Ecstasy, also known as "e," "Adam" or "XTC," is the latest fad drug among youth. That's not to say that it is new—it was developed nearly a century ago by the German pharmaceutical company Merck and was used by psychotherapists briefly in the 1970s. It was popular for a few years in the 1980s as a street drug and then faded from the scene until recently. Now its use among youth is growing.

British police estimate that 500,000 Brits take the drug each weekend. Of the half-million young tourists visiting the Spanish island of Ibiza every summer, one in eight takes ecstasy nearly every night. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says the drug is available in at least 21 states as well as in Canada, and that it's especially popular with college students and young professionals.

E is called a "club drug," because it is sold and used in dance clubs. Club drugs are popular with high school seniors and college students at all night underground parties with techno music, which are called "raves." Commenting on a recent ecstasy bust in Phoenix, Arizona, police estimated that up to 90 percent of youths who attend rave parties take e.

Users believe it to be a "hug drug," a drug that lowers the user's inhibitions and makes him experience feelings equal to those brought on by the sweetest success or the achievement of a lifetime. It is said to be nonaddictive. Unlike any other drug, it heightens feelings of empathy, understanding and acceptance of other people. Probably the principal focus of users in this pleasure-pumped culture is ecstasy's reputed ability to amplify the delights of sexual intimacy. The crowning attractiveness of e is that it doesn't do anything harmful to the user-at least, that has been the hype surrounding it. And young people are accepting the pitch by the millions. They pay $20 to $40 per hit/pill, which gives them a 6-to-8-hour high.

"Eight percent of U.S. high school seniors say they have tried it at least once, up from 5.8 percent in 1997.... [U.S.] customs officers have already seized more ecstasy this fiscal year, more than 5.4 million hits, than in all of last year. In 1998 they seized just 750,000 hits" (Time, "The Lure of Ecstasy," by John Cloud, June 5, 2000). No one can say with certainty how many hits made it onto the streets.

A multibillion dollar "industry"

60 Minutes II reported on its August 8 program that Amsterdam is the primary source of e coming into the United States. Reporter Vicki Maybrey interviewed a Dutch criminal investigator whose special unit has closed down 35 ecstasy production labs in just the last five years. However, given the incredible profit margins involved, 10 labs pop up for every one that is put out of business.

An ecstasy-producing machine from one of the closed down illegal labs was shown on the program. It was capable of producing 300 pills per minute at a cost of 20 cents each. That's 1.2 million pills a week, assuming that the machine operates for 10 hours every day. For a manufacturing cost of $240,000, criminals produce drugs with potential market value of $24 to $48 million per week. Calculating the annual output for 50 weeks (do criminals give their employees two-week holidays?), that translates into $1.2 to $2.4 billion annually, per lab.

Considering the Dutch investigator's sober acknowledgment that 350 labs have sprung up in the last five years in his jurisdictional area of South Holland alone, the potential for ill-gotten gain staggers the imagination. Small wonder that organized crime is heavily involved in the distribution and sale of e. Maybrey said officials believe Israeli and Russian organized crime rings are responsible for most e brought into the U.S.

If that is true, offshore organized crime is working hand in hand with U.S. crime families. Salvatore Gravano was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, early this year for his involvement in peddling as many as 30,000 ecstasy pills a week. Gravano is better known by his nickname, "Sammy the Bull," given to him when he was a hit man for the mob, before he turned informant on the John Gotti crime family. The case is still in trial, but Gravano's ecstasy organization is said to include a white-supremacist gang known as the Devil Dogs (because, believe it or not, gang members "bark" when they assault their victims).

Unsavory merchants, to say the least. Why are young adults by the millions willing to sample their wares? Undoubtedly there is an element of anti-establishment daring so often a part of youth. "If my parents don't like it, I do! If my parents don't want me to take it, I will!" Further, e use is now a fad. It's what "the in crowd" is currently "into." And, ecstasy has a glowing reputation among the party culture for its many positive attributes and its reputed low downside.

