MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2001
In Ecstasy's shadow: 'lt's like every sense is
by Ellen Creager
Knight-Ridder Tribune
April 17, 2001
At raves, the prom and just for the
hell of it, Logan Corcoran took Ec-
Now she's worried. But not for her
self.
"I hear about these really good kids
who never smoked weed and never
drank, and they're like, 'Oh, I don't
do anything bad, — says Logan, 17, of
Walled Lake, Mich.
"But they do Ecstasy."
While adults were looking the other
way, the alluring little illegal stimu
lant with the cute nickname has
hooked its tentacles into teenagers.
About three years ago, it burst the
boundaries of gay bars, techno clubs
and dances called underground raves.
Now Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxy
methamphetamine, or MDMA), is on
the loose from middle schools to col
leges.
"Ecstasy is acceptable. It is as com
mon as pot. I can't imagine anywhere
in the state you can't get a hold of it,"
says Kevin Franklin, 21, of Taylor,
Mich, who goes to techno clubs and
has friends who use it. "It's just so
common people don't even have con
versations about it anymore."
But when use of a drug nearly
doubles among high schoolers in just
two years, adults get scared.
On one hand, the glamorous image
of Ecstasy remains, and its casual use
is on the rise.
On the other hand, the ugly is be
ginning to show.
This story is about Ecstasy's in
roads into the lives of our teenagers.
Mostly, it is about a black-haired girl,
her mother, a retired cop and a rave.
When Logan loved Ecstasy, no one
Adobe Systems employee sentenced for pirating
software while a student at University of Oregon
by Billy O'Keefe
TMS Campus
April 18, 2001
A University of Oregon graduate was sentenced
this week to a year in prison and ordered to pay a
major software company more than $87,000 in corn
pensation after admitting to illegally distributing
copies of the company's software while a student.
Investigators argued that 21-year-old Jeffery Alan
Stockton cost Adobe Systems, Inc., publishers of
such popular software as Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe Illustrator, more than $490,000 in lost sales,
according to court documents.
Court documents further revealed that Stockton,
who graduated in 2000 with a degree in journal
ism, created fake serial numbers and instruction
manuals to complement the copied software, and
conducted much of his business with fellow stu
dents.
could have talked her out of using it
"I had plenty of people telling me
drugs were bad, and this bad thing is
going to happen to you," she remem
bers. "But I didn't care."
When Logan was 14, she ran away
to underground rave parties in Detroit
to dance and do drugs, often return
ing home to her frantic parents two or
three days later.
Ecstasy was her hobby.
"There's no way you can describe
how it affects you. It's like every sense
is magnified 500 times, and every
thing seems so real," says Logan. "It's
illogical that even a Snapple bottle can
be so beautiful and profound and per
fect. But that's the way it makes you
feel."
Logan would go to raves every Sat
urday night, where "pretty much ev
eryone there was either rolling (high)
or looking for a pill," she says. "At
raves, it doesn't matter if you're 14.
There's no doorman checking IDs."
Logan does not remember where
she got the money for Ecstasy. But she
was never afraid.
"Ecstasy has that effect on you," she
says. "Someone can pull a gun on you,
and you wouldn't even be scared."
As she combined Ecstasy with
LSD, cocaine and other drugs, her life
spiraled out of control. Logan got
treatment, but she relapsed 20 or 30
times.
"I'd think I'd be doing really good.
I'd say. 'l'll just do a little bit of Ec
stasy or coke or acid,"' she says. "But
prom night 1999, I went nuts."
That night in the car, Logan and her
date each took two tablets of Ecstasy
and six or seven geltabs of LSD. She
has no memory of what happened af
ter that. She found herself at home on
the floor, begging her parents for help.
Twenty months ago, she got clean for
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NATIONAL CAMPUS NEWS
An employer of Stockton's discovered the ille
gal software in 1999 during a routine checkup of
employee inventory. Investigators raided Stockton's
apartment in January 2000 and confiscated soft
ware, computer equipment and more than $ 13,000
cash.
Under terms of the sentencing, Stockton will be
on probation for three years following his prison
sentence. During that time, authorities will have
access to Stockton's financial records and his com
puter.
Stockton is also required to receive a psychiatric
evaluation after investigators found images contain
ing child pornography on his computer. In the
meantime, he is prohibited from interacting with
minors without prior approval.
Stockton currently volunteers some of his time
working with minors at a local church.
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KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE/J. KYLE KEENER
At "Refueling," an all night rave in a non-descript building near East
ern Market in Detroit, where drugs like ecstacy, heroin, cocaine, mari
juana and other drugs where being used openly, the crowd dances to
a techno beat.
good.
For someone who did so many
drugs, Logan is strangely alarmed at
the idea of "good" kids or younger
kids trying Ecstasy. She tries to warn
them, "but they sit there rolling their
eyes waiting for me to finish," she
says. "Maybe one in 20 pay attention.
"A lot of my friends still do drugs.
I'll tell them, 'Look, I'm not going
to lie about Ecstasy. It was one of the
best feelings you ever had in your life.
but it's not worth it. You can't do it
just once. And after you try it once,
you don't really care how dangerous
it is.'"
Logan should he a high school se
nior, but she only has enough credits
to be a sophomore. Last fall, she
dropped out of high school. She
wants to get her GED.
"She always wanted to be a ma
rine biologist," says her mother,
Patricia Corcoran. "Now she says she
isn't one of them.
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want . to be a cosmetologist."
In some ways, Ecstasy is the per
fect 21st-century drug for a genera
tion raised on Ritalin and Prozac. It
is nonviolent. There's no unhealthy
smoking. It won't make you fat. Its
effect is the ultimate in positive think
ing.
Half the users are girls.
