Ecstasy Use: the Preferred Club Drug

The National Household Survey of drug use found that 1.4 million young people between the ages of 18 to 25 had tried the most popular of the designer drugs, Ecstasy, which is up from 960,000 in 1995. Use of Ecstasy is moving into the younger age groups. In 1999, 8% of 12th grade students had tried Ecstasy, up from 3.6% in 1998.  14% of males in the 12th grade reported using Ecstasy. 59% of Ecstasy users take five pills per 12 hour drug session. 72% of users prefer to use Ecstasy at Rave dance parties. Police seize over 10  million Ecstasy pills each year and European police seize a like amount.
 

Ecstasy use causes jaw clenching and teeth grinding so users often chew pacifiers

Why Custom Drugs?

Throughout history man has used plants to become intoxicated. Today, advances in science allow man to custom design intoxicating drugs. Illicit drug chemists manipulate the basic molecular structure of intoxicating compounds to create new drug analogs. The motivation for custom designing drugs are:

• Avoid police detection and prosecution. It often takes years for government to detect, classify, and pass legislation against a dangerous designer drug. GHB is currently an example of this circumstance. Abused since the early 1990s and made illegal under federal law in 1999, illegal drug peddlers now sell chemical kissing cousins like GBL to get around laws. In some states, drivers arrested for drug-impaired driving cannot be prosecuted for these new chemical kissing cousins as they are not officially listed as a "controlled substance."
• Improve an existing drug. Chemists have found re-arranging the chemical structure of an existing drug can yield dramatic improvements in the intoxicating effect.The designer drug THREE is a good example of this effect. An illegal analog of the basic synthetic narcotic drug Fentanyl, 3 Methyl Fentanyl is 500 times more potent than pure natural heroin.
• Remove unwanted side effects from an existing drug. Many popular intoxicating illicit drugs also produce unwanted side effects. Meth-amphetamines produce a hyperactive-"wired" condition many users do not like. By altering the chemical structure, illicit chemists produced the designer drug Ecstasy which gives the pleasurable stimulating effects of meth-amphetamines without the unwanted "speedy" side effects.

How can drug recognition training help?

It doesn't matter what strange new intoxicating compound has been invented in the basement of an illicit chemist. All intoxicating drugs, when taken at an abusive level, affect the human body in easily recognizable symptoms. Drug recognition training allows a person to observe and record these physical symptoms so as to document the impairment and, therefore, make a reasoned fitness for duty assessment.  

Many times, traditional urine, blood, and even hair tests will not be able to detect new designer drugs. The testing labs just have not had enough time to develop screening tests for all the new intoxicating compounds that are flooding the country.

Rather than wait for the labs to catch up, drug recognition training provides immediate recognition and documentation without the legal, moral, and social problems associated with random urine testing.  

With dozens of pictures of the current Club Drugs, video of actual users intoxicated on the drugs, and examples of the drug paraphernalia and slang, drug recognition training can be the only way to identify the person impaired on a Club Drug.

