For this week’s blog, I am choosing to write about the rave culture. Raves are where ecstasy is mainly taken, and I am interested to find background information about it.

Raves originated in Europe in the 1980's where ecstasy was slowly being to be abused. A rave was when thousands of people gathered around techno music and they were held either outside or in large warehouses. After a short amount of time, raves were then moved into established clubs and to the police were known as "Drug Taking Festivals." Later in the 1980's, raves moved into the United States with big entertainers and promoters. In the mid 1900's, raves were spoken of in chat rooms heavily, and it was known that dance clubs had an extreme growth and the usage of ecstasy had increased. People found out that they didn't have to be on drugs to go to raves, but then things like rape, property damage, drug sales and pharmaceutical division took place.

Raves are advertised by fliers, papers, telephone, radio, the internet, and some audio stores. They advertise the headliners, which are dj's, bands, and/or groups. At a rave, it includes loud techno, huge bass speakers, psychedelic lights, videos, smoke, fog, fire, and sparks. A rave usually consists of a large dance room, or maybe more depending on how big the capacity is, which is accompanied with a "cool down room" as well as a VIP room. If you want to be a part of the VIP room, you have to buy more expensive tickets. Curfew restrictions have changed due to raves being held at random times such as 6:00pm-4:00am. Odd things kids use at raves are: Vicks vapor rub, menthol nasal inhalers, eye drops, surgical masks, glow sticks (because peoples' eyes shake when they're on ecstasy and seeing the lights intensify the feeling) lollipops, pacifiers (because people grind their teeth, and if they don't want to chew up their mouth, pacifiers are in need) water (it's easily to get dehydrated) and drug testing kits (because people go there sober looking for drugs, and they don't want to buy bunks ones.)

MDMA usage has increased so much it's inevitable to try to cease it. The security and police at raves have ignored the drug use and mainly worry about the distribution of drugs, and weapons.
The only way people get caught at raves is if the police have some suspicion they're selling drugs or they see someone take a pill or inject something into them selves.

I'm glad I researched this because it's really interesting and if I knew how to put a video of one up here I would. Raves sound extremely out of hand and dangerous.




"DEA Ongoing Programs, Shoulder-to-Shoulder Press Conferences, Raves." PE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" Welcome to the United States Department of Justice. Ed. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. .

Annotated Bibliography

1. Duhaime, Lloyd. "Police Station Cocaine." Duhaime.org - Bringing Legal Information To The World. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://duhaime.org/LegalResources/PoliceStation/LawArticle-51/Cocaine.aspx.

This article informs people about the drug cocaine. The first paragraph shows how it's made and where it comes from while the rest of the article tells what cocaine does to your body, if it's dangerous and how your body becomes addicted to it. It shows a picture of cocaine, and has other links that answer questions asked about cocaine.

The information that is concealed in this article is very descriptive and easy to read. I'm sure all most of high school students know a lot of this information because kids talk and things get around. I think the text is more meant for adults trying to inform their kids about the dangers of drugs.

I used the information in this article that shows what cocaine does to your body as well as how you can become addicted to it. I think those are the most important pieces in this text and the parts that people would be interested in reading and learning more about.


2. "Ecstasy Side Effects." Ecstasy Effects and Addiction Information. Ed. Get Help Now. Web. 14 Dec. 2009. .

This is a website that informs you about all the side effects and dangers of ecstasy. It's also a "get help" website, and if you need help from the addiction they have a contact link to get help. Who ever wrote this website strongly believes that ecstasy will kill you and if you know someone who's doing it, to contact them so they can help you help them.

It's all really good information because it's strongly believed in. And when something is strongly believed in, they have convincing statistics and tactics to get you on their side. This is a great website to refer too and I have read it over and over again to get information for various blogs.

As I said up above I used most all of the information on this site, it's easy to read and very credible. It's all really helpful and I'm glad I found this website for my blog. I would tecommend this site to people wanting to know anything about ecstasy.



3."Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP - InfoFacts." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/hallucinogens.html.



This article holds the information upon 4 types of hallucinogens. It tells you exactly what they are, how they're abused, how they affect the brain, how they affect your health, and the treatments that are available. At the bottom it even shows you a chart of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in 2008 that have tried hallucinogens to give you an idea of how high schooler's abuse drugs.


