FREE ESSAY ON ECTASY

ECTASY

Drugs are a ridiculous way to handle all kinds of things. A recent Teen Magazine survey
noted that: 86% of respondents had tried drugs before, 77% of whom are under 16. 63% have
tried marijuana, 16% have taken a trip, and 32% have no worries about drugs. That is
pretty heavy. The top 3 reasons for taking drugs were: Enjoyment, Dealing with pressure,
and Peer Pressure. Do you want to end up in hospital, severely injured or DEAD?
Anna Wood was a happy 15-year-old girl who was popular, on top of the world, nearly
perfect...until one Saturday night, when her friends decided to take her out to a rave
party. She told her parents she was going go-kart racing and left to an Ultimo nightclub,
where she snuck in with a 19-year-old friend, and bought a full ecstasy tablet for $60.
She took the entire pill and started to party. After about 2 hours Anna was "rolling"
under the effects of ecstasy. She was sitting on a boys' lap, constantly repeating to her
friends I'm having the best night of my life. Soon she smiled and said, I think I'm going
to throw up. She spewed and ran to the restroom. Her friends took her home, saying her
drink had been spiked, too scared to tell the truth. One friend went to get Anna's
mother, who phoned an ambulance. Anna was feeling awful, continuing to throw up. She
eventually passed out. The paramedics arrived, and took her to hospital. Three days later
she was declared brain dead, after on ecstasy tablet. If just one drug can KILL you,
imagine the effects of a whole lot. 
The purpose of this speech is to help inform naive people about the dangers of a new drug
sweeping the country: a compound called MDMA, also known as Ecstasy. Law enforcement
officials say the drug worries them more than any other. It may also be spreading more
quickly than any other illegal drug in America. 
Despite a reputation among many users for being safe, it is also dangerous: in Florida
alone, one of the few states tracking the phenomenon, there have been at least 40 deaths
involving Ecstasy in the last three years. 
MDMA was outlawed 15 years ago, but since then its use has been skyrocketing. According
to one government study, one out of 12 high school seniors has tried Ecstasy.
The drug has a reputation for making users feel relaxed and friendly. With Ecstasy,
everyone's your brother, everyone's your sister, everyone's your best friend, says
21-year-old Chauncey Barton. For almost half his life, Barton has used drugs, including
marijuana, cocaine and speed. None, he says, compare to Ecstasy. 
Barton describes taking Ecstasy as the best feelings you've ever had in all your life
condensed into a six to eight hour span... they call it Ecstasy for a reason. 
Teenagers are not the only ones using it. Ecstasy used to be associated only with raves
but now it has become very fashionable, says Mike Stevens, an undercover police detective
who works the drug scene in Orlando, Florida. 
Stevens says about 80 percent of the people in the clubs where he goes undercover are
either selling or using Ecstasy. 
Many people put Ecstasy in a different category from other drugs, believing that it is
somehow less serious. Stevens, though, disagrees. Ecstasy is no different from crack or
heroin, he says. But that's the label it's gotten, that it's kiddie dope. 
Ecstasy can cause dehydration, anxiety and exhaustion. Emergency room doctors say they're
seeing a rise in overdoses, a condition that can result in increased body temperature,
brain damage and sometimes death. In the last few years, 1,100 cases have been reported.

U.S. Customs has seized four million Ecstasy pills so far this year. That's a tenfold
increase since 1997. No one is sure how many more made it onto the streets. 
Nearly all of the Ecstasy pills in the United States come from Amsterdam, the Ecstasy
capital of the world. The Dutch government there is trying to do something about it. 
Cees Van Doorn is the chief criminal investigator in the south of Holland, where Ecstasy
is produced in enormous quantities in what are essentially factories. Van Doorn's unit
has shut down 35 Ecstasy labs in the last five years. But for every one busted, he says,
ten more crop up. 
At one former Ecstasy factory, Van Doorn pointed out a machine that can produce 300
Ecstasy pills a minute. Assuming that it operates ten hours a day, seven days a week, it
can produce more than 1.2 million pills a week. The cost per pill, for manufacturers: 20
cents. On the street that pill is worth $20 - These profits are attracting many to the
Ecstasy trade. 
To users, though, Ecstasy appears to have fewer drawbacks than other drugs. Unlike
cocaine or heroin, which must be snorted or injected, Ecstasy comes in pill form, which
to most seems somehow safer. 
Barton says that when he began using Ecstasy, he thought that serious problems were very
rare. He found out the hard way that the drug could be more dangerous. Barton's best
friend, Jason Austin, bought about eight pills at a rave in Florida. Barton believes his
friend may have taken as many as five of them. 
The way [Ecstasy] works is you got all this energy, and all this life built up in you,
Barton says. So you have to dance or do something to get it out. [Austin] tried dancing.
He stood up. Fell back down. 
At that point, Barton began to get scared. He was like a fish out of water, flopping
around on the ground, Barton recalls of his friend. 
From what I understand he had 106-degree fever when he showed up at the hospital, Barton
says. Brain damage is supposed to start at 104. He had slipped into a coma and pretty
much every major organ in his body was bleeding quite profusely. Jason Austin is dead. 
According to Duke University pharmacology professor Wilkie Wilson, an overheating human
body begins to go through epilepsy-like seizures. It is a terrible way to die, he says. 
Because it makes them feel so good, Wilson says, users are reluctant to believe that the
drug can hurt them. 
Ecstasy works by affecting one of the brain's key chemicals. It causes the brain to
release serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps control mood. Lack of serotonin can
contribute to depression, and can harm areas of the brain responsible for thought and
memory. Recent studies suggest that even one dose of Ecstasy can damage the brain. 
Wilson worries that Ecstasy users will permanently harm their brains. This 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, he says. 
While police try to get Ecstasy off the streets, a California organization known as Dance
Safe takes a different approach. It has accepted the drug as a fact of life, and is
trying to reduce the risk by warning users of the dangers, like dehydration and
overheating. They're doing something else almost unheard of in the U.S. - testing the
drug itself to see how much it has been adulterated by other compounds besides MDMA. 
If the pill tests positive for Ecstasy that is no indication of purity, says Dance Safe
founder Emanuel Sferios. And even if it is pure, that's no indication of safety. No drug
use is safe. 
Sferios says that, as much as 30 percent of the pills they test are not real Ecstasy, but
are substitutes - with PCP, speed or other harmful substances. 
We neither condemn nor condone the use of drugs, but provide people with information so
they can make informed choices, says Sferios. The Just Say No philosophy - trying to stop
people from using drugs - is not working. 
Critics say that by testing pills and giving out information, the group is encouraging
drug use. But Sferios says that his group has saved lives, and that those who use drugs
would use them whether or not Dance Safe existed. 
Ecstasy will probably not disappear soon. Even those who have foresworn it admit that it
can make users feel wonderful. Of all the drugs I've taken in my life, I have to say that
Ecstasy is probably the sweetest drug I've ever taken, Barton says. Nevertheless, he says
he will never take it again. I'll never touch that stuff again. Ever, ever. No, never.