BUST MAY INDICATE RISE IN ECSTASY USE

TROY -- Law enforcement officials say a recent drug bust in Troy may
indicate a resurgence of ecstasy being sold on the streets.

Three people are awaiting federal charges after they were caught with more
than 5,000 tablets of the drug with a street value of more than $100,000.

"I worked 20 years in narcotics; I've been out of it for about five or six
years. But I've haven't seen anything significant like that in some time,"
Troy Police Lt. Chuck Pappas said.

The drug usually comes in a tablet form and has the street names of Adam,
E, roll, X, and XTC, according to The Partnership for a Drug Free America.
It has amphetamine-like and hallucinogenic properties.

Users of ecstasy report an enhanced sense of self-confidence, energy, a
desire to touch other people and a loss of inhibitions. After-effects also
can include sleep problems, anxiety and depression.

The long-term effects can damage cells that produce serotonin, which
regulates a person's mood, appetite, pain, learning and memory.

Drug Enforcement Administration special agent and spokesman Rich Isaacson
said statistics point to a decrease in the use of ecstasy among young
people.

However, he added, there also is an increased perception that risks of
using the drug aren't significant.

The southeast Michigan office of the DEA also continues to have a steady
caseload of incidents involving ecstasy, Isaacson said.

"Because of our location, which is on the border of Canada, we have a high
level of ecstasy cases," he said.

While the drug continues to be manufactured in Europe before being shipped
elsewhere, he said there appear to be operations popping up in Canada. In
the past, ecstasy was typically made in Europe and entered the United
States through Canada, Isaacson said.

Information about the recent drug bust is scant, as it remains an open
investigation. What is being released is that the three people were
arrested about 8 p.m. Tuesday near the corner of 14 Mile and John R roads
on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Pappas wouldn't comment on how long the people were being investigated
prior to the arrest.

Ecstasy, he said, had a much larger following during the 1980s and 1990s.

But the amount of the drug recovered in the bust indicates a possible rise
in use of ecstasy, despite national and local statistics showing very
small increase in what law enforcement is encountering, Pappas said.

"It was an era of tablets and there seems to be a resurgence of kids
popping pills, going to their parents' medicine cabinets," he said. "They
are taking stuff they shouldn't be taking. Whatever drives them to this
addictive behavior, I don't know."