Government Cracks Down on Club Drug Craze

[misskittie]

I dont know if anyone is interested but I found this on ABC News website and thought you may like to check it out....

N E W Y O R K, Aug. 1 — Government officials are agonizing over Ecstasy this week as hearings on the Ecstasy Anti-Proliferation Act, a bill calling for stiffer prison terms for offenses related to sales and abuse of the popular club drug, began in the Senate.

Issuing “a wake-up call to America,†Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate’s Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said it was time to put a stop to this “new and dangerous drug before it explodes any further.â€

But Ecstasy, however dangerous, is not new. And 80 years after its discovery, doctors are just now documenting its dangers.

Developed in 1914 by a German pharmaceutical company and popularized as an adjunct to psychotherapy in the 1970s, Ecstasy, or MDMA — which stands for the drug’s chemical structure 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine — enjoyed a brief stint as a mainstream drug in the early 1980s before being made illegal the United States in 1985. It is now considered a Schedule I substance, a drug with no medical purpose and high potential for abuse like heroin or cocaine.

The Hug Drug

Taken orally, usually in pill form, MDMA is known by several names, such as E, X, Adam, Essence, Ecstasy and its most affectionate moniker, “the hug drug.†A psychedelic amphetamine that combines the effects of speed and hallucinogens, it produces profoundly positive feelings, empathy for others and extreme relaxation in users.

Ecstasy also suppresses the need to eat, drink, or sleep, which explains its popularity among the club kids and ravers who have made the drug famous and who take it to help keep them dancing all night long. Ecstasy is widely considered by users to be a “safe drug,†as MDMA is not physically addictive and overdoses are rarely fatal.

But Ecstasy-induced exertions can result in severe, sometimes fatal dehydration or heat stroke, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. emergency room mentions of the drug have nearly doubled in the last year from 637 to 1,142. About 100 deaths worldwide have been associated with Ecstasy use, though cause of death is generally disputed because MDMA deaths are often associated with a mix of the drug and alcohol or other drugs.

“The widespread and false reputation of Ecstasy as being an harmless drug is its most dangerous component. Our young Americans have been lulled into a belief that Ecstasy, and other designer drugs, are “safe†ways to get high, escape reality, and enhance intimacy in personal relationships,†Senator Bob Graham said Monday.

Graham wants the U.S. to come down hard on Ecstasy, and he is not the only one. DEA head Donnie Marshall said that Ecstasy and similar “club drugs†are being brought into the United States in record amounts.

Making Headlines

In fact, U.S. Customs officials have reported that in the first few months of this year they seized over six million ecstasy tablets — a dramatic increase from the 3.5 million doses seized in all of 1999. Last week in Los Angeles International Airport, Customs made what it says is its biggest Ecstasy bust yet, seizing approximately 2.1 million MDMA tablets with a street value estimated at about $40 million.

“The problem of club drugs among our youth has become pervasive, extending from larger to mid-size cities throughout the United States,†said Marshall.

On Sunday, Ecstasy made headlines in New Jersey, where 23-year-old Kenneth Gregorio hanged himself in a Monmouth County jail cell after getting arrested for possession. Meanwhile, Kansas City police report this that they have made 25 arrests involving ecstasy since May, and San Francisco Bay Area law enforcement officers this week kicked off a rave education program to warn teenagers dancing into the wee hours about illegal drug use — especially Ecstasy.

Accessible Online

According to the DEA, Ecstasy’s use has increased 500 percent between 1993 and 1998. At a 3-day DEA Ecstasy conference that started Monday, more than 300 U.S. and international law enforcement officials and drug abuse prevention experts discussed how Ecstasy differs from other drugs in the ways it is produced, trafficked and taken.

“Reducing the availability of MDMA has become one of the biggest challenges faced by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration today,†Dr. Donald R Vereen, Jr., deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, testified Monday.

Much of the Ecstasy coming into the United States is created in makeshift labs in Europe, challenging U.S. law enforcement officers — accustomed to smuggling from South of the border — to deal with the club drug influx in new ways. The chemical formulae and manufacturing instructions for Ecstasy are also easily available on the Internet.

In fact everything from pill purity testing kits to the pills themselves are accessible online. MDMA’s relatively low price — from $15 to $40 per pill — makes it a viable option for its biggest user group, 18-25 year-olds. Users are often college graduates and young professionals.

Citing this user profile, some European countries maintain that Ecstasy is not a major threat. Switzerland’s Supreme Court ruled last year that dealing in Ecstasy is not a serious offence. MDMA remains illegal there but is considered “a soft drug.†Those who use Ecstasy, a Swiss judge ruled, are generally “socially integrated people.â€

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~*~* Women beat their men~*~*~The men beat on their drums~*~*

[misskittie]

Sorry for submitting the long articles but I just thought some might appreciate it.

L O N D O N, May 17 — Even light weekend use of the party drug Ecstasy might harm intelligence, a new study suggests.

