Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jun 2001 Source: Inquirer (PA) Copyright: 2001 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc Contact: http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/home/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340 Author: Connie Langland, Patrick Kerkstra and Deborah Bolling ECSTASY'S APPEAL RISES, AND SO DOES CONCERN The drug is more dangerous than its users think, experts say. Yet keg parties have become passe, as teens throw "E parties." The arrest of a Philadelphia man this week on charges of recruiting Lower Merion High School students to sell ecstasy, LSD and marijuana underscored a concern expressed by local police and teen counselors: that ecstasy's popularity is rising. The illegal euphoria drug, long a staple of the dance scene in the United States and Europe, had been expected to sell for $20 or more per tablet to students at the Lower Merion school prom on May 26, Montgomery County authorities said. The arrest of Joel Meltzer, 31, and a 17-year-old Lower Merion student derailed the delivery. The use of ecstasy, also known as E or XTC, by young people throughout the Philadelphia suburbs is well known to police and drug and victim counselors. New Jersey authorities say they are especially concerned about its availability to Shore visitors this summer. Ecstasy (3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA) is more dangerous, the experts say, than users believe. "It's a methamphetamine-based hallucinogen, the likes of which we have never seen before," Terrance Farley, a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J., said. Yet ecstasy has a positive image among young people, which troubles authorities, who say the side effects can be fatal. It is associated with all-night raves where alcohol is shunned and good feelings are said to abound. Farley and others said they were also alarmed about the widespread use of ecstasy among teenagers, some as young as middle schoolers. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says it is rapidly becoming the number-two drug of choice in the country, after marijuana. "Parents, teachers and police officers are so, so naive about this drug," said Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles narcotics officer who lectures nationwide about ecstasy and other so-called club drugs. "The problem is this is a sneaky drug," Porrata said. "At a rave party, you don't see any violence. Well, the sound of kids' brain cells hitting the floor is not something you hear. But these kids are frying their brains, with no clue as to what they are doing." Stacie Brown, a spokeswoman for Women Organized Against Rape in Philadelphia, warned that young women under the influence of the drug become vulnerable to sexual attack. "It lowers inhibitions, interferes with reasoning," she said. "You want to participate in everything with everyone." Brown's group has started an awareness campaign about ecstasy and other drugs, offering posters and brochures and training for club employees to help them spot signs of drug use. So why does the drug appeal so strongly to users? (Those who would discuss their experiences with it didn't want their full names used.) "It starts with this warm rush through your body," Tina, 26, of Philadelphia, said. "And it's very sensual, not in a nymphomaniac kind of way, but if anybody touches you, you want to touch them back. You feel happy and loved and lovable." Some described it as "a very social drug." Others said it inspires uncommon empathy. "You care so much about how everyone in the room feels," Sara, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, said. "You can become best friends overnight with someone you really didn't like that much before. It breaks your heart to see someone who isn't happy." Tina said users rarely "lose control" when taking ecstasy. "You're very conscious of everything around you," she said. "You don't wake up the next day and say, 'What happened last night?' " Some teenagers say the drug is growing in popularity with mainstream youth. "Ecstasy seemed like a much bigger deal three years ago than it does now," Kelly, 17, of Chester County, said. "Three years ago, it was the edgy kids who took it. But now there are a lot of normal people who will take it every once in a while." Use of the drug has moved beyond the rave scene to what users call "E parties," get-togethers that revolve around a supply of ecstasy instead of a keg of beer. "It's definitely an event drug," Tina said. "You take it for a specific party or a specific concert. It's not a drug you want to take alone or for a casual night [of] watching TV." At Lower Merion High School, several students said after Meltzer's arrest that ecstasy was used by only a small minority of their classmates. "I think it's fair to say that there is a problem with drinking and marijuana here, like [at] a lot of high schools," said Michael Caputo, a Lower Merion High senior and president of the student body. "But I don't know that there are more than 15 or 20 kids in the whole school who use ecstasy. "Students, teachers, everybody was really surprised that the media was talking about a major ecstasy ring at the school because nobody sees that." Bruce Castor, the Montgomery County district attorney, said the arrested student's sales records and police interviews with his classmates revealed "widespread drug use and drug dealing involving many students at Lower Merion High School." He declined to specify which drugs. At an average of $25 a pill, ecstasy's cost, combined with its wipeout feeling a day or two afterward, may limit how often it is used. Wali Bennett, a senior at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County, agreed with Farley, the Ocean County prosecutor, that today's teens are "polydrug users," willing to try unknown drugs and even to mix them with marijuana or alcohol. "To me, all kids are just trying to get high, from 14 years old and up," Bennett said. "They're getting high at school, in clubs, at dances." Teens who can afford it, he said, try ecstasy. "To them, doing ecstasy is a lot easier than smoking weed, because all you have to do is take a pill," he said. "That's all. It's just that simple." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart