Pubdate: Fri, 04 Aug 2000
Source: Idaho State Journal (ID)
Copyright: 2000 Idaho State Journal
Contact:  PO Box 431, Pocatello ID 83204
Fax: 208-233-8007
Website: http://www.journalnet.com/
Author: Barry McCaffrey

YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO BE WARNED ABOUT DRUG

"Ecstasy" - a stimulant that can cause brain damage - is skyrocketing in
popularity.

The scientific name of this substance is MDMA
(3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). The drug is synthetic, meaning it isn't
found in nature.

Ecstasy has the properties of amphetamines along with psychedelic effects
that make users feel peaceful. Different recipes are used for ecstasy, all
of which can produce serious harm. Ecstasy is sometimes called "Adam," "X,"
"X-TC," "Stacy," "Clarity," "Essence," "Lover's Speed," "Eve," or "e." It is
usually taken by mouth in tablet, capsule, or powder form, but it also may
be smoked, snorted, or injected.

Ecstasy costs $25 to $40 per pill. Sometimes, users combine MDMA with LSD,
marijuana, or other "club drugs" like GHB, PCP, or ketamine (an animal
tranquilizer dubbed "special K") to counteract jitteriness. The drug may
remain in the body up to 24 hours, although effects usually last three to
six hours. MDMA generally reduces inhibitions and creates a sense of
euphoria, but it also can evoke anxiety and paranoia. Heavier doses generate
depression, irrationality and psychosis.

Side effects include hyperthermia, vomiting, blurred vision, chills,
faintness, sweating, tremors, loss of control over body movements, insomnia,
convulsions, muscle tension, rapid eye movement and teeth clenching.
Individuals with heart problems, high blood pressure or epilepsy have
increased risk of adverse reactions.

Ecstasy destroys serotonin-producing neurons and reduces serotonin, a
neurotransmitter involved in controlling mood, sleep, pain, sexual activity,
and violent behavior.

Unfortunately, little is known about long-term consequences of sustained
use. One study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet and
supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute
of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., examined serotonin receptors to determine
whether prolonged, regular use of ecstasy can produce irreversible damage to
neurons. Some of today's heavy users may be burdened with chronic depression
later in life.

A study at Johns Hopkins, conducted on non-human primates, confirmed that
MDMA causes long-lasting damage to areas of the brain critical for thought
and memory.

"I am very worried about ecstasy," said Dr. Jan Walburg, director of the
Jellinek Clinic in the Netherlands. "We must be wary of a drug that has the
potential of causing long-term brain damage, and this one does. With our
tolerant attitudes, we just didn't want to see the danger here until ecstasy
had spread everywhere like a virus."

NIDA director Dr. Alan Leshner explains: "At the very least, people who take
MDMA - even just a few times - are risking long-term, perhaps permanent
problems with learning and memory." A British study demonstrated that use
during pregnancy can cause birth defects. The body quickly builds up
tolerance to MDMA, so the drug is said to have a "honeymoon high" - after
which users take more to recapture the initial sensation.

Between 1997 and 1998, emergency room mentions of MDMA nearly doubled. In
1999, 8 percent of twelfth graders used MDMA at least once - up 38 percent
from the previous year.

Use escalated in the 1990s among college students and young adults,
particularly those who participate in "raves" - all-night dance parties held
in fields or abandoned warehouses.

Raves provide open spaces for dancing amid psychedelic lights, video, smoke,
or fire. At such clubs, kids have died from overheating due to MDMA, which
increases heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature.

Polydrug abuse is common. Lethal combinations include ecstasy with heroin or
cocaine. (Many raves don't serve drinks since clientele are frequently
underage. Alcohol diminishes the effect of MDMA.) Raves typically cost $20
per ticket, draw 6,000 to 25,000 people, and bring organizers $100,000 per
night. Attendees may take ecstasy - called the "hug-drug" - in order to
dance all night and "feel close" to friends. Raves have become way-stations
for large purchases of ecstasy that are transported to college campuses,
suburban high schools, and rural areas of the country.

Most MDMA in America comes from the Netherlands (or Luxembourg and Belgium).
Dutch police estimate that the average lab there produces 80,000 tablets per
day at less than a guilder per pill, or about 50 U.S. cents.

The tablets are the size of Advil and stamped with logos like Playboy
bunnies, lightning bolts, or signs of the Zodiac. U.S. Custom seized 3.5
million ecstasy tablets in FY1999, more than four times the amount in 1998.
Much MDMA is bought by youthful American tourists financing summer vacations
by smuggling home a few hundred tablets.

Some 150 Dutch "Smart Shops," which feature drug paraphernalia, help
foreigners sneak ecstasy home by selling containers for Faberge shaving gel,
deodorant sprays, Campbell's soup, or Heineken beer with secret compartments
for drugs. Organized crime increasingly is becoming involved with MDMA.

Dr. Ernst Buning, formerly with the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service,
argues: "There is no simple solution to the drug problem. No one nation -
not the U.S., not England - has the answer." Together, we must warn young
people about the threat ecstasy poses to their health and well-being.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk