Wednesday, December 6, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Ecestasy users Kevin Miller and Will Sobeski, Lawrence residents, huddle next to a wall hidden by posters of raves they have attended. Sobeski said surgical masks soaked with Vick's VapoRub, pacifiers, and bottled water are essential when an ecstasy because they stimulate and protect the body from the drug's side effects. Photo by Thad
Feel-good drug fuels dancers
An unidentified dancer twirls neon glow sticks at a rave on the outskirts of Kansas City. Glow sticks and other visual stimulants at raves heighten, the sensual experience that ecstasy provides users. Photo by Thad Allender/KANSAN
Allender/KANSAN
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glow sticks create a Fourth of July for the senses. Miller said glow sticks were part of the ecstasy experience.
"Like the Chinese use fans, we use glow sticks," he said. "You can go into a complete trance if you're really good at it."
Usually, the whirlpool of colors and pulsating music at this secret party would urge Miller to dance along, but tonight he just wants to feel.
He takes a seat next to his friend Lacey so they can rub and scratch each other's backs. They don't feel like dancing tonight because they are on smackey pills — ecstasy spiked with heroin. Miller and Lacey are not usually attracted to each other, but the enhanced sense of touch from the pill turns them into "feeling friends."
They are not alone. Other party-goers are conversing, rubbing and scratching, or dancing, depending on the type of ecstasy pill they are on.
Miller said the two most popular rave pills were speedy-dance pills, which are cocaine-laced, or smackey pills.
"If you don't use a pacifier, the next day your jaw hurts," Will Boseski. Miller's friend and ecstasy user said.
After popping another pill, Miller takes a seat on a small hill outside the arena and leans back with his arms stretched out, a pacifier in his mouth, listening to the music. He can tell the second pill is working by the way every hair on his body moves to the beat of the song.
Miller uses a pacifier to help protect his teeth from grinding while high on the drug.
Sobeski said other essentials included bottled water, surgical masks soaked with Vick's VaporRub and wide-leg pants for dancing and better ventilation. More than trendy accessories, they are vital to prevent overheating, one side effect from the drug.
Ecstasv's ingredients at work
Jennifer, a KU varsity athlete who asked that her real name not be used because drug use violates team and NCAA rules, said ecstasy created bonds between users.
Morris Faiman, professor of pharmacology and toxicology, said the drug's effects occurred in three phases — an initial period of disorientation; then tingling; and finally, happy sociability and the desire to be with other people.
"Your emotions are toyed with," she said. "You love everybody. You could hate the person across the room, but you would feel like you had a connection somehow."
"The peak is the most intense part of the night. You feel confused if it's a good pill," he said. "It's not scary because you want more. That's why people take another pill at the peak because it's like a roller coaster."
Sobeski said he revealed in the first phase of disorientation, comparing it to a sexual climax.
"All pills are different — some with heroin, some with coke, Draino or mescaline," she said. "You don't know what you are putting into your body. That's what's so scary."
But Jennifer said taking the drug could be frightening. Although she knows the side effects of the drug, she said that getting a dose spiked with a more dangerous drug was her No.1 fear.
Sobeski said users also had an intense urge to be touched.
"I would run through a group of people just so I could rub against their bodies," he said. And he is not alone.
More information:
For audio of some of the interviews in this story and links to more information on the web.
See www.kansan.com
The 'x' files — new studies show ecstasy is popular but deadly
Ecstasy's popularity is growing, according to a survey on drug abuse by the National Household Survey. The heaviest use of ecstasy is by those ages 18 to 25. The study showed that 1.4 million people said they had used the drug once in their lives, and the number is increasing.
The drug's infectious popularity has drug experts alarmed According to a recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ecstasy could have damaging long-term effects on the human brain because it damages neurons, the parts of the brain that produce serotonin, the hormone which aids in thought and memory.
Gerry Riley, counselor at DCCCA, a Lawrence drug-treatment facility, said a depletion of serotonin could start a chain reaction of health problems.
"Serotonin regulates body temperature." Riley said. "So when there is an absence of serotonin, the body doesn't know it, so it overheats."
Faiman, the pharmacology professor, said other undesirable side effects include tensing of muscles in the neck, grinding of teeth, tingling of the jaw, erratic behavior and temporary amnesia. Although the effects usually wear off in four to six hours, some users reported residual confusion for weeks after a single dose, probably because the active ingredient is stored in body fat. Faiman warned that using ecstasy could be fatal to those with pre-existing cardiac disease and said several sudden deaths had been linked to the drug. Faiman said that using ecstasy could be acutely toxic when laced.
"The brakes are off the impulses," he said, adding that repeated use also could lead to depression.
Riley said when serotonin was absent users could lose inhibitions.
ECSTASY TIME LINE
Ecstasy is the nickname for the compound methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA.
1914: MDMA is patented by German company Merck Pharmaceuticals.
1953: The Army Chemical Center studied MDMA toxicity by giving it to guinea pigs, rats, mice, monkeys and doos.
