Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jun 2001
Source: CNN
Show: CNN Tonight
Section: Medical
Copyright: 2001 Cable News Network, Inc
Contact:  http://www.cnn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/65
Host: Bill Hemmer
Reporter: Eileen O'Connor
Note: Transcript # 061302CN.V70

  'HUG DRUG' USE IS RISING FAST, HARMING TEENS

HIGHLIGHT: It is known as the "hug drug." And the use of ecstasy is rising 
faster than any other illegal drug.  Some users say the drug can't hurt 
them, but these kids at the Phoenix Academy in rehab had those very same 
notions as well.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is known as the "hug drug." And the use of 
ecstasy is rising faster than any other illegal drug.  Some users say the 
drug can hurt them.  But in tonight's Cover Story, CNN's Eileen O'Connor 
talks to teens who say they learned the hard way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All my friends were doing it and they were having so 
much fun and they were like come on, Dayna.  Just do it. Nothing's going to 
happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they put a lot of fake beliefs in people's 
head about what it does to you.  They don't give you the facts about how it 
harms your body.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two typical Long Island 
teenagers, now two recovering addicts, two of some 1.3 million students in 
grades eight through 12, according to one study, that have used ecstasy.

DR. ALAN LESHNER, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: There's a terrible myth 
out there that ecstasy is a benign, harmless, fun drug, a hug drug.

O'CONNOR: Dr. Alan Leshner is the director of the National Institute On 
Drug Abuse.  While ecstasy was used by some therapists, especially marriage 
counselors, to bring out emotions.  It was banned in 1985 because of its 
potential harm.

Leshner says brain scans show a brain on ecstasy has a reduction in 
serotonin sites, and injury to serotonin neurons, critically in regulating 
mood, emotion, learning, memory, sleep and pain.  The myth it's harmless he 
says is driving use.

LESHNER: There's no question that the perception of risk, the perception of 
harm drives drug use as does availability, that is, the safer you think it 
is, the more likely you are to use it.

O'CONNOR: Cara Mugavero and Dayna Moore are staying at Phoenix Academy for 
at least 12 months.  They say the need for more and more ecstasy to achieve 
the same high quickly turned them into addicts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that it's dangerous, but it's just such a good 
feeling and it's just such a great high that we really don't care.

I didn't care about anything but doing ecstasy.  I didn't want to wake up 
in the morning unless I knew I had a pill waiting there next to me to take, 
and that was all my life revolved around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I lost my family.  I lost a lot of my friends and I 
got left back in school a couple of times.

O'CONNOR: Promoting ecstasy as safe is all part of the sophisticated 
marketing being done by major traffickers, who make the pills look like 
regular medicine.  And they sometimes even stamp logos, like hearts on the 
pills to make them cool to teens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've never experienced an increase in drug use like 
we've seen in ecstasy.

O'CONNOR: This DEA undercover agent spoke to CNN about his experiences, 
seizures in the U.S. are up three fold in just one year, supplied via 
Western Europe by Russian and Israeli organized crime groups, and now, 
alarmingly, others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're experiencing other more traditional trafficking 
organizations like the Colombians and the Dominicans starting to venture 
into ecstasy distribution.

QUESTION: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Profit.  Solely for profit.

QUESTION: So there's a lot of money to be made?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of money to be made.

QUESTION: More than coke?  More than heroin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than coke, more than heroin, more than any other 
drug out there.

O'CONNOR: Some youth groups involved with ecstasy raves dispute the 
findings that ecstasy is harmful.  The teens here at Phoenix Academy say if 
you don't believe the authorities about ecstasy, listen to them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It put me in a lot of places I didn't want to be. I 
mean, I miss my family every day being here, and I can't do things that 
normal kids my age could do, and it's just not worth it.

Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Lake Ronkonkoma, New York.
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