EXPERTS WARN OF RISING DRUG USE

By The Associated Press MEDFORD - When she was a teen-ager, 23-year-old
Kitty said she had to travel to Portland to find popular club drugs such as
ecstasy.

Kitty, an outgoing restaurant manager in Medford, dresses in baggy pants
and tight tank tops and changes the color or her hair from burgundy to
blond, depending on the mood. Kitty says she now finds the drugs regularly
at parties in Medford.

"About three years ago, there wasn't much to be found in the valley," she
said. "You had to go import it. You would go to a party in Portland and
find someone there.

"Unless you were willing to drive up there, you couldn't get any."

Clay Cooke, youth department supervisor at OnTrack, a treatment program,
said the drugs of choice among young people in Jackson County remain
marijuana and alcohol, but there's been a dramatic rise in the use of club
drugs, especially in Ashland, in recent years.

Although many teens believe they can't be harmed by the pills, at least two
Portland area teens and many more around the country have died after using
club drugs.

"They are extremely dangerous and addictive, and people die quickly," said
Ken Magee, the Drug Enforcement Administration's assistant special agent in
charge who oversees Oregon and Idaho.

"If your child or teen-ager says they will go to an alcohol-free, all-night
dance party that we refer to commonly as a 'rave,' I would handcuff them to
their bed," Magee said.

"Allowing your child to go to this type of rave party is equally as
dangerous as allowing your child to go to a crack house."

The most commonly recognized club drug is ecstasy, known by users as "E"
and by law enforcement as MDMA. It is a synthetic drug with amphetaminelike
and hallucinogenic properties.