1965: Alexander Shulgin synthesizes MDMA but does not vet try it.
1968: Alexander Shulgin begins working with MDMA personally and introduces others to it.
1977: MDMA becomes available on the street as a recreational drug.
1977-1981: Eight people seek emergency attention after MDMA use during this four-year period, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)
1981-1985: Zero people seek emergency room attention after MDMA use during this period, according to DAMN.
Source: Association for Better Living and Education
May 31, 1985: MDMA is banned federally.
"that is the problem with illicit drugs. You are never sure of the purity and what you are getting," Faiman said. "It is like playing Russian Roulette."
Even MDMA, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine — ecstasy in its purest form — can kill.
MDMA in high dosages not only increases body temperature, but also could lead to hypothermia, muscle breakdown, heart attacks, strokes and even seizures, according to the NIDA.
Another study from the same institute showed that ecstasy stimulated users to dance for extended periods, which could lead to dehydration, hypertension and heart or kidney failure.
Easy to get. hard to prosecute
Ecestasy has been illegal since 1985, but remains easy for users to obtain. Every year since 1985, the rate of ecestasy arrests has increased.
U. S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. said ecstasy seizures by the United States Customs Service had increased dramatically, from less than 500,000 tablets in 1997 to more than four million tablets during the first five months of 2000. Brownback is considering introducing a bill that would increase punishment for convicted ecstasy dealers.
"The law enforcement should go after the people that smoke crack," Robins said. "I've never heard of anyone that does escesty go shoot someone."
"I will be looking into bills that seek to rein in this growing epidemic," he said. Chris Robins, Kansas City, Mo., freshman and ectasy user, thinks Congress should go after traffickers of "harder" drugs.
The Lawrence Police Department says ecstasy is not as widely used as other drugs.
"People get caught from time to time but it's not as prevalent as marijuana or crack cocaine," Det. M.T. Brown said.
But Jennifer, the KU athlete, said ecstasy was plentiful and easy to get.
"I could have a pill for you in five seconds," she said.
One Lawrence ecstasy dealer, who goes by the name "Kentucky Gentleman," said that all of his clientele were current KU students and that he sold an average of 100 pills per week at $25 per pill — a gross revenue of $2,500 per week.
"Ecstasy is everywhere," he said. "I think people don't get busted for it because it's easy to hide. Just take it before you go out."
Dan Dunbar, assistant Douglas County district attorney, said only a handful of users had been convicted for possession because the drug was hard to prosecute. That's because sellers usually possess only small amounts of the drug. Dunbar said.
"Ecstasy has its own subculture
among college kids, but they don't hold it in large amounts," he said.
Dunbar said a person caught selling the drug for the first time would be charged with a misdemeanor and the second time with a felony.
Ecstasy — the history
Ironically, ecstasy came to prominence as a drug useful in psychological therapy.
Alexander Shulgin, who refers to himself as the godfather of ecstasy, was the first to write about the drug's effects on humans in 1978.
"The drug gives a warm feeling of interaction with people." Shulgin said in a telephone interview from his home in California.
Ecstasy was patented in Germany in 1914 by the German company Merck but was never marketed.
"No one knew what the drug was for," Shulgin said. "They didn't patent it for any specific reason."
Then it spread like wildfire.
ougin got involved with the drug when its patent expired in 1965 and said he intended the drug to be used as a therapeutic device, not as a recreational drug. He gave the drug to his therapist friends who used it to treat their patients.
James Grobe, professor of psychology, said although the drug was intriguing because of its cultural history, it was too dangerous to be a therapeutic drug.
"It was originally thought to have therapeutic benefits," he said. "It was thought that everyone should be trying this drug and the world would be a peaceful place. But there is a lot of toxicity associated with the drug."
Shulgin said he was no longer personally experimenting with ecstasy or MDMA.
"Everyone is loving deeper, not aggressively," she said. Lacey said women didn't need to feel wary of men because users were less likely to harass women while on the drug.
"My research is discovering new things. I'm not a drug user," he said. "But I do support the whole argument of all drugs should be a personal choice, not a legal choice."
Users agree that the drug is very popular. Lacey thinks the drug will always be popular, especially among women, because it was considered a friendlier safer drug.
"Drugs have a pattern. They go up and down. Right now, it is up, then it will go down and something else will replace it," she said.
Ecstasy — the drug of the future?
However, Lacey added that ecstasy could lead to regretful consequences.
Christy Edwards, out-patient coordinator for DCCCA, said ecstasy use was a trend that would ultimately subside.
"You are more likely to hook up with people that you wouldn't normally book up with." she said.
She thinks the drug will be popular because police don't always recoginize it. And Miller agrees.
miner, the KU dropout who likes ecstasy so much that he chose it instead of a college education, says he will continue to use the drug until he can find another drug that can provide a better high.
Until then, Miller and a growing number of users plan to rave on in a state of ecstasy — with "x" as the drug of choice for a generation with the same name.
Edited by Amy Randolph
Designed by T.J. Johnson