Hooked on a feeling; Ecstasy becomes drug of choice on county club scene
Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2003 by Webmaster
By JAMIE GOLDENBAUM
Herald Staff Writer
NEWTON — Every day Becky Carlson of the Sussex County Coalition for Health & Safe Families reads the police blotter in the local newspaper.
She saves the blotter items pertaining to drug use among local youths.
And, the stack gets a little taller every day, she said.
A 12-year-old middle school girl is the youngest local teen to have a drug addiction known to Pat DeCoste, who is an addiction counselor for the county Center for Prevention and Counseling, .
The girl smokes marijuana, DeCoste said, and her parents did not think their daughter — especially at her young age — would consider doing drugs.
DeCoste attended the regular meeting of the Coalition for Health & Safe Families steering committee meeting this week to give an update of Ecstasy use in Sussex County.
However, her information touched upon other areas of drug use in Sussex County.
First, there are the gateway drugs — alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
And, there are also hard drugs — like heroin and cocaine.
Now, a new trend has risen called the “club drug scene,” where users often take drugs known as Ecstasy, GHB or Special K. Ecstasy is a “designer” drug, a mix of methamphetamine and mescaline called MDMA. GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is a central nervous system depressant. Special K is an animal anesthesia called ketamine.
The largest problem associated with Ecstasy use is one that many people are not aware of because they lack the medical knowledge.
Ecstasy creates a “high” for the user by sparking the brain to overdose on a natural chemical — serotonin.
Serotonin is released sporadically from various points of the brain to activate physical feelings of positive stimulation.
When a person ingests the drug Ecstasy, the brain releases serotonin from these points all at once. “It’s an overdose of a natural chemical that gives off a euphoric feeling,” DeCoste explained.
Because it takes the brain time to produce more serotonin to replace the flood of chemicals lost, Ecstasy users will also feel a two-to-three-day depression due to lack of serotonin and an abundance of dopamine in the brain, DeCoste said.
New issues still coming to fruition before doctors and drug counselors also involve these release points in the brain for serotonin. Ecstasy can permanently damage those serotonin release points, thus causing brain damage, DeCoste said.
By the time regular users are in the their late teens to early 20s, they are permanently depressed. Prescribing anti-depressant medication is pointless because the medication’s purpose is to stimulate the release of serotonin in the brain, DeCoste said.
“Heroin users tend to just like heroin,” DeCoste said, but Ecstasy users will experiment with other drugs.
Despite the continuously rising number of drug users amongst Sussex County’s youth, Carlson said alcohol is still the number one drug of choice for teens here.
A common attitude amongst local parents is to allow their teenage sons and daughters to drink alcohol with friends at home instead of worrying about where their kids are going and what they are doing.
“And it’s very popular in Sussex County” for parents to host an under-aged drinking parties while rationalizing it by creating reasons for keeping kids safe at home.
However, parents are sending mixed messages to their teenagers by allowing them to break the law in their presence, while other times telling their children to abide by the law.
“You’re encouraging kids to break the law,” DeCoste said. “Is that what you want?”
A parent’s job is not to be a “buddy” to their child, they are mentors, roll models, educators and disciplinarians.
http://www.njherald.com/news/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1052919105,42391,
Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2003 by Webmaster
By JAMIE GOLDENBAUM
Herald Staff Writer
NEWTON — Every day Becky Carlson of the Sussex County Coalition for Health & Safe Families reads the police blotter in the local newspaper.
She saves the blotter items pertaining to drug use among local youths.
And, the stack gets a little taller every day, she said.
A 12-year-old middle school girl is the youngest local teen to have a drug addiction known to Pat DeCoste, who is an addiction counselor for the county Center for Prevention and Counseling, .
The girl smokes marijuana, DeCoste said, and her parents did not think their daughter — especially at her young age — would consider doing drugs.
DeCoste attended the regular meeting of the Coalition for Health & Safe Families steering committee meeting this week to give an update of Ecstasy use in Sussex County.
However, her information touched upon other areas of drug use in Sussex County.
First, there are the gateway drugs — alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
And, there are also hard drugs — like heroin and cocaine.
Now, a new trend has risen called the “club drug scene,” where users often take drugs known as Ecstasy, GHB or Special K. Ecstasy is a “designer” drug, a mix of methamphetamine and mescaline called MDMA. GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is a central nervous system depressant. Special K is an animal anesthesia called ketamine.
The largest problem associated with Ecstasy use is one that many people are not aware of because they lack the medical knowledge.
Ecstasy creates a “high” for the user by sparking the brain to overdose on a natural chemical — serotonin.
Serotonin is released sporadically from various points of the brain to activate physical feelings of positive stimulation.
When a person ingests the drug Ecstasy, the brain releases serotonin from these points all at once. “It’s an overdose of a natural chemical that gives off a euphoric feeling,” DeCoste explained.
Because it takes the brain time to produce more serotonin to replace the flood of chemicals lost, Ecstasy users will also feel a two-to-three-day depression due to lack of serotonin and an abundance of dopamine in the brain, DeCoste said.
New issues still coming to fruition before doctors and drug counselors also involve these release points in the brain for serotonin. Ecstasy can permanently damage those serotonin release points, thus causing brain damage, DeCoste said.
By the time regular users are in the their late teens to early 20s, they are permanently depressed. Prescribing anti-depressant medication is pointless because the medication’s purpose is to stimulate the release of serotonin in the brain, DeCoste said.
“Heroin users tend to just like heroin,” DeCoste said, but Ecstasy users will experiment with other drugs.
Despite the continuously rising number of drug users amongst Sussex County’s youth, Carlson said alcohol is still the number one drug of choice for teens here.
A common attitude amongst local parents is to allow their teenage sons and daughters to drink alcohol with friends at home instead of worrying about where their kids are going and what they are doing.
“And it’s very popular in Sussex County” for parents to host an under-aged drinking parties while rationalizing it by creating reasons for keeping kids safe at home.
However, parents are sending mixed messages to their teenagers by allowing them to break the law in their presence, while other times telling their children to abide by the law.
“You’re encouraging kids to break the law,” DeCoste said. “Is that what you want?”
A parent’s job is not to be a “buddy” to their child, they are mentors, roll models, educators and disciplinarians.
http://www.njherald.com/news/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1052919105,42391,
