YOU EITHER GET IT...

Or You Take A Statistical Risk And, In Rare Cases, Ecstasy "Fun" Kills
You

Part of the difficulty in convincing kids to reject ecstasy is not
only that young people think they're indestructible but that ecstasy
hurts and kills so infrequently.

The ecstasy-related deaths of three teen girls in Alberta six months
ago obviously had no effect on a 19-year-old man who attended a rave
party at West Edmonton Mall over the weekend.

He and three friends reportedly took ecstasy. His friends survived. He
died in hospital.

No one should take ecstasy -- a chemical concoction manufactured in
illicit labs with ingredients that differ from place to place.

One pill might give you the anticipated high -- a sensation of
well-being and self-confidence stoked by a boost of energy. A
different one, however, can leave you reeling with nausea, chills,
sweating and muscle cramps.

Or if you have undiagnosed health conditions or are unlucky enough to
swallow a pill contaminated with toxic fillers, you could end up on a
slab at the morgue.

There is more comprehensive drug education around than ever before.
Still, young people gulp down ecstasy like candy, figuring bad things
only happen to other people.

Indeed, ecstasy-related illnesses and deaths are relatively rare.
There were 1.7 million hospital emergency visits in the U.S.
associated with the misuse or abuse of legal and illegal drugs in 2006.

Almost one-third of those visits involved illicit drugs, according to
the Drug Abuse Warning Network, an American public health group.

About 30% of the ER visits (more than half a million patients)
relating to illicit substances involved cocaine. A further 11% of the
visits connected to illegal drugs (190,000 patients) involved heroin.
Tens of thousands of people also poured into the ER because of
problems related to the use of pot and stimulants, including
amphetamines and methamphetamines.

In addition, the complications of the non-medical use of
pharmaceuticals are rampant. In 2006 in the U.S., there were almost
750,000 ER visits involving the abuse of prescriptions,
over-the-counter drugs or dietary supplements.

Tens of thousands of Americans also ended up in the ER due to the
misuse of a host of other drugs, including sedatives, antidepressants,
anti-psychotics and even muscle relaxants.

In comparison, there were fewer than 17,000 ecstasy-related ER visits
in the U.S. in 2006.

There are no comparable Canadian stats but it's a reasonable
assumption that the medical landscape is similar here.

It's the legal drugs -- tobacco and booze -- that are causing the most
harm. And motor vehicle accidents constitute the leading cause of
death for young people.

About one-quarter of the people killed in road crashes are aged 15 to
24. Young men continue to be particularly at risk.

Thousands of Canadian teens are also hospitalized every year because
of car accidents, falls and assaults.

Society has had mixed success persuading young people to drive more
responsibly and modify their risk-taking behaviour in general.

If the depressingly frequent stories about injuries and deaths on our
roads can't convince kids to smarten up, how can we hope to persuade
them to turn their backs on ecstasy, which kills so rarely?

In light of the latest tragic death, parents will again have a serious
conversation with their teens.

Some will listen. Others will shrug off the warnings, gambling that
they will get high, not die. That is our perpetual dilemma.