Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 Source: Daily Camera (CO) Copyright: 2001 The Daily Camera. Contact: Open Forum, Daily Camera, P.O. Box 591, Boulder, CO 80306 Fax: 303-449-9358 Feedback: http://www.bouldernews.com/opinion/index.html Website: http://www.bouldernews.com/ Author: Elizabeth Mattern Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (ecstasy) DRUG NO LONGER TIED TO RAVES It's called E. Or X. Or Adam, or rolls, or the hug drug, or XTC. Ecstasy is now also considered a main drug of choice for the under-21 crowd. "You feel like you're Jell-O and you're part of everything around you," said Chrissy Strickland, 16, who came from Westminster to downtown Boulder for a dance party Friday night. "If I roll, I just start talking to people like I've known them for 10 years." Ecstasy -- the illegal stimulant methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA -- was patented in Germany by pharmaceutical giant Merck in 1914. The psychedelic therapy community rediscovered the synthetic drug in the 1960s, when psychiatrists began prescribing it as a social or marital tool for evoking empathy and intimacy. MDMA releases the brain chemical serotonin, elevating mood and acting as a short-term antidepressant. Ecstasy was outlawed in the United States in 1985, and health officials say it holds serious risks. The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently published a bulletin saying the drug's use is increasing at an "alarming" rate. Until recent years, the hug drug was common only among hard-core club-goers, particularly in gay America. But ecstasy is now showing up at run-of-the-mill keggers and — as the drug-related death of 16-year-old Brittney Chambers has shown — even teenage birthday parties in Colorado suburbia. The Rave Scene Modern ecstasy use evolved with underground raves and dance parties. It's as integral to the rave culture as the sensory-overloading techno and trance music, strobe lights, glow sticks and glitter. Those who use the drug say it heightens their sensory experiences. "It just intensifies the music so it flows through your body," said Kyla Martin, 20, of Denver. "It makes you want to dance." Some kids, though, say they don't go to dance parties for drugs and don't even do drugs. It's the music and the rave culture that draws them -- the PLUR philosophy of peace, love, unity and respect. They say the dark venues, lasers and constant bass beats build an atmosphere for experimental dancing, anything-goes garb and a sense of equality among poor kids, rich kids and those who are white, black, honor students, drop-outs, jocks and punks. Pink-haired teenagers with piercings, dressed in baggy pants and sweatshirts, blend in on the dance floor with T-shirt-wearing athletes and pigtailed girls with glittered faces or angel wings, while vendors hand out condoms and Gatorade. "There's a lot of love at raves, and people don't judge you," said Ashley Conrad, 16, of Westminster. Raving in the United States dates back to the early 1980s, when Detroit musicians experimented with synthesizers and drum machines, and then caught on in Chicago, San Francisco and New York dance clubs. These days, there's usually a rave on the Front Range any given weekend in a club, theater or warehouse. Ravers pick up tickets from a spot designated on a flyer or Web site, then go to a "map point" just before the rave to find out the party's whereabouts. Admissions typically are all ages or 16 and older. Gabriel Pankonin, 19, who came to Boulder from Cheyenne, Wyo., for Friday's Pearl Street party, said techno music "is my life." "I don't come for the drugs, although I know there are a lot of people who do," he said. "I come for the music and the people." Inreasingly Visible Still a central part of the late-night raves and dance parties, ecstasy isn't limited to that scene anymore. "These club drugs used to be restricted to a narrow group of people, and now they've become much more popular among the high-school and college kids," said University of Colorado sociology professor Patti Adler, who studies the use of drugs in society. Brittney's Feb. 2 death has drawn the community's attention to the mainstream use of a drug once confined to the counterculture. The teenager slipped into a coma after taking MDMA and then drinking too much water at her sweet 16 birthday party in Superior. "We've always seen ecstasy, but we're seeing a lot more of it now because there seems to be an increase in demand," said Lt. Jim Smith of the Boulder County Drug Task Force, which uncovered a drug lab in CU student housing last spring. "In any given week, we'll make cocaine buys, marijuana buys and ecstasy buys -- that's real typical." The most prevalent drug in Boulder County, Smith said, is still marijuana, followed by cocaine. The club drugs and methamphetamine come in at about third place, he said. The college-town effect, Smith said, may heighten drug trafficking in the area. "We have young people here who tend to be fairly affluent and can afford these types of drugs," he said. "But you could also go down to Denver, and Denver would probably have a much stronger club scene and more dealers. So I wouldn't blame it necessarily on this being a college town." Last year marked the second year in a row of an increase in the use of MDMA among 10th- and 12th-graders and the first time that there was an increase in use among eighth-graders, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A University of Michigan report released in December showed that 51 percent of high school