Pubdate: Fri, 15 Mar 2002
Source: Grand Island Independent (NE)
Copyright: 2002 Grand Island Independent
Contact:  http://www.theindependent.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1023
Author: George Ayoub
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

NO FUTURE FALLING IN LOVE WITH ECSTASY

The Love Drug has plenty to hate about it.

But first you have to know something.

"I have recently had parents of young adults in their 20s come in. They 
were wondering about (Ecstasy)," said Wendy McCarty, project director at 
the Central Nebraska Council on Alcoholism. "One woman's daughter had been 
telling her that Ecstasy was, 'Really OK, Mom. It just makes you feel good. 
It doesn't hurt you.'"

What you should know is that Ecstasy, known on the street as the Love Drug, 
Rolls, E, the Hug Drug and XTC and in the lab as 
methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA, has drawn the attention of McCarty 
and others partly because it kills brain cells like April melts snow -- and 
partly because of marketing.

What worries McCarty is the future, even though some Central Nebraska 
parents are asking questions now about a drug not often seen in Central 
Nebraska. Ecstasy remains a big-city high where young people use it at 
all-night dance marathons called raves and when trolling the club scene.

Steve Jensen of the St. Francis Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center agrees. 
"We've only seen sporadic use around here. We have treated people who have 
used it, usually from out of state," he said.

In August 2000, the Nebraska State Patrol made a bust near Gibbon where 
they found 1,900 tablets of Ecstasy, which retails on the street at $20 to 
$25 a hit.

A Killing Cousin

Lt. Mike Phinney of the State Patrol said they too haven't seen much 
Ecstasy use, but in the netherworld of drugs, that could mean little. "We 
don't have raves here, but that doesn't mean kids from Hastings, Kearney 
and Grand Island shouldn't be aware of it."

According to McCarty, Kearney has held a town-hall meeting on Ecstasy 
similar to Grand Island's meeting several years ago concerning meth use here.

For the record, E is a killing cousin of meth in that their chemical 
properties are similar (although Ecstasy throws in a little hallucinogen), 
and the price structure is also on a par with Central Nebraska's most 
serious drug curse. Ecstasy's intense high is a result of your brain 
opening the serotonin floodgates, which guard the regulation of mood and pain.

Ecstasy turns kids' inhibitions upside down, creating a two-to six- hour 
world where teens seemingly handle acceptance and intimacy (not the age 
group's strong suits) with ease. After a hit of E, they like everybody, 
hence a love and hug drug.

For good measure, the drug can also raise body temps to 110 degrees, a 
factor in huge, stuffy warehouses where raves are commonly held; it causes 
involuntary jaw clenching so pacifiers are de rigueur at raves; plus it can 
induce the usual life-threatening problems in heart rate, blood pressure 
and dehydration. According to the Midwest office of National Drug Control 
Policy, Ecstasy deaths occur most often when users mix Ecstasy with other 
drugs or when they are overcome by heatstroke after dancing for hours.

Nothing Of The Sort

Rave promoters and clever dealers have marketed Ecstasy as a harmless high 
that makes the music better, your circle of touchy-feely best friends wider 
and your moves on the dance floor endless. They also stamp their colorful E 
tabs with logos such as the Nike swoosh or clever graphics.

Of course, the fine print reads more like a hype's handbook of disorder. By 
the time the rave is busted or the music dies, Ecstasy users can face 
anxiety, paranoia, depression, violent outbursts, trouble sleeping, memory 
loss and confusion.

MDMA works on the corpus delicti too. "You have a really bad headache 
afterward," Jensen said.

Aside from squeezing the life out of brain cells and making chronic users 
future idiots, the Hug Drug can also cause permanent damage to the liver 
and kidney.

All of which has McCarty concerned. "These rave organizers promote them as 
alcohol-free. They don't tell (parents) about all this Ecstasy."

Nor do they mention that, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free 
America, 2.8 million teens have used Ecstasy, which is more than have tried 
cocaine, crack and heroin. Experimentation with the drug is up more than 70 
percent in the last three years.

These are not hope-to-die junkies, either. According to Jensen it is a 
unique and powerful drug, used almost exclusively by young people and is 
anything but the harmless high the ad campaign on the street says it is.

And for parents here -- miles from raves and white hot dance clubs? A 
little knowledge can confirm that the Love Drug is nothing of the sort.
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MAP posted-by: Ariel