Popular Designer Drugs

• GHB, Super-G, Liquid-G, Liquid Ecstasy—Gama Hydroxi-Butyric Acid was originally thought to be a human growth hormone and was abuse by body builders until banned in 1991 by the FDA.  It is a clear odorless liquid with a slight salty taste which produces a alcohol-like drunken condition. Taken alone or especially when mixed with alcoholic liquor GHB produces a stupor, vomiting and comma.  It is frequently abused at clubs, parties and alcohol-free teen dance clubs and has been used as a date-rape drug. Federal law now makes it a crime for possession of GHB due to its use as a sexual assault facilitator and the many overdose deaths attributed to its use.  
• GBL, - gamma-butyrolactone, and 1,4 BD and other similar GHB relatives are being sold over the internet to avoid the growing number of laws against GHB. The human body quickly converts these chemical kissing cousins into GHB producing the same intoxicating effects but avoiding prosecution, one of the key factors driving designer drugs.
• Rohypnol—produced overseas by Hoffman-LaRoche company it is a designer analog of valium but ten times more powerful.  When mixed with alcohol it is frequently used as a "date rape" or sexual predator drug. The US Drug Enforcement Administration calls "Rophies" the "Quaalude of the '90's."  Very popular with young people in the south along with it's chemical kissing cousins Soma and Klonopin.
• Ecstasy—or MDMA a designer analog of the old 1970's drug, MDA. Ecstasy has a chemical structure that resembles meth-amphetamine, but unlike meth, can also produce mild hallucinations and a pronounced feeling of emotional closeness to other people.  Abused at Rave dance parties, long term use leads to brain damage as the cells that produce seratonin begin to die after as few of ten uses.  The most sought after Club Drug.
• Nexus or 2C-B is a phenylethylamine analog of the powerful hallucinatory drug "DOB."  It has much stronger Ecstasy-like feelings of closeness and is highly sought after for it's strong sexual enhancement properties however it produces much less powerful hallucinations then DOB.  Most pills sold as Nexus do not contain any 2C-B but rather the cheaper DXM.  True 2C-B is much more rare than MDMA at this time
• Fants-i - or 2C-i is one of the newest designer drugs responsible for several overdoses in the Chicago metropolitan area.  Sold over the internet as a research chemical, 2C-i is related to Nexus.  Fants-i is used in liquid form, has no taste or color when diluted in water, and is very dose sensitive.  Overdose produces muscle pain, nausea, intense hallucinations and panic attacks.
• EVE - or MDEA, is a closely related analog of MDMA - Ecstasy, but it is not as popular a Club Drug because it does NOT produce the feeling of emotional closeness of Ecstasy.  The EVE experience is one of being "drugged-out" or "stoned" making it a poor choice for Raves.  Police labs report 20% of Ecstasy are really knock-off drugs like EVE, PMA, or DXM.
• Double Stack - or PMA Paramethoxyamphetamine is a designer analog of meth-amphetamine first used illicitly in Australia in 1994. It is often sold as “Ecstasy” but is much more dangerous because it doesn't produce the pleasurable MDMA effects and users take more of the drug seeking the high they crave. Over dose causes a dramatic rise in body temperature in excess of 109 degrees and death occurs from hyper-thermia. Pills can be any color and often have the same head stamp as Ecstasy. Recently seen in Chicago in pill form with three diamond design, but also found widely all over the US as evidenced by news accounts in Boston and Florida.
• DXM - Dextromethorphan is very often passed off as Ecstasy at clubs and Raves, it can also be found in many over the counter cold remedies such as Robitussin DM cough syrup.  DXM produces hallucinations and a heavy "stoned" feeling in users but none of the desirable Ecstasy effects.  DXM pills are wide-spread over the United States how ever it is usually misidentified as MDMA by users and police alike.
• Special K - Ketamine is a designer analog of PCP, (Angle Dust), and is used as a powerful veterinary tranquilizer which causes hallucinations and stupor.  It is abused at Rave parties and dance clubs and has often been used as a date rape drug. It can be smoked, snorted, injected, and mixed with other drugs such as heroin. It is not active taken orally unless in very high doses.  This drug is highly addictive even though the hallucinatory effect lasts only one hour.
• Cat - Methcathanone is a designer analog of meth-amphetamine which has been brought into the country from Russia. Easy to make without the tell-tail fumes of meth-amphetamine production, cat produces a cocaine like high with hallucinations similar to mescaline.  This drug seems to be limited to the Mid-west at this time.
• Ice  - A smokable form of recrystallized meth-amphetamine with a similar effect of crack cocaine. However, unlike the crack high, which lasts only 10-15 minutes, the ice high lasts 10 hours.
• YABA - imported from southeast Asia, YABA is an ultra pure form of meth-amphetamine often combined with caffeine, and pressed into tiny pills.  The pills, small enough to fit in the end of a soda straw, can be coated, flavored, and produce a 10 hour stimulating high.

• China White - street name for Beta Hydroxide Methal Fentanyl, it is 6,000 times the potency of pure natural heroin.  There are many designer analogs of the basic narcotic fentanyl and because of their potency they have been responsible for over 2,000 narcotic overdose deaths.