Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2001
Source: The Herald-Sun (NC)
Copyright: 2001 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: Melissa B Robinson (AP)

ECSTASY USE RISING, SENATORS TOLD

WASHINGTON -- Philip McCarthy just wanted to have as much fun as the other 
kids when he took Ecstasy for the first time at a house party in a New York 
City suburb. Soon the 17-year-old was hooked and stealing televisions and 
VCRs to support a $300-a-week drug habit.

When he was on Ecstasy, "I felt like the world was glowing with love and my 
body felt unreal," McCarthy, of Central Islip, N.Y., told the Senate 
Government Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Monday 
at a hearing on Ecstasy's quick growth.

"It was a high I definitely wanted again," said McCarthy, who is currently 
in drug treatment.

Ecstasy, known scientifically as methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, is 
a synthetic, psychoactive pill that typically induces feelings of euphoria 
and dramatically raises blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature. It 
gained popularity in the 1990s at all-night dance parties known as raves.

"While users of club drugs often take them simply for energy to keep on 
dancing or partying, research shows these drugs can have long-lasting 
negative effects on the brain that can alter memory and other behaviors," 
said Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

He said more public education about the drug's dangers, including heart, 
kidney and brain damage, is essential to combatting its use.

McCarthy and fellow Phoenix House drug treatment program participant Dayna 
Moore, 16, said they knew nothing of the anger and depression that would 
hit after Ecstasy's high wore off. That quickly led them into cycles of 
addiction as they took more and more Ecstasy, which sells for $20 to $40 
per pill.

"It was a depression that I couldn't stand," said Moore, of Ridge, N.Y.

Seizures of Ecstasy by the Customs Service grew from about 400,000 tablets 
in 1997, to 3.5 million tablets in 1999, to more than 9 million tablets in 
2000. The drug is manufactured mostly in Belgium and The Netherlands.

"No matter how successful our enforcement efforts, our best defense is less 
demand," said John Varrone, assistant commissioner in Customs' office of 
investigations.

The White House's drug policy office began a $5 million radio and Internet 
campaign in August aimed at educating youths and adults about Ecstasy's 
dangers, said Donald R. Vereen, the office's deputy director.

MDMA "is a public health problem that is behaving like an epidemic," Vereen 
said, citing hospital data showing the number of Ecstasy references in 
emergency room episodes grew from 250 in 1994 to 4,511 in 2000.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have sponsored 
legislation that would require more public education about Ecstasy and 
provide funding to state and local law enforcement and to the National 
Institutes of Health for research on the drug's health effects. In the 
House, a similar bill by Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., has bipartisan support.

Editor's note: The bills are S. 1208 and H.R. 2582.
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