What gives ecstasy its glowing name and reputation?

What causes those "positive attributes"? The chemical name for ecstasy is methylenedioxymethamphetamine, known by the acronym MDMA. It's "a synthetic, psychoactive (mind-altering) drug with hallucinogenic and amphetamine-like properties," according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) (www.drugabuse.com, MDMA (ecstasy), p. 1).

E users argue that the drug is not hallucinogenic, but rather "an acute antidepressant." That's a misrepresentation of what ecstasy does, as we will show. The ecstatic feelings created by MDMA are the result of a neurotransmitter known as serotonin. Although science does not fully understand the role of this neurotransmitter, serotonin is thought to help create positive moods. MDMA has a double force effect that infuses the brain with large amounts of serotonin.

First, it orders neurons that store serotonin to empty themselves.

It takes about an hour for receptors to bind with the serotonin and begin to cause feelings of empathy, happiness, increased sociability, enhanced sensation of touch and responsiveness to light. (Due to the powerful impact of light on the senses of e users, raves commonly have light shows. Rave dancers will wave glowing colored wands as they party, because of the highly pleasurable sensation it gives them. Parents need to be alert to teens who own brightly colored light wands, an indication of e use.) The pleasurable feelings, called "rolling" in the drug culture, can continue for several more hours.

How is MDMA able to evoke sensory responses greater than what the body normally produces? The amount of serotonin chemically "ordered" to be released by MDMA is a greatly increased level over what these neurons would release under normal conditions.

But, that's only the first line of coercion by e on the brain's normal functions.

A normally functioning brain is designed to take some of the released serotonin back into its storage neurons. So, not all released serotonin binds to receptors-usually. However, MDMA chemically blocks the re-uptake of serotonin, forcing more to bind to receptors, thus further amplifying the positive sensations associated with this marvelous neurotransmitter.

Only in this way does MDMA mimic an antidepressant, which also blocks the re-uptake of serotonin. However, antidepressants work only with the serotonin naturally released by the brain-a much smaller amount than that "kicked out" by MDMA. It's therefore a distortion of fact and a serious misrepresentation to claim that ecstasy is "an acute antidepressant."

OK, what's the downside?

What's wrong with ecstasy? If the only affects were the hazards that we've already described, it sounds like little more than a harmless "rush." If only that were true. The NIDA reports that short-term effects of "MDMA are similar to those found with the use of amphetamines and cocaine. They are:

"Psychological difficulties, including confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety and paranoia, during and sometimes weeks after taking MDMA (even psychotic episodes have been reported).

"Physical symptoms such as muscle tension, involuntary teeth-cleansing, nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movements, faintness and chills or sweating.

"Increases in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with circulatory or heart disease" (www.drugabuse.com, NIDA Infofax, p. 1, emphasis added).

Some of these short-term effects have been fatal. MDMA raises the body temperature and causes profuse sweating. Caught up in a drug-induced euphoria in the crowded and chaotic environment of a rave (with up to 2,000 partygoers at a time), e users who did not realize what was happening to them have died from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Others have died from drinking too much water in an attempt to counteract the drug's negative effects.

"Between three and 10 percent of the white population (statistics are unavailable for other groups) have a genetic defect which causes them to produce less of the main enzyme which metabolizes MDMA. This means that if they take a normal dose, they can overdose. In Europe, there have been dozens of deaths related to this problem" (NewsWatch.org, "News You Can Abuse?" by Maria Szalavitz, Dec. 8, 1999, emphasis added).

The absence of normal amounts of serotonin in the brain as one comes down from an e-induced high translates into a seriously depressed state of mind, called "terrible Tuesdays" by users. Ignorant of what they have done to their bodies, some users attempt to counteract their depression by taking another or even several more hits of e. The first additional dose may be able to squeeze a little more serotonin from their storage neurons, but the effect is minimal. Any further hits will do nothing to relieve depression. Normal brain functions require up to two weeks for serotonin to be replaced.

