DEA: ECSTASY EPIDEMIC AMONG TEENS

SAN DIEGO - Saying teen-age use of ecstasy is reaching "epidemic" levels,
U.S. authorities plan to boost efforts to stamp out rings making and
selling club drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration expects to double such investigations
as part of "Operation X-Out."

About 5 percent of the DEA's major investigations involve club drugs such
as ecstasy and the so-called "date-rape" drugs Rohypnol and GHB, or gamma
hydroxybutyrate.

The agency also plans to focus new efforts on Internet trafficking and the
Netherlands, the source of some 80 percent of the world's ecstasy supply.

DEA Director Asa Hutchinson was to detail the changes at a news conference
Thursday in San Diego.

"The explosive use of ecstasy and predatory drugs among our youth is fast
reaching epidemic levels," Hutchinson said in a statement released in
Washington.

According to the DEA, 8.1 million Americans tried ecstasy in 2001, up from
6.5 million the year before.

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a synthetic drug considered part
hallucinogen and part amphetamine that has been linked to brain, heart and
kidney damage. It became popular over the past decade at dance parties
known as raves.

http://www.dea.gov