Tuesday, August 3, 1999

By D. PARVAZ
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

In the 1960s and early '70s, marijuana, LSD and mushrooms were thought of as the undoing of the youth.

Well, the Age of Aquarius is over. The undoing is undone. Many baby boomers experimented and most survived. They tuned in, turned on, dropped out, then dropped back in and bought Volvos. Some of them voted for Reagan. Twice.

Bill Clinton -- the guy who "didn't inhale" -- slogged through his second term in office and now George W. Bush, the guy who may or may not have snorted cocaine in the '70s is now in office. All the while and the next big threat to the youth of America changes every week.

It's rock music. It's goths. And, yes, it's still drugs.

But these aren't the love-drugs of the boomer generation. To today's teens and twentysomethings who do drugs, those vices just don't cut it. They prefer the less organic highs of Ecstasy, ketamine, GHB and inhalants -- the party drugs of the late '90s and the new millenium.

Most young adults who use these drugs have no idea what they're getting, where the drugs come from, or what the effects might be on their bodies. Plus, they indiscriminately mix and match them.

People seldom know what they're getting into with these party drugs. It's a bit like ordering a green salad at a restaurant, being served meat loaf instead, eating it, and not being sure why the salad tasted funny. The disparities ought to be obvious, but because some users aren't educated about drugs, vital differences go unnoticed.

Here's the really scary part: If users don't know what they're taking, how can they determine how much of it to take?

Nationwide statistics provided by the Drug Awareness Warning Network list 637 Ecstasy-related emergency room episodes in 1996 -- compare that to the 4,511 Ecstasy cases reported in 2000.

The network also recorded 4, 969 GHB-related emergency room episodes in 2000, up dramatically from 629 just four years earlier.

Although the report stated that the number of drug-related visits remained almost unchanged in 14 of the 21 major metropolitan cities studies, Seattle lead the cities with increases in drug-related emergency room visits (up by 32 percent over the previous year).

Local statistics also paint a clear picture.

A December 2000 report on drug use in Seattle and King County available through the Department of Public Health (http://www.metrokc.gov/health/subabuse/drugtrnd0500.htm) indicates that almost all patients admitted to Seattle-area emergency rooms for Ecstasy use were using other drugs at the same time, and that 62 percent of GHB-related emergency room visits involve patients are taking a cocktail of drugs -- sometimes combining the GHB with anything from Ecstasy to cocaine.

The decision to take drugs should never be made lightly, but that's exactly what happens. New-generation drug users hear stories about what could go right during a drug trip -- euphoric stories filled with spiritual epiphanies.

What they may not hear is what could go wrong. The person selling them the stuff at a party or club isn't going to tell them. Yet, for a person faced with the decision to use or refuse these drugs, having accurate information can be vital.

That's where Wilkie Wilson, a Duke University professor of pharmacology, comes in. Wilson is making it his mission to spread unbiased, scientific information on drug use.

Co-author of "Buzzed: The Straight Facts on the Most Used and Abused Drugs, from Alcohol to Ecstasy," (Norton, 304 pages, $14.95), Wilson is concerned about the lack of information on drug use.

"I am really on a campaign to help institutions come to the realization that we have to teach respect for the brain," he says.

"You know, we teach so much respect for the heart -- we eat low-fat diets, lower stress, exercise. We never talk about keeping our brains healthy in our society. . . . You don't poison what you have a sense of respect for."

Wilson's voice is heavy with frustration as he talks about how we routinely poison our brains with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

But he makes it clear he is appealing to the intellect of drug users rather than resorting to the conventional scare tactics.

"Rather than saying 'Just say no,' say 'Respect your brain,'" says Wilson. "When you try to warn about dangers that are improbable, you lose your credibility."

If Wilson's method of informing rather than preaching seems controversial, it shouldn't.

Knowledge is power. It's the lack of it that puts so many young drug users in vulnerable situations.

Even the Drug Enforcement Administration, a federal body with a clear anti-drug stance, has a Web site -- www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/straight/cover.htm -- dedicated to providing teens with information about drugs.

Thomas P. O'Brien, the public information officer for the DEA in the Seattle field division, also feels that providing clinical information is key.

"Not all kids are alike -- they hear what they want to hear," says O'Brien.

"An informed individual. an informed consumer, or teenager can make a more logical and safe decision when you don't try to overwhelm them with the scary stuff," he says, adding.

"You have to inform them with truth -- with what's been determined by the medical community as well as treatment community and rehabilitation community."

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