This article was very informational because even the things I didn't wasn't looking for, I found out. Although the vocabulary was more advanced so I had to look up a lot of the words to understand the text. Therefore, this article wasn't mean for younger kids and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than a senior.

I used bits and parts of this article in one of my blogs, but I haven't needed the information for anything else. The way I used it in my blog I think it puts a picture in people's mind. I also put all the harder words in lameness terms so it was more readable since my peers were the ones reading it.


4. "Herbal Ecstasy." District Attorney Home Page. Ed. Dever DA. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. .

This website holds everything and anything about ecstasy. It's the Denver DA so all of their information is credible. It had some information that the other websites didn't, it shares what the consequences are if you get caught with it, and the different consequences for different ages. On a couple different pages it displays what ecstasy looks like, and explains how it can be all shapes, sizes and color.

The information on the website was easy to read and understand, I feel like all policemen know this information and are taught it if they are in the drug area. They have to know what it looks like if they search someone or their cars so they know it's not candy, it's ecstasy.

I used this site many many times for different articles, various things I needed to find for blogs I found in this website. I like this website because it's easy to understand and very helpful. I also like knowing the consequences so I can warn the friends I have, that having one pill can be 5 years in jail and that it's not worth it.




5. "Methamphetamine, crystal meth effects at SAMHSA's NCADI." Drug and alcohol abuse, treatment, prevention at SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Ed. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/GOVPUBS/PHD861/.

This article gives more information that kids would be interested in. It gives the street names of meth, how it's used, the side effects, and how it destroys your body. It doesn't give too much information on each of those things, but it gives you enough to scare you away from the drug. The last part talks about how you know if someone you know is giving meth and the way they should be acting.

It offers a lof of street names, which is really good for adults so they here one of the code names from kids they know exactly what they're talking about. Some of the things it does to your body are disgusting, which makes people not want to do it, so I believe the scare tactic is very useful. I think they could've added a little more information for each topic discussed about meth, to show a more deadly affect.

The main thing I grabbed from this article was the street names, but other than that I didn't take much information from this article. I think more adults should be informed about them, because they are used all the time. I would recommend this article to all adults and other kids who think their friends are users of meth, because it's simple and easy to read.

6. "NIDA - Research Report Series - MDMA (Ecstasy) Abuse." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/researchreports/MDMA/MDMA4.html.


This article is all about MDMA and what parts of the brain it affects and the after effects after the usage of ecstasy. It compares studies done on animals and humans with a dosage of MDMA. It shares with you the recorded results of the brain and the behavior from both the human and the animal. The last thing this article had in it was other kinds of drugs people tend to do that have similar effects as ecstasy.



This article was extremely helpful because of its statistics and facts about the brain. It's very extreme when it talks about how each part of your brain is affected and it can have a dramatic affect on readers if they are users, because not only is the information true but it's scary. This article is convicing and it's a good source to refer too.



I found this article very helpful in what I was looking for, and this information could easily be included in a health class because of it's statistics. Others who read this article would know a lot more about the deleterious effects of ecstasy and know the different areas of your brain that it effects.

Deadmau5
Virgin Records America, Inc.
150 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011-4311

105 Shadowood Lane
Carbondale, CO 81623
Kelly Fisher


Dear Deadmau5:

I’m a senior at Roaring Fork High School and I’m writing to you because the past two months I’ve been learning about ecstasy. I know you play techno music and have concerts that kids come to rolling ecstasy and other various drugs. I want to get the point across to teens that ecstasy usage can lead to severe brain damage and I thought if you announced it, people would follow your thoughts since you are someone they definitely look up too. One of the main appeals of ecstasy is loud techno music because it increases the level of happiness by so much. A lot of them were also diffident, and they like the fact that when they go to raves they're loved by everyone and it increases their confidence. Studies shown in 2000 found that 4.3% of
8thgraders, 7.3% of 10th graders, and 11.0% of 12 graders have all tried it. Since then our world has had more drug out breaks, and I know that those numbers have highly increased. Teenagers live for the moment and don’t think about long term effects which are what matters in life. Once one of my friends started doing ecstasy, then all of them got into it and now they rave every week. I don’t want to see them enervating their bodies and going down hill because of a stupid addiction. I want to grow old and I don’t want to be going to their funeral at age 30. If I can get someone teens look up to and appreciate to have a strong opinion against ecstasy I think we could really make a difference. If you have the time I’d love to hear from you but if not best wishes, I love your music sober.

