BRUSH WITH DRUG OVERDOSE A STORY WORTH RETELLING

EDITORIAL -- Thank you, Matt, Sarah and Jamie. Even though those are
not your real names, your story was real enough.

And scary enough, too.

We're glad you're still among us and not just statistical footnotes in
the number of drug deaths that annually claim too many young lives.

Matt, Sarah and Jamie, in their late teens and early 20s, "flipped
out" after taking an obscure hallucinogenic party drug called AMT, or
alpha-methyl-triptamine, at a party a week and a half ago in a Racine
home. Matt stripped naked and began flailing his arms about seven
hours after taking the drug. All three wound up unconscious and were
taken to St. Mary's Medical Center for treatment where they finally
woke up.

"It was really scary," said Matt this week.

Scary in many ways.

Scary in that it could easily have cost the three young people their
lives. Scary in that it could have left their friends and families
full of grief, sorrow and self-blame for not having been able to do
something to stop you or help them.

Scary in that 15 other young people reportedly were at the drug party
and had apparently intended to use the drug until they saw the ill
effects it was having on Matt, Sarah and Jamie.

Scary in that this particular drug derivative is so new that the
medical profession and law enforcement are just getting acquainted
with it and the dangers it poses -- dangers that can include rapid
heart rates and possible kidney failure.

Scary because -- right now -- it's not even illegal. It's so new that
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is just now in the process
of classifying AMT as a Schedule 1 substance, which would make it
illegal to sell or possess.

And particularly scary because that loophole means it has been
available for sale by mail through the Internet to anyone with search
engine and a credit card. That loophole should close by the end of the
month when the DEA reclassification will go into effect.

We're hopeful that will dry up the sales-by-mail routine that put AMT
into our community and this trio of young people into the emergency
ward.

No doubt some other drug derivative will soon pop up to take its place
as the latest party fad and this dangerous cycle will repeat itself.

We doubt that will happen with Matt, Sarah and Jamie. They were lucky
to be around to tell their story this week.

It's a compelling one, best told in their own words. As Sarah put it:
"I'm really upset this is legal and that it's so easy to get. Any
15-year-old with a credit card could order some."

Or Jamie: "For a lot of people what happened to us is a big joke to them.
They don't realize we were supposed to die."

Pretty scary story. It would make good reading if you've got a
teenager in the house.