ECSTACY JUST THE LATEST DRUG THREAT

I appreciated the candor of former Vancouver City Councilman Jack Burkman
and his family, who talked about their struggle with substance abuse in a
Jan. 31 story, "Choosing family over politics." The courage of Cassie
Burkman to share her story was very inspiring.

Having been involved in the chemical dependency treatment field since 1987
and having children of my own, my heart went out to this family and to
everyone who has come into my office asking, "Can you help us? Our kid is
on drugs." The drugs run the gamut from tobacco and amphetamine to LSD and
heroin.

It seems with each new crop comes a new trend in drug use. Alcohol,
marijuana and nicotine almost always seem to be the staples of a drug
seeker's chemical diet. The use of these harmful drugs waxes and wanes but
remains essentially stable, probably because of the number of adult users
who continue to stabilize statistics by their own use and their condoning
it among their children.

Teens, however, are a horse of a different wheelbase. The recent rise in
the use of MDMA, or Ecstasy, is a case in point.

Ecstasy is not new. It is being packaged in a new way with expert marketing
skills. It comes with more than 150 dye stamps, such as the Nike "swoosh"
and the Mitsubishi star.

Ecstasy is a psychoactive drug with amphetamine-like and hallucinogenic
properties. It gives those who use it an intense high by accelerating the
release of serotonin in the brain, producing feelings of love and
acceptance emotions teens almost crave.

An increasing number of adolescents view Ecstasy as a low-risk, high-
benefit drug, much the same way that an earlier generation once viewed
cocaine. Some point to the death of NBA hopeful Len Bias as the "end of the
innocence" about cocaine. The media got on the bandwagon and started
reporting the dangers and consequences of cocaine use, despite Eric
Clapton's insistent, big-as-life anthem, "she don't lie."

But, back to Ecstasy. In the 2001 Partnership Attitude Tracing Study, 12
percent of the 6,937 teens surveyed said they had tried Ecstasy at some
point, up from 10 percent in 2000. Since 1995, Ecstasy use has climbed 140
percent. The survey also found that one of 10 teens reported using in the
past year, and one of 20 did so in the past month.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that nearly 3 million teens
have now tried Ecstasy. This puts it ahead of or on par with teen
experimentation with cocaine, crack, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine. It is
available on the streets for between $10 and $40 a pill.

Poisons the brain

Studies show MDMA causes massive destruction of serotonin neurons. This
alarming brain damage has been demonstrated by positron emission tomography
brain-imaging studies. This damage is persistent and believed to be
irreversible. Additionally, deaths from Ecstasy are becoming more common.

The dangers are not widely understood. If you're a parent, I encourage you
to become informed about this drug that the National Institute on Drug
Abuse says "poisons the brain" because, as an increasing number of parents
are finding out, this poison can be deadly. What some teens describe as the
"harmless high" is not.

Stephen Pasierb, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership
for a Drug-Free America, asks, "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?"

It is possible to change attitudes and reduce drug use through prevention
and early intervention efforts. Parents can play a critical role. For the
sake of our children and our community, let us become better informed and
take action.