Ecstasy fading in drug scene, DEA says

Ecstasy, the illegal stimulant that helped to define the rave party culture for teens and young adults during the past decade, is fading from the drug scene in part because post-9/11 improvements in airport security have made it tougher to smuggle the drug into the United States from Europe, customs and drug enforcement officials say.

Increased scrutiny of passengers and baggage at airports favored by smugglers — particularly those in New York City and Newark — led to record seizures of Ecstasy pills in the year after the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then, the flow of Ecstasy into the United States has slowed dramatically as smugglers have focused more on trying to bring it here by land, usually from Canada, says Dean Boyd, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The stepped-up security, along with crackdowns on key Ecstasy traffickers, have made the drug less available and more expensive, says Bill Sherman, a section chief for the Drug Enforcement Administration's operations in Europe, Asia, Africa and Canada. In Miami during the past year, the DEA says, the average price for one Ecstasy pill has more than doubled, to more than $11.60, a sign of the drug's increasing scarcity.

The changing economics of Ecstasy is leading a rising number of youths to turn to cheaper, more available drugs. Among them: highly addictive prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin, inhalants such as paint thinner, and methamphetamine. Two recent surveys found that Oxycontin had surpassed Ecstasy in popularity among U.S. teens.

Overall, drug use among teens has declined slightly in the past few years, but the use of Ecstasy among high school seniors has dropped sharply since peaking in 2001. Monitoring the Future, an annual report on teen drug use by University of Michigan researchers, says that in 2001, 9.2 percent of the nation's 4.2 million high school seniors reported having used Ecstasy during the previous year. In 2004, 4 percent said they had done so.

The study says that in 2004, 5 percent of high school seniors reported having used Oxycontin during the previous year. That was up from 4.5 percent in 2003.

Five years ago, abuse of Oxycontin among youths was so rare the study did not measure it. The Michigan study's overall conclusions were echoed in a survey released Thursday by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Terry Horton, medical director of Phoenix House drug treatment programs in New York, says the number of clients there who have used Oxycontin and other painkillers is up, while the number who have taken Ecstasy is "much less than we saw a year ago.