From: "Peter McWilliams" To: Subject: Ecstasy TIME? Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 20:28:40 -0800 Here's a remarkable article from TIME and my letter about one factual error. Enjoy, Peter US: It's All The Rave Newshawk: Tom O'Connell Pubdate: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 Source: Time Magazine (US) Copyright: 2000 Time Inc. Contact: letters@time.com Address: Time Magazine Letters, Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, NY, NY 10020 Fax: (212) 522-8949 Website: http://www.time.com/ Author: John Cloud Bookmarks: For ecstasy items http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm For: rave items http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm IT'S ALL THE RAVE SUDDENLY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE country are talking about "ecstasy" as if it were something other than what an eight-year-old feels at Disney World. Occasionally the trickle from the fringe to the heartland turns into a slipstream, and that seems to have happened with the heart-pulsing, mildly psychedelic drug called ecstasy. To get a sense of just how far and fast "e" has moved into American communities in the past year or so, talk to Mark Bradford, a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "I came to college in the fall of '97," says Bradford, 21, "and I didn't even know the word had another meaning." It's not shocking that young Mark moved from suburban St. Louis to find drugs on a big campus. But it's a little surprising where he encountered ecstasy, a drug first used in the 1970s by a small group of avant-garde psychotherapists -- at frat houses. As president of the university's Interfraternity Council, Bradford has found himself in meetings with police to discuss frat boys' growing appetite for a drug today usually associated with teen ravers, gay men and what's left of America's aging hippies, "It's everywhere now," says Bradford, who doesn't touch the stuff. Law enforcers are coming across gigantic stashes of ecstasy in places where it was rarely seen. E comes as tablets or capsules, and since December, Ohio authorities have seized 25,000 pills in Columbus and 200 more in rural Lorain County. In January some 30 people were arrested in New Orleans for distributing the drug. Two weeks ago in Providence, R.I., a seven-month investigation into ecstasy dealing ended with the arrest of 23. In bigger cities, the trade has exploded. In December the U.S. Customs Service discovered 100 lbs. of ecstasy shipped from France to the FedEx headquarters in Memphis. The agents followed the drug's intended trail to L.A. and found a staggering 1.2 million tablets, worth $30 million. And in an elaborate sting last summer, customs agents and the Drug Enforcement Administration helped dismantle a far-flung ecstasy empire run by a Canadian based in Amsterdam who allegedly claimed he could sell 100,000 hits of ecstasy in Miami - in 48 hours. The mastermind was using pious looking Hasidic Jews as couriers. (Israeli organized crime dominates the global trade, according to the U.S. government.) The busts have had little effect. Nationwide, customs officers have already seized more ecstasy this fiscal year (nearly 3.3 million hits) than in all of last year; in 1997, they seized just 400,000 hits. In a 1998 survey, 8% of high school seniors said they had tried e, up from 5.8% the year before. In New York City, according to another survey, 1 in 4 adolescents has tried ecstasy. So much e is coming into the U.S. that the Customs Service has created a special ecstasy command center and is training 13 more dogs to sniff out the drug. But it took a seizure in Phoenix two weeks ago to generate e's first big press coverage in years. That bust snared Salvatore Gravano, the notorious Mob hit man turned government snitch. Like the Hasidim, Gravano is a rather curious newcomer to the ecstasy culture. You wouldn't think someone nicknamed "Sammy the Bull" would be peddling the so-called hug drug. But simple reasons lie behind the drug's popularity among sellers and users. E is cheap to make, easy to distribute and consume--no dirty syringes or passe coke spoons needed, thanks--and it has a reputation for being fun. E's euphoria may be chemically manufactured, but it feels no less real to users. It's called the hug drug because it engenders gooey, rather gauche expressions of empathy from users. Last week students at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff reminisced about melting into "cuddle puddles," groups of students who massage and embrace on the dance floor. The skin feels tremblingly alive when caressed. "Feathers, toys, lotions, anything," gurgles "Katrina," 23, a student at N.A.U. "A guy touching your skin with a cold drink. It's delicious." Though often cut with other drugs, ecstasy pills are at least intended to be a substance called MDMA (and known only to chemists as methylenedioxymethamphetamine). MDMA is pharmacologically related to amphetamine and mescaline, but it doesn't