ECSTASY (NOT)

Use Of Notorious Club Drug Increasing, Survey Says

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America survey shows that teen-age
drug use remained steady with one exception. Ecstasy use jumped by 20
percent over last year and 71 percent since 1999.

There seems to be an impression that ecstasy is harmless.

That's why a the anti-drug group also unveiled Monday, in addition to
its survey findings, an ad campaign to warn parents, educators and
teens about the dangers of popping the drug.

Many of the ads feature the parents of Danielle Heird, a 21-year-old
Las Vegas woman who died after taking ecstasy in 2000.

It seems there's an impression among teens that ecstasy is harmless, a
pill for a love-anything-that-moves sort of feeling and something akin
to an out-of-body experience; thus it's moniker as the "hug drug" or
the "love drug."

But it's a drug and a harmful one: a synthetic that's part
hallucinogen and part amphetamine. It releases large amounts of
serotonin in the brain to increase sensory stimuli. These big doses of
serotonin, however, cause brain damage. The drug also gets the heart
beating so fast that sometimes the heart falters and the user dies.

"Doctors are seeing brain damage like they've never seen before with
any type of drug," says Chuck Matson, an officer with the Omaha Police
Department and a nationally certified Drug Recognition Expert Instructor.

The drug is spreading rapidly. Drug Enforcement Agency seizures, for
instance, went from 1.2 million in 1998 to 12 million in 1999.

Locally, it's starting to show up on the radar. Last year, Western
Intelligence Narcotics Group (WING) made its first ecstasy dealer bust
and a man whose heart had stopped told authorities that he'd taken
ecstasy at a local bar.

Brian Wasson, a WING investigator, says that some teens from the area
are going to raves in Colorado, which are associated with ecstasy and
other club-drug use.

"In giving presentations to local high school students, I've learned
from teachers who deal with these kids every day that a lot of kids
from the Scottsbluff-Gering area go to Colorado on the weekends to
attend raves," he says.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America survey of 6,937 teen-agers
found that 12 percent of 12-to-18 year olds had used ecstasy at some
point in their lives. That compares with 10 percent in 2000. The
survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

Marijuana remains the most popular drug among teens, with 41 percent
having tried it. Inhalants, such as glue, were used by 18 percent,
methamphetamines were used by 11 percent, cocaine or crack by 9
percent and heroin by 4 percent.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is right: now is the time to
spread the word that ecstasy is as dangerous as it is poorly named.