THE AGONY OF ECSTACY

Most parents in America don't know much about Ecstasy. But Jim and Elsa
Heird do.

They were introduced to the drug on July 20, 2000, the day Las Vegas police
told the Heirds their 21-year-old daughter, Danielle, had been found dead
at a friend's apartment. Danielle's death, they were told, was caused by an
overdose of Ecstasy.

Neither Jim nor Elsa had any idea what the police were talking about. "When
the coroner came to that office," Elsa recalls, "I said, 'What is Ecstasy?'"

Connecticut parents are not any better informed than the Heirds in Nevada.
A generation of young Americans is embracing Ecstasy. As they do, it's
worth remembering the hard lesson another generation learned about cocaine.

If you remember the late 70s and early 80s, you probably remember a time
when cocaine was still seen as a relatively benign drug. At the time, only
one of every three teens thought there was great risk in using the drug.
The media often glorified cocaine as the socially acceptable drug of the
moment because young, educated professionals used it. Cocaine reigned and
its use soared -- until celebrities and everyday people started dying.
That's when the nation started taking a closer look at the drug's real
dangers. Only then did cocaine use begin to reverse. Today, the deadly
pattern is repeating, only now the drug is Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is a dangerous, illegal drug that's part hallucinogen, part speed
- -- part LSD, part methamphetamine. Available on the streets for between $10
and $40 a pill, Ecstasy gives users an intense high. Research recently
released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows teen use of
Ecstasy has climbed 71 percent since 1999. Nearly 3 million teens have now
tried Ecstasy, which puts the drug ahead of or on par with teen
experimentation with cocaine, crack, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.

In Connecticut, Ecstasy use has doubled since 1997; 7 percent of ninth- and
tenth-graders have used Ecstasy and almost half of those who have tried the
drug have used it in the past 30 days. In fact, Ecstasy is the only drug
showing such increases. Most teen drug use is going down.

As with cocaine, Ecstasy is a lie. While users talk about the pleasures of
the "hug drug," a growing body of research has found Ecstasy to be
neurotoxic. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says Ecstasy poisons the
brain, and as the Heirds now know, that poison can be deadly: According to
the coroner, the only drug in Danielle's system was Ecstasy.

The real risks and dangers of Ecstasy have yet to be understood by most
Americans. If you're the parent of a teenager, you may be old enough to
remember Len Bias. The star basketball player from the University of
Maryland appeared destined for stardom in the NBA back in 1986, but two
days after the Boston Celtics drafted him, Bias partied with cocaine, the
"benign, harmless" drug of his day. Roughly six hours later, he was dead
from a cocaine overdose.

After Bias' death, public attitudes about cocaine began to change,
especially among kids who looked at Bias the way today's kids look at
Michael, Shaq or Allen Iverson. The media started reporting the real
dangers and consequences of cocaine use. By the early 1990s, attitudes
toward cocaine had changed drastically and use of the drug plummeted.
Today, cocaine use is down nearly 80 percent from the levels of Bias' time.

Today's teens don't know the Bias story. Will it take a high profile
Ecstasy death -- or the death of dozens of everyday people -- before the
nation applies the lessons of its harsh experience with cocaine to its
handling of Ecstasy?

If the cocaine experience taught us anything, it is these facts: one, drugs
that initially appear harmless often are not, and two, it is possible to
change attitudes about drugs and cut drug use. Parents play a critical role
in bringing such changes about. In fact, research shows frequent parental
conversations with their youth about the dangers of drugs can cut the
likelihood of use in half.

Jim and Elsa Heird didn't know much about Ecstasy before their daughter
died. Elsa says they've "learned a lot about it since then." She and Jim
are hoping other parents won't wait to learn about Ecstasy for themselves.

We hope the same is true for Connecticut parents.

Call the Governor's Prevention Partnership at 800-422-5422 to receive a
free guide to the drug and helpful hints on talking to their children.