IF ECSTASY ISN'T DANGEROUS

... then why is an anti-drug honours student dead of an overdose?

"I've met this really great guy," said a girlfriend as we waited for
a movie to start last weekend.

"Really? Tell me about him."

She listed a series of promising qualities in a potential guy friend
(cute, funny, fun, etc.) but then she got to the end bit.

"There's one thing though - he's into coke."

No, not the pop. That put an end to any potential boyfriend talk.
Cocaine, heroin, and their ilk fall into the category of "heavy"
drugs. Heavy equals dangerous. These drugs are avoided by the
majority, as are those people who use them.

Ecstasy, as you may have guessed, does not fall into this category.
Users will tell you that's for good reasons: "I mean, c'mon, it's no
big deal - it's a recreational drug."

Weed - which, not being chemical, is the drug of choice for most
young people - like Ecstasy, is not considered a heavy drug by the
masses. It is thought of by most, however, to be a step up from
marijuana in the danger department.

People tend to raise the concern of their friends only when they
cross over to the aforementioned hard drugs - cocaine, heroine, etc.

Using them brings along a stigma: hard drug users are junkies and
crack heads - just what are they thinking messing with stuff like
that? They could die!

People continue to die from Ecstasy, but the same stigma has yet to
be formed about its users.

Teen Overdosed

Seventeen-year-old Nicole Malik died of an apparent Ecstasy overdose
last weekend at a cyber cafe on Bloor Street West. Police believe she
consumed the drug on Friday night. She was found slumped on a couch
in the Alpha Lounge cyber cafe early Saturday morning by one of the
patrons. Before an ambulance could arrive, she was dead.

That's one heck of a recreational drug.

She was an honours student at school, described by friends and family
as a good, intelligent girl who was adamantly against drugs. How is
it that such a girl is now dead of a drug overdose?

Because Ecstasy isn't really a "bad" drug, you see. So it's possible
to be anti-drug and still use it, because that just means you're
against the "bad" drugs - you know, the ones that can kill you. Wrap
your head around that logic. You're not a druggie or a junkie if you
use Ecstasy - you just like to party is all.

With 20 deaths attributed to Ecstasy in Ontario since 1998, you'd
think the reputation of the drug would start to shift toward the dark
side. But no - the drug is quickly vindicated by dismissing the dead
as novices.

"Ecstasy isn't dangerous per se," goes the standard argument. "Those
people just didn't take it properly."

Wake-Up Call Ignored

It would be nice if the steady occurrence of Ecstasy-related deaths
would serve as a wake-up call to users, but they only seem to be
taken to heart by people who don't use the drug in the first place.
Those who take and enjoy Ecstasy just use the old fallback position -
they convince themselves it won't happen to them because they somehow
know what they're doing.

When you think about it, it would be easy: if you use Ecstasy and
come home every night alive and in one piece (save for a few brain
cells), as do your friends, wouldn't that speak more loudly than a
photo in the newspaper of some unknown kid who overdosed?

Ecstasy users are able to convince themselves the odds are in their
favour - so why not spin the chamber one more time?

How do you argue with that logic, warped as it is?

How will Ecstasy shift from the benign "recreational" category, to
the stigmatized category of "dangerous" drug? It won't be with info
sessions or news stories or pamphlets for teens. What's a pamphlet
preaching potential death compared to stories from a living,
breathing friend who had a great time at a club using Ecstasy?

It's not lack of education that keeps this drug popular, but an
unwillingness to believe it's dangerous.

Until the dangers of Ecstasy do become a reality to the people who
use it, the bodies will continue to pile up.