Party-drug scene: 'E' trade spreads largely unchecked

Jackie was wearing light-blue tennis shoes with pink and mint-green stripes when she walked into the private rave dubbed "the Lemon Party." Once inside, she reached into her baggy jeans and took out a white, aspirin-size tablet pressed with the word "E-mail."

The "E" is for Ecstasy, the most popular of the "club drugs" used in the dance culture known as rave. From weekly private parties in the suburbs of New Jersey to the all-night dance clubs in cities like Orlando and L.A., thousands of young, mostly white, upper-middle-class kids are succumbing to the promise of high-energy excess.

Even as overall drug use has declined among teens in the past few years, this synthetic drug that ravers commonly call "E" or "X" has been attracting more users, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

"It seems to be kind of an accepted drug to use at this point in time among teens," says Paul Jacquith, the program director of the Manhasset Day Treatment Center in New York's Long Island. "There are other drugs that are seen as, if you use them, you're out of control. But Ecstasy has that cachet to it: that it's OK to use as long as it's at a rave."

At the Lemon Party, Jackie, a recent college graduate who asked that her last name not be used, swallowed the pill with a swig of water soon after she walked in the door.

"Being on Ecstasy is literally ecstasy," she explains. "The music is amazing on E, too. You can feel it in your body, the beat and the bass - everything is just heightened, all sensations." Each pill - manufactured for as little as 50 cents - usually costs from $15 to $20.

Bottled water and lollipops

Hundreds of other teens, many wearing fluorescent-colored visors with twinkling rainbow lights, were already dancing on the floor of the cavernous converted theater. The yellow- and silver-foil streamers hanging from the ceiling were jiggling from the steady, pounding beats of drum and bass music.

Bottles of water were everywhere, but not a single bottle of beer.

Alcohol is rarely, if ever, to be found at a rave.

Instead, dancers seeking the stimulation and mood-altering effects of Ecstasy drink a lot of water, in part to keep their bodies from overheating or dehydrating after hours of constant dancing. Ravers on E often suck pacifiers or lollipops to keep their jaw from involuntarily clenching.

In addition to being able to dance until daylight, users say the drug makes them feel euphoric and amorous.

But new studies warn that the "hug drug," officially known as 3,4 methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), can also lead to brain damage and sometimes even death. Ecstasy is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, like heroin.

Around the country, state officials say autopsies show young people at raves are dying from both the direct effects of overdosing as well as the indirect effects of dehydration. In Florida, at least 72 people have died from taking Ecstasy and other "club drugs."

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