POPULARITY OF ECSTASY WITH TEENS CONTINUES TO CLIMB

One of Terrance McNair's friends recently told him what it is like to take
Ecstasy. "He said it was like an adrenaline rush," said McNair, a sophomore
at Seventy-First High School. "He said when someone touched him, it felt
like he had just finished having sex."

The Partnership For a Drug- Free America said this week that Ecstasy use
among teen-agers rose 20 percent last year and has increased 71 percent
since 1999.

The group has launched an advertising campaign to warn teen-agers and
parents about the dangers of Ecstasy, also known as X or the "love drug."

Over burgers and fries at a McDonald's on Tuesday, McNair and several of
his friends discussed Ecstasy use among their peers.

Nick Bailey, another sophomore at Seventy-First, said he was at a party
recently where 10 to 20 kids were high on Ecstasy.

Bailey said one of the boys began acting strangely.

"He was cool for about the first 10 minutes and then he started, like,
bouncing off the walls," Bailey said. "He started trying to feel a bunch of
girls."

Ecstasy is known for increasing sexual pleasure, said Cindi Brooks,
clinical addictions coordinator at Behavior Health Care of Cape Fear Valley
Health Systems. Brooks treats adolescents and young adults who use the
drug, which is sold in pill form for about $20 a hit. She said the drug
lowers sexual inhibitions while intensifying sexual desire.

"It intensifies the feelings associated with orgasm or sexual involvement,"
Brooks said.

Unknown dangers But Brooks said Ecstasy can be dangerous and many people
don't know it. She said the drug can cause brain damage.

"The primary concern with Ecstasy is overdose," Brooks said. "It goes to
the temperature center of the brain and temporarily disables it. So kids
taking Ecstasy will be hot and their body temperature actually increases
and they can spike -- sometimes to 106 or 108 degrees -- and literally burn
up."

Ecstasy was used for psychotherapy in the 1960s, Brooks said. It was
believed the drug would enhance a patient's ability to discuss painful
subjects. Patients would be given a prescription for a single pill to be
taken an hour before their therapy session.

By the early 1970s, the drug had been made illegal. Brooks said therapists
stopped prescribing it because people were becoming dependent on it and
there were ethical issues associated with using drugs to help people during
psychotherapy.

While it is not physiologically addictive, Ecstasy does result in
withdrawal symptoms, she said.

Because it is a stimulant, Ecstasy gives the user a mild euphoria for about
eight hours.

"And like any stimulant, when you come down, you go lower than before and
it results in a feeling of depression," Brooks said.

She said many users sleep off the depression.

Easy to find Ecstasy made its way to college campuses in the 1980s. It
later hit the rave party scene. Raves center around loud music, usually
what's known as techno or house music, and Ecstasy enhances what the user
feels while listening to the beat.

Lt. Richard Bryant, supervisor of the Fayetteville police Narcotics
Division, said he has seen more Ecstasy over the past 12 to 18 months.

"It's predominantly in the clubs," he said. "Mostly younger people, between
18 and 25. Around here they pay $20 to $30 per pill."

Last year, Fayetteville police confiscated 30,000 hits of Ecstasy in one
bust at the Greyhound bus station. The pills were headed for Tampa, Fla.
John Godbolt, security coordinator for the Cumberland County school system,
said he has heard from teen-agers that Ecstasy is easy to find. He said he
doesn't think Ecstasy is any more of a problem than other drugs.

Amy Wilson, a substance abuse counselor at Advanced Treatment Systems on
Morganton Road, said she attended a seminar on Ecstasy last year. Her
clinic administers meth- adone to outpatients who are physically addicted
to drugs such as heroin and OxyContin. But Wilson said she sees many young
adults who use Ecstasy in conjunction with other drugs.

Wilson said euphoria, heat exhaustion and involuntary teeth grinding are
signs that someone is using the drug.

A 33-year-old man who works in the local entertainment industry said he
began experimenting with Ecstasy when he was a college student in the late
1980s. He said he first used Ecstasy with the intention of experiencing
"spiritual awakening and exploration," but later abused the drug.

Rave complement Ecstasy became popular on the club scene within a year of
when he first tried it, the man said. He said Ecstasy is the perfect
complement to a rave because it heightens senses and makes colors appear
brighter.

"It gives the music breadth and life and substance it might not normally
have," he said.

"I started doing it maybe twice a week and I would do more than one pill.
The most I had was maybe four in a 24-hour period. Physically, it takes its
damage on you. Eventually it takes longer to recover each time and
financially it gets expensive."

The man said the feelings of euphoria and escapism keep users wanting more.
He said it is easier to find Ecstasy in Fayetteville than in the larger
cities where he has lived, such as San Francisco.

Casey Martin, a Seventy-First sophomore, said marijuana is the drug of
choice for most teen-agers. But Ecstasy is readily available, he said.

"If a man sells weed, he's probably got X too," Martin said. "Kids come to
school with it in their pockets. But weed is cheaper and easier to get."

David Terry, a freshman at Seventy-First, said it's mostly "oddball kids"
who use Ecstasy. He said he sees it less than he did when he lived in San
Antonio, Texas.

The man who said he has used Ecstasy said he does not think ads using scare
tactics will sway teen-agers and young adults from trying Ecstasy. "If
truthful, honest information is put out there, then kids can make the right
decision," he said. "I'm not saying people should experiment with drugs,
but for many people that has been an option for many decades. I recommend
people make an educated decision. I don't regret using it at all. I believe
it helped me understand myself better at the time. But I do regret that it
probably did harm to me."