CARING ABOUT ECSTASY ABUSE

Thank you for an interesting and timely article regarding Ecstasy and
drug abuse (April 17-19).

While there is little data to support incarceration and entry into
the judicial system as stand-alone deterrents to drug abuse,
research, community-based education, intervention and support are
critical to preventing and ending abuse and addiction. A primary need
is the development of strong protective factors across four domains:
family, community, peer and school.

Community Help Centre has invested in this philosophy since it was
founded in 1971. To that end, Community Help Centre has served as a
key leader in the organization and development of both the Care
Partnership, the Centre Region Communities That Care and,
tangentially, with the Centre County Communities That Care. These two
organizations collaborate to provide a community-based approach to
prevention and intervention across the four mentioned domains. We are
also actively involved in the partnership, a community-campus
partnership working to address high-risk drinking behaviors, and
other community-building programs and initiatives. Each of these
groups welcomes new members and assistance in building
community-based dialogue and programs.

Involvement in these programs, education, and development of
positive, proactive communication will help to prevent drug abuse and
addiction. Involvement will also assure timely and appropriate
intervention support and treatment if and when it is necessary.
Anyone interested in participating in these efforts should contact
Tammy Gentzel, our executive director.

Individuals who use illicit drugs, as well as their family members,
are often reluctant to seek help because of possible legal
repercussions, fear over loss of personal privacy and embarrassment
regarding their own behavior. Community Help Centre is a safe,
nonjudgmental place to call for confidential information and support.
I encourage CDT readers to contact us for any problem, any time at
(814) 237-5855. We are happy to accept collect calls.

Alfred Jones, Jr.

Board President

Community Help Centre

State College

'Hodge-Podge Of Half-Truths'

- - Thomas Jefferson once said: "If people let government decide what
foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon
be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under
tyranny. "

Having finished reading your report on the illicit drug Ecstasy, I
say kudos to Jefferson. Those articles are a hodge-podge of
half-truths and verbal smokescreens.

Obviously MDMA (shorthand for methylenedioxymethamphetamine, the
psychoactive compound present in Ecstasy) is not always safe, though
the same could be said for aspirin or Sudafed. Let us compare MDMA
and alcohol (a drug which your paper manages to condemn on the one
hand, whilst printing drink recipes and accepting advertising from
bars on the other). In the year 2000, 510 people died in
alcohol-related crashes. On average each day 40 alcohol-related
traffic accidents occurred and 1.4 people were killed. And that's
only in Pennsylvania.

No one knows for certain how many deaths per year are caused by MDMA,
but even the government's own think-tanks don't put the number above
100 per year, nationally. Additionally, this statistic is inherently
flawed, since the vast majority of Ecstasy related deaths are caused
not by MDMA, but by adulterants, such as PMA, DXM and PCP, which are
added by money-hungry drug manufacturers in an effort to raise
profits. Also, contrary to what you printed in your Ecstasy quiz,
MDMA does have a legitimate medical usage: It was used in the 1970s
and 1980s by numerous psychiatrists to treat everything from
alcoholism to schizophrenia, often with great success.

Your paper is free to do what it wishes; I, however, will not be
purchasing it in the future. My money would be better spent on (the)
Weekly World News, which provides the same level of objectivity,
without that annoying sense of self-righteousness.

Andrew Porter

State College