Pubdate: Sun, 04 Mar 2001
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas   75265
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Author: Phin MacDonald
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n346/a06.html?40959

DON'T EXAGGERATE DANGER

Re: "Ecstasy allure grows despite health risks," Feb. 26.

Dr. H. Westley Clark, director for the federal Center for Substance 
Abuse Treatment, says "Using ecstasy is like playing Russian roulette 
... It may be that only two out of 100 people are going to die, but 
is ecstasy so important to you that you want to be one of those two?" 
But it certainly is not true that 2 out of 100 people who take 
ecstasy die from it. Dr. Clark himself said 27 deaths have been tied 
to ecstasy from 1994 through 1998. If 2 percent is the death rate, 
that would mean that only 1,350 people took the drug from 1994 
through 1998. Obviously the number of people taking the drug during 
that time was far greater, meaning the 2 percent death rate mentioned 
by Dr. Clark is a ridiculously exaggerated figure. The article stated 
U.S. Customs Service alone confiscated 400,000 doses of ecstasy 
entering the country in fiscal 1997. Customs estimates a 10 percent 
rate of confiscation for illegal drugs entering the country, but even 
assuming they and other law enforcement got 50 percent of the drugs, 
at least 400,000 doses of ecstasy got through and were presumably 
consumed. Even if all 27 of the people who died during the '94-'98 
period had died in that year, the death rate would have been less 
than .007 percent, not 2 percent.

Any deaths due to drugs are tragic. However, it is highly 
counterproductive to use inflated estimates. Teenagers are likely to 
ignore advice from adults if they know it is not entirely accurate. 
Even accurate advice about the risks of drug abuse might then be 
viewed with suspicion.

PHIN MacDonald, Medford, Mass.
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