Serious as they are, these short-term problems constitute the best of the downside problems of taking MDMA. The long-term problems are worse, much worse.

Brain damage

Several factors cause damage to the brain. To understand, we need to take another look at what MDMA does to brain neurons. We already looked at the fact that it forces the release and use of large amounts of the neurotransmitter serotonin. We also saw that it prevents the re-uptake of serotonin to its storage areas. MDMA also causes the release of another neurotransmitter, dopamine.

MDMA allows the dopamine to return to the neurons that previously stored serotonin. The result is catastrophic, because the dopamine is toxic to those neurons. Their ability to store serotonin again is greatly diminished, if not ruined. Without serotonin, a person would suffer from clinical depression. Duke University pharmacology Professor Wilkie Wilson warns of the possibility of permanent brain damage to ecstasy users. "The drug is spreading so fast among so many people that I'm really afraid that we're going to have a generation of depressed people" (ibid. 60 Minutes II, emphasis added).

Where does the neurotransmitter dopamine come from? It is stored in its own neurons, which are "ordered" open by MDMA in the same way that it forces the release of serotonin. When forced open, dopamine's storage neurons are damaged in a way that affects motor control. "Damage to these neurons is the underlying cause of the motor disturbances seen in Parkinson's disease" (ibid. NIDA Infofax, p. 1).

The NIDA also reports that recent findings link MDMA use to long-term damage to those parts of the brain critical to thought and memory. It cites research on monkeys exposed to MDMA for only 4 days that suffered brain damage that was evident 6 to 7 years later (ibid.).

It's too soon to tell with absolute certainty what all of the long-term consequences of taking MDMA will be. But, it's fair to say that ecstasy is no "hug drug."

Evidence "against the safety of MDMA has mounted to a point where even those who once thought the drug safe are getting anxious" (op. cit., Szalavitz). Szalavitz quotes John Morgan, a City University of New York pharmacologist who initially believed that most people had little to worry about toxicity of the drug. Dr. Morgan has changed his mind. He now says, "at this point there is really not much criticism possible [of the human neurotoxicity data on MDMA]...the time to worry is now" (op. cit., Szalavitz, emphasis added).

Christian youth just say, "NO!"

For the Christian, to use or not to use ecstasy is a no-brainer. People who allow their appetites, social pressures and fads to determine their behavior, will use drugs.

Listed with other common behaviors of people who "go with the flow," is "sorcery" (Galatians 5:19-21). The Greek word used, pharmakeia, encompasses other meanings, but one is drug use. Our English word pharmacology comes from it. Given the fact that human nature has a penchant for drug use, and that our present world has a multibillion dollar drug market that panders to peoples' desires, only young people of sound mind and character will have the strength not to use drugs.

A Christian youth respects the fact that his or her body is "the temple of the Holy Spirit," belonging to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Health is something to be jealously guarded and maintained, for our bodies are not ours to trash.

Apart from the physical considerations, there are legal ones. It's a serious crime to manufacture or sell ecstasy. That's enough to warn off a Christian youth, who lives by the creed, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God…. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.… Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath [legal consequences] but also for conscience' sake" (Romans 13:1, 3, 5).

Since June 1985, DEA regulations put ecstasy in the Schedule 1 classification of the Controlled Substances Act-a classification generally used for dangerous narcotics that have a high potential for abuse and no medical usefulness. (Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin and LSD.) Manufacturers and sellers of Schedule 1 drugs are subject to fines of up to $125,000 and 15-year prison terms, but legislation has been proposed that would strengthen these penalties.

Hopefully, anyone who is drawn to the alluring reputation of ecstasy will think twice in light of these cold, hard facts. Parents of high school and college students should realize that their children regularly receive flyers inviting them to raves, with an "e" printed on the flyer that announces to all that ecstasy will be available. Talk with your children about e.

Is e a hug drug? No way. So much hype, such a big lie. And such a terrible price to pay for believing it… WNP