seniors surveyed last year said it is "fairly easy" or "very easy" to buy ecstasy, up from 22 percent in 1989. Lisa Kamin, a senior at Boulder High, estimated 35 percent to 40 percent of students at her school have tried the drug. "At the beginning of the (school) year, none of my friends used X, and they do now," said Stephan Van der Mersch, a junior. Teens, college students, counselors and police say ecstasy is becoming increasingly popular -- the designer drug of choice in suburbia and metropolitan areas -- even among people who don't use other drugs or alcohol. At $20 to $30 a pill, they say, it's often found in affluent circles: "The designer drugs go with the designer clothes," said Megan Cain, a sophomore at Boulder High. They say it's clean because it doesn't require smoking, snorting, needles or calorie consumption: "You can just take it like you take an Advil, and people don't feel like they're being dirty drug users by taking a pill," said Chris Striefel, a junior at CU. They say it's easy to hide -- unlike beer bottles or odorous marijuana. And they say its high is euphoric -- that users feel a short-lived sense of emotional connectedness, heightened sensation, self-acceptance, empathy and general positivity. A lot of young people even say it's safe. Dangers Of Club Drugs More than 100 ecstasy-related deaths have occurred because of heat stroke, according to DanceSafe, a California-based nonprofit organization that promotes safety within the rave and nightclub community and tests ecstasy pills for purity. Stimulants combined with dancing in a hot club environment can increase the body temperature to the point of heat stroke, so DanceSafe tells users to stay hydrated. There have also been rare reports of ecstasy users dying from drinking too much water. Boulder County investigators said Friday that water intoxication -- because of ecstasy -- caused Brittney's death. Typically, the most dangerous aspect of the drug, police and counselors say, is that it is synthetic and unregulated, and therefore can be tainted with substances other than MDMA. Something altogether different, such as paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, is sometimes sold as ecstasy and can be dangerous by itself or in combination with other drugs or alcohol. PMA is cheaper to make than ecstasy and is one of the most dangerous and toxic hallucinogens known. Ecstasy typically comes from the Netherlands and other parts of western Europe. Most experts say the drug is not chemically addictive, and it's rare for ecstasy users to overdose. When people do overdose, it's usually because they've mixed it with other drugs, Lt. Smith said. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ecstasy users face risks of psychological difficulties, including depression, sleep problems, anxiety and paranoia, during and sometimes weeks after taking the drug. Cisco Manzo, a Boulder artist, said he took ecstasy heavily in his 20s and will no longer take it because it started leaving him depressed. "I think mature people kind of grow out of it and it's just not fun to do anymore," said Manzo, 34. "You reach a point where you feel like you're worthless." The Institute on Drug Abuse also warns of drug cravings and physical symptoms -- nausea, teeth grinding, blurred vision and increases in heart rate and blood pressure -- as well as possible long-term damage to the parts of the brain critical to thought and memory. "I don't think it's a safe drug at all," said Judy Taub, a social worker in the substance abuse program at CU's Wardenburg Health Center. "It's extremely unpredictable, and we don't know enough about it." Ecstasy is one of a handful of popular synthetic club drugs, or "designer drugs," that tend to fit in with the nightclub lifestyle. Along with ecstasy, GHB and ketamine also have become more popular in the area over the past two years, Lt. Smith said. The Institute on Drug Abuse recently posted a nationwide bulletin saying the popularity of club drugs is rising at an "alarming" rate and that "no club drug is benign." "Chronic abuse of MDMA, for example, appears to produce long-term damage to serotonin-containing neurons in the brain," the warning said. "Given the important role that the neurotransmitter serotonin plays in regulating emotion, memory, sleep, pain, and higher order cognitive processes, it is likely that MDMA use can cause a variety of behavioral and cognitive consequences as well as impairing memory." Shortcut to intimacy One CU student describing her ecstasy high said "it shows you how you wish you'd treat everyone all the time; you just love life." Taub, of CU's health center, said ecstasy is commonly taken as an experimental drug by those who aren't interested in other drugs or alcohol. "I think they're curious about it, and they're getting a lot of positive messages about it from their peers," she said. "One of the things I see with ecstasy is people who have never used any drugs before are finding it really appealing. That's something that has surprised me this year." Taub said she has seen a dramatic increase in the drug's use among CU students in the past few years. The drug, she said, seems to tap into the desires of teens to find love and open themselves up to closer relationships. "Ecstasy creates a false sense of intimacy," she said. "I think a lot of what our adolescents are seeking is just that sense of figuring out how to be intimate, and this is a quick and easy solution." Camera staff writer Coulter Bump contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens