ON DANGEROUS MEDS, THE FEDS AND 'HEADS'

In the 1960s, there was a variation on the caveat: "Buyer beware." It
was: "Know your dealer."

Numerous deaths have been associated with raves, those boisterous,
drug-fueled parties, and MDMA (methylene-dioxymethamphetamine), a
drug now better known as "ecstasy." If the victims are found to have
really ingested ecstasy, the deaths are usually attributed to heat
exhaustion and dehydration. Ecstasy has a stimulatory effect,
allowing revelers at raves to dance for hours to hypnotic electronic
music. Sixteen thousand dance fans paid $85 a head (and most of them
were "heads") at the recent San Francisco Cow Palace rave debacle.

Even without the use of powerful psychoactive drugs, everything is
magnified in such a venue - heat, loud music, close contact with many
people, a large police presence (like Grateful Dead concerts, raves
are easy pickings for the drug police). Two deaths occurred, and
several people were hospitalized. Were their health problems caused
by ecstasy? Too much ecstasy? Adulterated ecstasy? Drugs totally
different from ecstasy? Toxicology reports are pending.

Ecstasy was first synthesized in 1912 by the Merck pharmaceutical
company. By the 1970s, it was being used non-medically in the United
States. But the first scientific report of its psychological effects
in humans described an "altered state of consciousness with emotional
and sensuous overtones" and compared it with psilocybin, though
"devoid of the hallucinatory component."

Ecstasy usually produces the opposite of paranoia. Under its effect,
individuals are more open to intimacy, both psychological and
physical, and many therapists administered MDMA to their patients,
generally with beneficial effects. The patients were warned, however,
not to make enduring relationship agreements until several weeks
after the last treatment, because a person under the drug's influence
is likely to love everyone and everything. Until it wears off. Few
adverse effects were noted from MDMA used in therapeutic situations.

But in the 1980s, widespread use of ecstasy began in dance clubs and
at raves. In 1985, despite protests by respected scientists, the Drug
Enforcement Administration banned its therapeutic use and severely
restricted research into its potential for beneficial use. Studies of
MDMA toxicity and possible lasting harm from its use have varied in
their conclusions, depending on the funding source of the study.
Nonetheless, a huge underground demand continues for the recreational
use of ecstasy. Chemicals necessary to its synthesis have become
scarce and, with testing measures generally unavailable, ecstasy
customers can't know the quality or quantity of the pills they ingest
- - or whether the alleged ecstasy pills contain any MDMA at all.

Because of the "war on drugs" attitude initiated by President Richard
Nixon, there is scant attention even now to reducing harm from
illicit drug use. Consider the usual advice given to ecstasy-using
ravers - drink lots and lots of water. Yet at a recent San Jose
conference on psychedelics, an emergency room psychiatrist opined
that ecstasy casualties are caused by drinking too much rather than
not enough water.

Due to federal government interference, we don't know how best to
prevent harm at raves other than to just say no to drugs, obviously
and tragically an ineffective strategy. We need to embrace the
philosophy of old-time traditional Republicans (not the current
version) - get the government off our backs, out of our bedrooms,
away from our pursuits of happiness, wrong-headed or not. A good
start would be decriminalizing drug use and treating drug abuse and
dependence as medical problems.