produce the nervy, wired feeling that typically accompanies speed or the confusion of a purer psychedelic like LSD. It doesn't generate addictive cravings. Treatment admissions for drugs of its type still account for less than 1% of the total, according to Dr. Blanche Frank of the New York State office of alcohol and substance abuse. In fact, e's popularity is largely due to its lack of noticeable downsides. It's possible to overdose on ecstasy, but even police agree that the drug isn't like heroin or crack in terms of short-term dangers. Most problems are attributable to dehydration among novices who don't drink water. However, another club drug, GHB - which is also known as "Liquid X" though it's chemically unrelated to ecstasy - can easily cause coma and death. MDMA was first synthesized in 1912, but the big experiments with it didn't begin until the 1970s, when a group of psychologists rediscovered it as a tool for therapy. By the early '80s, the drug - still perfectly legal - was sold openly in bars and clubs. But at the time a scientific debate had begun - and continues today about whether MDMA can cause long-term brain damage. In 1985, on the basis of preliminary data about its harmfulness, the DEA used its discretionary power to outlaw MDMA. A group of therapists sued, but after a three-year court battle, the DEA won the right to ban the drug permanently. So why is it upon us again? Partly because the debate about MDMA's harmfulness has never been resolved. Johns Hopkins neurologist George Ricaurte has concluded in several animal studies and one human study that MDMA can damage a particular group of the brain's nerve cells. But he wants more research. Last week Ricaurte said his work has never shown that the damage to the affected cells has any visible effect on "the vast majority of people who have experimented with MDMA." The debate has now found its way onto the Web, where the old therapist crowd behind MDMA has become active. The sites are populated mostly by young users, however, kids who blindly praise the drug ("Sammy the Bull rules," wrote one last week). But the most important reason for e's quick and recent spread into places like Denver and Sacramento is that professional criminals have almost completely assumed control of its trade. The life of a typical tablet found in the U.S. begins somewhere along the Dutch-Belgian border, a quiet region of pig farmers. The setting is rural but not far from the Brussels airport. Manufacturers convert abandoned barns or garden sheds into e factories, which can be filthy. "They've been mixing chemicals in dirty cans I wouldn't even use for garbage," says Charles De Winter, director of the drug section of Belgium's national police force. These mills aren't mom-and-pop setups, at least not anymore. "We're seeing more and more hardened criminals," says Cees van Doorn, a Dutch organized-crime specialist. They are drawn by the profits. After setup the marginal cost of each pill is maybe 10 cents . It's sold in New York City clubs for $30, U.S. Customs commissioner Raymond Kelly says professional criminals in this country have brought better management and marketing to the ecstasy trade. Mobsters have the distribution networks to move millions of pills. And most pills now come with a catchy brand name-like the "Candy Canes" taken in Flagstaff (red and white capsules) or tablets stamped with corporate logos. Users can ask dealers for a good brand by name. Last year's "Mitsubishis," for instance, were hugely popular because they seemed to have an extra kick of speed. This winter's "AOLS," however, were duds. What is the future of ecstasy? Officials in the Low Countries are cracking down on e factories but warn that production is cropping up in central Europe and Spain. For good reason: Americans are in love with ecstasy. "New York used to be a meat and-potatoes drug town - heroin, coke and pot," says John Silbering, a former narcotics prosecutor who works for the Tunnel, a big New York City nightclub. "Today we no longer find coke or heroin among the young. It's always ecstasy." ------------ My letter to TIME: In "It's All the Rave," you report, "GHB...can easily cause...death." This is entirely untrue. In recommended doses, GHB is one of the safest mood-elevators and, in larger doses, sleep-inducers available. (Only marijuana is safer.) If one overdoses on GHB, uncontrollable vomiting removes any potentially lethal doses from the body. ALL GHB deaths involved mixing it with alcohol -- a deadly combination, indeed. While legal and sold in health food stores, this warning was printed on every bottle of GHB sold. Now that GHB is illegal, the lifesaving warning is not communicated, and alcohol-GHB deaths are on the rise. This is yet another example of the War on Drugs causing more harm than it claims to prevent. Thank you. Peter McWilliams 8165 Mannix Drive Los Angeles, California 90046 ================================================================ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: