HIGH LIFE LURES METRO KIDS

Cops, Educators Told Ecstasy Hands-Down Favorite

Josh Kushnereit took his first sip of alcohol and his first hit of pot at
age 10.

By 15 he was immersed in the club scene, attending raves in Detroit's
abandoned buildings and warehouses. There he would roll on ecstasy, crystal
meth and ketamine until the sun rose.

Every waking moment was consumed by his chase for the next fix.

Stories like Kushnereit's are becoming familiar with many of the 600 police
officers, educators, drug enforcement agents and counselors who gathered in
Southfield on Wednesday to discuss the growing popularity of ecstasy and
the drug scene.

"It was an escape that made me feel comfortable and accepted," said
Kushnereit, 17, of Rochester Hills. "During that time my family was
nonexistent. I was getting high at lunch. I had no morals or self-respect.
My life was about getting high, and raves were a place where you could eat
drugs and be OK."

When Kushnereit's life crashed he was admitted to Pathway Family Center in
Southfield, a long-term treatment program for teens addicted to drugs or
alcohol.

He's been clean for two years. He earned all A's in school last year. And
now he has dreams for the future and hopes to attend college.

But he is one of few who manage to escape the clutch of drugs, experts said.

Drug use among teens is on the rise across the country and ecstasy is the
hands-down favorite, experts at the conference said.

The aspirin-sized pill is used predominantly by white, suburban teens, said
David Gauvin, a Washington, D.C.-based drug science officer for the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

An average teen user will swallow five ecstasy pills a night and be high
for eight to 12 hours.

The effect: heightened senses. And users will stop at nothing to enhance
the high.

To tantalize the sense of smell, teens wear masks smeared with Vicks
VapoRub. Pacifiers and lollipops are chewed and sucked to alleviate teeth
grinding -- a side effect. Electronic and techno music is played loudly to
stimulate the eardrums and body with thumping sound waves. And the desire
for touch will have teens stroking, massaging and having sex with other
party goers.

"Diseases are being spread in these clubs because there's a lot of sharing
and sexual activity," Gauvin said.

Ecstasy use results in temporary impotence in men, and police are beginning
to see Viagra at clubs and raves. Teens are stealing it from parents and
drug dealers are distributing it, creating a new market for the popular
prescription drug, Gauvin says.

Also alarming is the emergence of the predator -- older men who attend
raves and drug parties to prey on teens high on ecstasy and longing for
physical stimulation, said Ken Krygel, a retired drug enforcement officer
for the Detroit Police Department who continues to investigate drug parties.

Michigan educators say that despite the absence of local data about
adolescent drug use, anecdotally they know that narcotics are easy to
obtain and that more kids are using them.

Last year, 62 percent of high school teens across the country said ecstasy
is easy to find and buy at $20 to $30 a tablet, Gauvin says. That's not a
surprise when only 30 percent of the ecstasy being distributed, or 11
million pills, was confiscated by drug enforcement officers in 2001, he says.

Teens are creative about hiding the drug. The most common tactics include
mixing the pills in large bags of Skittles or M&M's or melting Tootsie
Rolls in a microwave, placing the ecstasy pills inside and reshaping the candy.

"This is not going away," said Myrna Baugh, a counselor at Anderson High
School in Southgate. "Every year things get worse. Kids are using at school
and at parties. This is our future and I'm here to find out how we stop
from having a brain-dead future."

Medical studies show that ecstasy use kills brain cells immediately,
causing memory loss and difficulty concentrating. It depletes the body of
serotonin, leading doctors to anticipate a surge in depression among this
generation by 2010. Body temperature rises -- 115 degrees is the highest
temperature linked to ecstasy use. When things go really wrong the drug can
cause uncontrollable bleeding, the blood to congeal, cardiovascular
collapse and even death.

Still, many teens are willing to take the chance.

"Normal adolescent behavior means a teen will search for their identity and
take a lot of risks," said Lisa Pangrazzi, an addiction counselor for
Pathway. "The ones who become addicted feel lonely, and getting high is an
easy way to alleviate that pain. It's also an easy way to get accepted by a
peer group because all you've got to do is drink something, smoke something
or swallow a pill."

For information, call the Prevention Coalition of Southeast Michigan at
586-466-5030.