brain imaging studies have shown that the drug damages
brain cells that produce serotonin, a natural chemical that is partly
responsible for memory and mood. We still do not know if these cells
regenerate, so the memory loss -- and perhaps additional
still-to-be-discovered serotonin-related impairments -- may be long-lasting
or permanent.

GHB ("G," "liquid ecstasy"), widely used in Seattle clubs, and Rohypnol
("roofie," "Roche"), have become notorious for their use in crimes of rape.
Colorless, odorless and tasteless, they are easily slipped to unknowing
victims in drinks. They cause sedation, rendering the victim helpless to
resist the predator. They also produce amnesia, which often prevents the
victim from identifying and successfully prosecuting the perpetrator.

GHB is also dangerous when taken knowingly for its relaxing effects.
Because GHB is illegal and made by amateurs, samples vary many-fold in
their strength and purity. Users simply cannot know what they are getting.
Overdoses are common, with consequences of coma and sometimes death from
respiratory arrest.

Because widespread use of Ecstasy, GHB and Rohypnol is relatively recent,
the worst effects of these drugs may be the ones that are not yet known.
For example, the full addictive potential of these substances has not yet
been determined. There are indications, however, that it may be
significant. GHB users have reported that they need higher and higher doses
to get the effects they want, and that when they try to quit, they can't.

NIDA-supported researchers are pursuing their investigations of
metamphetamine and club drugs with a sense of urgency. Although we still
have much to learn about these drugs' effects, we already know that they
can be extremely harmful. Communities and especially youth should be aware
of their dangers, which are neither speculation nor hype, but scientific
facts.