Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
Sunday, April 29, 2001
In recent months the drug that some young adults have been raving about has become the top concern among the state's drug enforcement officers. Parents fear the
downside of ‘ecstasy’No wonder.
Ecstasy is increasingly becoming the drug of choice for local teenagers and 20-somethings. Since last year it has become more available and has started popping up at schools and youth hangouts. Authorities have seized pills from students as young as 13.
"All schools are struggling with drug sales on campus," says Heidi Masuda, counselor with Teen Care, a substance abuse program at schools.
The wider availability has sent the price plummeting. As recently as six months ago, an ecstasy pill commonly sold for about $30 to $40. Today, you can buy a tablet for as little as $15 in Honolulu.
"I can't overstate the problem," says Ed Howard, supervising investigator for the Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Enforcement Division. "It's so popular right now, and it has come on so rapid-fire."
The lure has been part physical, part psychological. Users like the feel-good, high-energy, hallucinogenic effects the drug produces. It also has become part of suburban pop culture, especially among middle- and upper-income teens who get high at all-night rave or dance parties. Many believe ecstasy, or MDMA, is neither addictive nor harmful.
Yet problems of depression, dehydration, exhaustion, increased heart and blood pressure rates and extremely elevated temperatures are not uncommon, experts say. Some side effects continue days after taking the drug. Studies also have linked ecstasy use to brain and kidney damage.
What's more, the state in recent months began seeing the first cases in which traces of ecstasy were found in people who suffered "unattended deaths" (deaths while not in the care of a physician), Howard said. Authorities aren't sure whether ecstasy was a factor.
Because ecstasy is a relatively recent phenomenon, parents generally know little about the drug or how to recognize if someone is taking it. Users, for example, often are depressed and sleep for long periods once the effects wear off. But the problem is becoming so widespread that Howard and others are trying to spread the word.
Mililani parent Jeanette Nekota is among them. The parent of two teenagers, Nekota says she recently learned that Mililani youths have been targeted by sellers of the drug. She also learned that North Shore rave parties are popular with Mililani kids and that items such as pacifiers (for coping with ecstasy-induced teeth clenching) could be red flags.
Nekota is helping to arrange meetings in Mililani so parents and others can discuss ways to combat the rise of ecstasy.
Such involvement is one way Hawaii can start coming to grips with the problem, the experts say. Even if that means hurting pacifier sales.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
