COMMENTARY: Taking Ecstasy Like Dancing With Death

Tragically, Ecstasy is one of the most popular drugs among youth today. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates Ecstasy users to number approximately 9 million worldwide. The vast majority of users are teenagers and young adults.

Do you really want to party using Ecstasy? First consider this story: Nikki was like many who went to rave parties. Hoping to escape her problems and have a good time, she planned to party through the night with several friends. One of them had a bottle of liquid Ecstasy in his car, so they all decided to take some. Soon the drug started to take over. Nikki danced and danced and danced, pushing herself well beyond her usual limits. As one of her friends later said in a police report, "Nikki wasn't feeling anything."

The next morning Nikki was dead. The cause: drug (Ecstasy) poisoning.

"But that won't happen to me," you think. Maybe not, but do you really want to take the chance? "Ecstasy-type" drugs that may, in fact, contain very little or no MDMA at all. And while MDMA itself can produce harmful effects, what is called Ecstasy today can contain a wide mixture of substances-from LSD, cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and methamphetamine, to rat poison, caffeine, dog deworming substances, etc. Despite the cute logos dealers put on the pills, this is what makes Ecstasy particularly dangerous, a user never really knows what he is taking. The dangers are increased when users increase the dose seeking a previous high, not knowing they may be taking an entirely different combination of drugs.

Ecstasy most commonly comes in pill form but can also be injected and taken in other ways. Liquid Ecstasy is actually GHB, a nervous system depressant-a substance that can also be found in drain cleaner, floor stripper and degreasing solvents.

Ecstasy is often called "the love pill" because it heightens perceptions of color and sound and supposedly amplifies sensations when one touches or caresses another, particularly during sex.

But Ecstasy often contains hallucinogens, which are drugs that act on the mind and cause people to see or feel things that are not really there. Hallucinogens can throw a person into a scary or sad experience from the past, where he or she gets stuck without even realizing it.

A great many studies have been conducted on Ecstasy. They show that:

• Taking Ecstasy can cause liver failure, as in the case of a 14-year-old girl who died of this, despite an attempt by doctors to save her with a liver transplant.

• Ecstasy is sometimes mixed with substances such as rat poison.

• Young people have died from dehydration, exhaustion and heart attack as a result of taking too much Ecstasy.

• Ecstasy can cause kidney, liver and brain damage, including long-lasting lesions (injuries) on brain tissue.

• Even a small amount of Ecstasy can be toxic enough to poison the nervous system and cause irreparable damage.

You should be aware that the "positive" image of drugs comes for the most part from being glamorized in movies and music.

When a new substance first appears on the market, it is seldom considered dangerous until long after the harm becomes evident. By then the damage has already been done, and the false idea that the drug is "harmless" has already been widely accepted.

Ecstasy has been the subject of similar hype. As one media observer noted, "It is almost as though some clever marketing wizard came up with a campaign for it."

So do you think it is worth trying it or letting anyone that you love try it?

Here are testimonies from some users of this highly dangerous drug:

"Rave parties are okay so long as you don't take Ecstasy. But as soon as you start, you think people who advise you to stop are idiots. You start to believe you have found something great and others must not try to tell you the contrary. When you start liking Ecstasy, it's too late, you're sunk." Pat

"Luckily I am alive, but I'm left with the days, months, and years after the trauma. I have to deal with what it's done to me for my whole life….I've been experiencing everything, you name it. Depression, anxiety, stress, (recurring) nightmares of the night, and bad headaches were a few things that affected me after I took Ecstasy. I almost died. It only took one night, a few (Ecstasy) pills, and drinking alcohol. This drug is very fatal, and I'm so thankful I'm alive. I can't describe how hard it is coping with these nightmares all the time. I wake up in a sweat just thanking God, and being so thankful it's just another nightmare. I pray in time the nightmares will fade away…No drug is worth the roll or high." Megan

"I hear a lot of people talking about Ecstasy, calling it a fun, harmless drug. All I can think is, "If they only knew."

"In five months, I went from living somewhat responsibly while pursing my dream to a person who didn't care about a thing - and the higher I got, the deeper I sank into a dark, lonely place. When I did sleep, I had nightmares and the shakes. I had pasty skin, a throbbing head and the beginnings of feeling paranoid, but I ignored it all, thinking it was normal. Until the night I thought I was dying."

"Ecstasy took my strength, my motivation, my dreams, my friends, my apartment, my money and most of all, my sanity. I worry about my future and my health every day. I have many mountains ahead of me, but I plan to keep climbing because I'm one of the lucky ones." Lynn

So all I can say again is get the facts about drugs and make your own decisions with the true data.

For more information contact drugfreeworld.org or you can contact me personally at thetasaver@dtccom.net or call me at 615-563-4292.

I have a dream and it is to have a drug free Tennessee. It can be done with your help.