Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2002
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2002 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ardemgaz.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Author: Meredith Oakley
Note: Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?195 (Partnership for a Drug Free America)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

DANGER A RELATIVE CONCEPT

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America says use of the so-called club drug 
Ecstasy is rising among American teen-agers because many of them are 
unaware of its dangers.

That's a crock.

Danger is a relative concept. Teen-agers, not unlike their elders, just 
don't give a lot of consideration to the possibility that bad things can 
happen to them. It's the NIMBY principle in the extreme.

Youthful smokers think no more about developing cancer or respiratory 
ailments or premature wrinkles than sun bunnies do about skin cancer or 
joggers do about cardiac arrest. These are misfortunes that befall other 
people.

John Walters, director of the White House drug policy office, says 
anti-drug officials are trying to counter an impression among teens that 
Ecstasy is harmless, and thus the anti-Ecstasy campaign "is about heading 
off a problem before it gets out of control."

Wish him luck. He's not only fighting the NIMBY mindset that afflicts all 
of us in one way or another, he's fighting "experts" who view such 
undertakings as knee-jerk, alarmist propaganda. We who survived the Timothy 
Leary/Dr. Feelgood era of the Sixties know better--or ought to.

Take, for instance, Mark A.R. Kleiman, director of something called the 
drug policy analysis program at the University of California at Los 
Angeles, who was not impressed with how two grieving parents opted to 
discourage Ecstasy use.

I have no idea how these parents came to know how many times their daughter 
used Ecstasy, but does it really matter? It only took once to kill her. And 
yet Kleiman, a presumed "expert" in this field or a related one, was struck 
only by the "dishonesty" of the parents' approach.

Although long-term use can be fatal, he opined, there is only limited 
evidence that a single use is damaging.

"It's not a very fatal drug," he pooh-poohed. Well, it certainly was for 
Danielle Heird.

Ecstasy is the popular name of what scientists commonly refer to as MDMA, 
the acronym for 3, 4-Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. A Schedule I 
synthetic, psychoactive drug, it possesses both stimulant and 
hallucinogenic properties. Its chemical variations include the stimulant 
amphetamine or methamphetamine and a hallucinogen, most often mescaline.

Although its use is not thought to be as widespread as many other 
controlled substances, an organization known as Narconon of Northern 
California reports that its use increased by at least 500 percent over a 
five-year period.

Nationwide, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, hospital emergency 
room reports involving MDMA rose dramatically between 1993 and 1999--from 
70 to 2,850. Seizures of MDMA tablets submitted to DEA laboratories rose 
from 196 in 1993 to 143,600 in 1998. Seizures from January through May 
1999, the latest figures I could find, totaled more than 216,300 MDMA tablets.

The facts about this "not very fatal drug" are still being gathered, but we 
do know that in some users Ecstasy produces empathy, decreased anxiety, 
relaxation and heightened senses. It also suppresses appetite, thirst and 
the need to sleep. Because of this, in combination with dancing and 
increased activity, it can cause severe dehydration and exhaustion.

Adverse effects include nausea, cold sweats, chills, hallucinations, 
increased body temperature, tremors, teeth clenching, double vision and 
muscle cramps. Among possible long-term after-effects are anxiety, paranoia 
and depression.

Narconon reports that a 1998 study by the National Institute of Mental 
Health found that the use of MDMA severely damaged the neurons in the brain 
that transmit seratonin, the chemical that is used in learning, sleep and 
integration of emotion, and concluded that even recreational users might be 
at risk of developing permanent damage that can manifest depression, 
anxiety, memory loss and neuropsychotic disorders.

Of course, they don't know for sure. But would it really matter if they 
did? Sadly, some segment of each generation always has to learn the hard way.
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MAP posted-by: Beth