Pubdate: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 Source: Quad-City Times (IA) Copyright: 2001 Quad-City Times Contact: http://www.qctimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857 Author: Cheri Bustos, Quad-City Times DOCTORS SHOULD TALK ABOUT ECSTASY A week ago today, a bill was signed into law in Illinois that put the drug ecstasy in the same league as heroin and cocaine when it comes to selling it. Beginning Jan. 1, anyone convicted of possessing as few as 15 ecstasy pills with the intent of selling them would face a six-to 30-year prison term. It's one of the toughest ecstasy laws in the country. A bill, just about as tough, was proposed in the Iowa Legislature, but it never passed. In the Illinois Quad-Cities, Moline and East Moline police told us they've never run across ecstasy. But the drug did make a major Quad-City debut in 1997, when it sent four Quad-Citians to the emergency room, almost killing three of them. The three stopped breathing after taking ecstasy and had to be put on mechanical respirators to save their lives. One of the ecstasy-takers came into the emergency room at Genesis Medical Center in a coma and was having seizures so badly that doctors had to medically paralyze him. Before those four cases, Quad-City emergency room doctors treated at least two women who were raped after unwittingly being given ecstasy. These pills, that sell for $20 to $30 each, are bad stuff. And while this new stringent-as-heck Illinois ecstasy law addresses the sale of ecstasy, that is an after-the-fact answer. It means that the drug has to be manufactured, then sold to people -- who obviously buy it so they can take the drug. But the medical community wants to get involved in the issue at the front end. Dr. Michael Miller of the American Society of Addiction Medicine told American Medical News that doctors throughout the nation must be aware that a growing number of their young patients are taking club drugs like ecstasy. They're called club drugs because they are popular at all-night dance parties, also called raves, that are attended by young people. The primary users of ecstasy are between the ages of 12 and 27. Dr. Miller says we can expect to see ecstasy "in every corner of the nation and in every size community." And the drug-selling liars of the world are pitching the notion that ecstasy holds therapeutic powers for treating mental ills and that it is a safe, non-addictive drug. Miller said such claims are reminiscent of the same ones made in the '60s about LSD. What ecstasy can do is make body temperature soar, cause seizures and even death. It can even cause lasting changes in the brain's chemical systems that control mood and memory. Dr. Miller's right to advise doctors to talk with parents and their young patients about this drug. I'd be ecstatic if that were to happen with our Quad-City physicians.