It reminds Walled Lake Central
High School student assistance coor
dinator Lynn Kalish of LSD in the
19605. It reminds government drug
experts of cocaine in the early 1980 s.
Although the state keeps no statis
tics, area high school counselors are
seeing increasing Ecstasy use all the
way down to middle school by teens
who normally would not use drugs.
One Michigan high school sur
veyei its students last fall and found
10 percent had tried it. That is nearly
identical to new national figures,
which show a doubling of use be
Noise patrol angers Indiana University students
A new program may be keeping the Indiana University campus quiet but the
sound of groaning students is only getting louder.
Since the inception of the quiet nights initiative last summer, which is designed
to quiet loud parties in the neighborhoods surrounding the campus, Bloomington
police have given students 181 tickets at $5O a pop.
From Thursday through Sunday, police patrol the streets with the windows in
their patrol cars rolled down. If they come across a home blaring loud music, they
log it e address into a computer and return 15 minutes later. If the noise still exists,
each resident of the house who is home is given a ticket.
Indiana student Phil Presser, 19, said the noise initiative is too aggressive for a
student neighborhood.
"This is a college campus," Presser told the Associated Press. "It should be fun.
It's al I right if neighbors complain, but I don't think [the police] should just stop by
for no reason
While the tickets will generate some revenue for the city, the program hardly
pays for itself. The city has allotted $44,000 for officers to take on overtime hours
to patrol during the weekend shifts
Despite student complaints, Bloomington police Capt. Mike Diekhoff said the
initiative is doing its job.
"The whole goal behind quiet nights was to make living in a neighborhood if you
are a residential property owner, rather than a renter, more livable," Diekhoff told
the Associated Press.
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magnified 500 times'
tween 1998 and 2000 among high
school seniors, to 11 percent.
Katie Atkinson, 15, of White Lake
Township, says any student can get
Ecstasy at a high school.
"Want me to go get some?" asks the
former user. "I'll be right back. -
She laughs, but she is not kidding.
College students have lower sub
stance abuse rates than other young
adults. But colleges are seeing a rise
in use, too. Michigan State Univer
sity data indicate that 10 percent of
its students have tried Ecstasy. Uni
versity of Michigan officials expect a
survey this spring to yield use levels
similar to MSU's.
College students talk about using
the drug responsibly.
"I like feeling happier than I could
ever possibly feel in real life," says a
19-year-old U-M student, who uses
Ecstasy once a month but did not want
to be identified for fear of her parents
finding out.
"I'm not really afraid anything bad
will happen to me since I'm decently
picky where I get my drugs."
And in one of those Generation Y,
only-in-America quirks, a drug-neu
tral group called Dance Safe Detroit
will test your Ecstasy for you, to make
sure it is really MDM A. A Detroit
based pro-Ecstasy Web site gives tips
on how to ward off brain damage with
magnesium and vitamin C.
Even some professionals warn Ec
stasy is not worth a breathless panic.
- I've been in this job 23 years, and
we've had a lot of drug scares," says
Sgt. Michael Lemon, head of the drug
education unit in the Detroit Police
narcotics division. While not
downplaying the seriousness of the
problem, he says, "compared to other
drugs, we don't have cause for alarm."
But warning bells are ringing.
TMS Campus
April 17, 2001
Like other drugs, many pills passed
off as Ecstasy can he cut with inert till
ers or poison. Only 25 percent of the
Ecstasy that Dance Safe tested at one
rave in Detroit in January was really
MDMA.
"That night we found things like
ketamine and MIA and over-the
counter medication," says Doris Payer,
21, Dance Safe Detroit president and
a U-M senior who used to use the drug.
"I don't think it's people's intention
to go kill themseh. es."
Ketamine is a veterinary anesthetic
and PMA is a lethal hallucinogen.
Ecstasy has such a pleasant name,
but it keeps company with such mean
friends -- LSD, cocaine, heroin, the
date-rape drug GHB, PMA and
ketamine. Mixing Ecstasy with alco
hol and other drugs is so common
there are even names for those who
do it.
Katie Atkinson, now recovering,
was a "candy flipper - who mixed Ec
stasy and LSD.
tripped and rolled, LSD and Ec
stasy. I'd take two hits and two pills,"
she says. Eventually, she moved on to
other drugs.
At 15, Katie never went to a rave.
She was never even old enough to get
into a club. But getting Ecstasy and
LSD near home was easy.
For other drugs, - I'd go to Outer
Drive, - says the slim, brown-haired
White Lake Township teen.
"I could get acid from around here
hut I'd go there for coke and heroin.
How did she know where to go'?
Once you're down there, they find
Company behind
Voyeur Donn goEs
to court in bid
to
• --4 , r , eNts
execution
The Internet company that cre
ated VoyeurDorm.com, a campus
voyeur site featuring a house full
of college girls and Web cams, re
quested permission Tuesday from
a federal judge to show live video
of the May 16 execution of Timo
thy McVeigh, the man responsible
for the bombings six years ago in
Oklahoma City.
The Enterta,
argues that
Amend Meat
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hibited at an ,tkx.ectitt‘.
presence of the media is 4.
• The judge will issue a detision
sometime this week.
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ENI has asked permission to ei
ther transmit a live feed of the
closed-circuit broadcast of
McVeigh's execution or
execution itself. As it stands now,
the closed-circuit broadast will
be available only to families of the
victims.
ENT said that if granted permis
sion to broadcast the execution, it
will employ the same parental
controls used to prevent children
from visiting its other sites, the
most notable of which is
Voyeur Dorm, a subscription
based site featuring 75 live feedv
of female college students under
one roof.
Additionally, ENI said it will
charge users of the site $1.95 to
view the Webcast, and donate all
proceeds to charities established
by families of the victims.
by Billy O'Keefe
TMS Campus
April 17, 2001