German scientists report that weeks after partying, those who used Ecstasy along with marijuana performed worse on intelligence tests than people who just smoked pot or took no drugs at all. Their results are reported this week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Ecstasy, chemically known as MDMA, has been popular among young clubgoers in Europe for years but recently has become increasingly widespread in the United States. Former New York mob hit man Sammy “the Bull†Gravano and members of his family were among about two dozen people arrested in Phoenix in February in connection with an alleged major Ecstasy operation.

A Brain Drain?

Previous studies have suggested the drug can cause a long-term decrease in a brain chemical involved with thought and memory. Other research has indicated Ecstasy can impair brain function, but mostly investigated people who used it more often or with other drugs.

The latest research, by scientists at the University of Aachen in Germany, also assessed a broader range of cognitive functions than any other study to date.

Alan Leschner, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the study provides the first clear demonstration of what was predicted from earlier studies linking the drug to changes in the brain.

“If your brain is getting zinged, then you ought to have some kind of deficit in cognitive ability, and here it is,†Leschner said. “There is this misconception that it’s a benign, fun drug, and it’s not.â€

The study involved 28 Ecstasy users in their mid-20s recruited off the dance floor of a nightclub. They also were pot smokers, but did not get drunk often and did not regularly take other drugs. “Because almost every Ecstasy user smokes cannabis, it was impossible to recruit a reasonable number of exclusive Ecstasy users,†the study said.

The researchers therefore compared the group to two others of the same size, age range and education level — one consisting of drug-free people and another of people who smoked about as much pot as the Ecstasy group but did not take any other drug.

Ecstasy users abstained for about three weeks and everybody in the study passed urine tests for traces of other drugs.

The subjects were given general knowledge tests to make sure one group was not naturally more intelligent than the other. They then spent three hours taking psychological tests that evaluated everything from immediate memory to logical thinking.

The Ecstasy group performed just as well as the other two on simple tests of alertness, but worse in more complex tasks of attention, in memory and learning tests, and in tasks reflecting aspects of general intelligence.

Pot Did Not Affect Performance

The more Ecstasy they used, the worse they performed on the tests, but their scores still were in the “normal†range.

Those who only smoked pot performed no differently than those who were drug-free.

“These were not heavy Ecstasy users. On average, they took four tablets a month — that’s one every weekend,†said Dr. Euphrosyne Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, the neurologist who led the study.

Jim O’Callaghan, a neurotoxicologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said that even though the study showed worse test scores for Ecstasy users, that would not matter if the effect of the drug was only temporary.

“It’s not evidence that brain damage has occurred, that it’s not reversible or that the lower intelligence wasn’t there to begin with,†he said.

Because it is illegal, it is difficult to measure how widely Ecstasy is used. But a 1998 survey by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse found that an estimated 1.5 percent of Americans 12 years old or older, or 3.4 million people, had used it at least once.

Ecstasy users report the drug can break down barriers and make people trust each other.

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~*~* Women beat their men~*~*~The men beat on their drums~*~*

[apdiddy]

drama!

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deez nuts

[sirdante]

everyone should watch the "history of LSD" on the history channel next time they show it. it is amazing how history repeats itself. in the "History of LSD" they do a whole segment on how the media contributed the hysteria by trying to scare everybody using the same tactics they use today against the "hug drug."

BTW,who the fuck calls it the "hug drug" other than news reporters and DEA suits?

the funniest part of all of the media BS is that they often talk about a drug use "epidemic." they are sooo right here we are 30 years into the LSD "epidemic" and the whole fuckin' world is trippin'. right?!?

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i love music!

[misskittie]

THIS CRACKS ME UP.............WHAT BULLSHIT

Just read this excerpt from an article I found....what BULLSHIT!

For Tara, getting off ecstasy took lots of help from her mother, who she says was oblivious to her drug problem at first.

“You can’t sit back and say, no not my child, because it can be your child, it may be your child and it’s possible that it will be your child,†says Tara’s mother, Antoinette

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~*~* Women beat their men~*~*~The men beat on their drums~*~*

[sirdante]

hey i think i know that tara girl

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i love music!

[loudness]

next time people,post the link to were you get your information.

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YOU WANT THE TRUTH, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

[jaysea]

That is just to Funny! lets find this Tara Bitch, and feed her pills, till she pop's!

Thank kitty! i enjoyed dat one

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"This MuTha Fucka!! comes up to me!!! , and pulls out his D---,And gets all up in My shit, and has the mutha fukn nerve to ask "Am i hurting you" i was like "Mutha fucka, you are tickaling me, get your fat,crust,skanky,wanna be down"Fat ass off me............and pay me my 20 bucks!>> Sweet Pussy Pauline(NYC)

[djmikedr]

But I love "the hug drug"!

It's where I get all my hugs from.

[godslze]

I like how the second article just happened to slide in the fact that marijuana users were no different than normal ones.

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Mushrooms... how to see god, be god, and make god obsolete while listening to Pink Floyd