Sincerely,

Kelly Fisher

This graph shows the average use of ecstasy for boys and girls in grades 8th, 10th, and 12th during 1999-2000. It shows that boys used it more in 8th grade than girls as well as 10th grade. Although 12th grade girls used it more than 12th grade boys. This is really interesting to me, and I'm not sure why it the growth of ecstasy usage changed for girl in their senior year. If we get a blog that's pretty open to what we wanna write about, I'd like to investigate why this is.

This data is complete and would make people wonder more about senior girls after looking at this graph. This graph could definitely throw someone off if they just assumed boys did more ecstasy than girls like I did. I learned that you shouldn't judge a group of people because of their gender, race of anything you should get to someone for the kind of person they are. They could be churlish and a drug addict, but you'd never guess that because they dressed nicely, or they could look innocent, be diffident, and do great in school and also be a drug addict. I'm sure most of the girls that use ecstasy were good students and weren't obvious about their bad decisions.



Source

"Google Image Result for http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNVol16N2/MDMA.gif." Google Images. Ed. The National Institute on Drug Abuse. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.

Whats New?

Examining The Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults

I found an article called Examining the Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults on google, and the I chose it because it relates to what I've been learning about ecstasy. I've wanted to know what it does to your brain and how it turns kids diffident after they're happy, and this article talks about researchers wanting to find out the same information.

The researchers in this article are conducting an experiment on young adults to see how ecstasy use leads to brain damage. One of the facts in this article states that, "seretonin is a key neurotransmitter in the brain that is known for regulating mood and for playing a role in cognitive functions such as memory. Low levels of seretonin have been linked to anxiety and depression." I've already learned this and this is just a source to back up that thought. Another fact is that ecstasy is a chemically enhanced drug that is part hallucinogen and part stimulant that affects the seretonin system, which is very believable.

There's one opinion in this article I highly agree with. One of the researchers said,"Ecstasy use continues to be a major public health problem among adolescents and young adults." I believe ecstasy use continues to grow because none of the users are educated what it does to their brains and body. I think if there was a set agreement between researchers and scientists about the damage it causes and then posted on the internet, people would have a different outlook on it. Maybe not, but kids think it's not deleterious when it is. Researcher Medina also states, "It's not used all that often, but it can cause a lot of damage." I personally don't think she should be stating this without all the research, I know it's a man made drug and it does cause damage like every other drug but it might not be as severe as she thinks.

After reading this article, none of the information was really new to me considering we've been doing so much research on our topic. I would be interested to see if they follow up on this study to see what they find out, because every scientist has a different opinion, and I think if could be extremely beneficial to my blog if I determine what harmful effects ecstasy has on the human body.

Source :]

Fuller, Dawn. "Examining The Effects Of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults: UC Researchers Awarded Federal Grant." Medical News Today: Health News. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. .

Vocabulary

-Kids that do ecstasy are usually very churlish on the come down the next day because they are angry and depressed. The drug maximized their serention and once that's gone, all the feelings left like anger and depression are then maximized.

-People that deal ecstasy never really stay in one place they usually circumnavigate the world, because they don't want to get to well known by people, and they want to make new customers.

-Ecstasy is a deleterious effect on people's body, because it's made with nasty chemicals that should never be put in your body.

-At raves, kids are anything but diffident because ecstasy makes them friendly and wanting to make friends with strangers.

-At a rave people tend to be very feckless and lose their cell phones, or a lot of money because they aren't paying attention the only thing they are doing is dancing.

-If the cops have suspicion that kids are selling ecstasy, kids tend to have a lot of hubis because they don't want to be nice and give them too much information.

-Kids on ecstasy aren't jejune because they want to tell everyone their life story, and they want to party and dance.

-A lot of drug dealers that sell ecstasy have incontrovertible sale prices, because that's how they gain profit.

-If a women that's pregnant takes ecstasy, it will destroy some of the babies chromosome.

-Ecstasy enervates your bones after taking too much of it.

I read two articles that argued two different sides of ecstasy. The first article that I read is called A Worry For Ravers: One night of ecstasy could cause brain damage by: Mary Carmichael, and her argument was against ecstasy. She talks about two neurologists who are doing experiments with monkeys by injecting MDMA into them, and they are trying to prove if it harms monkeys it'll harm humans as well. They stated, "If ecstasy could eat away at a monkey, it could do the same to us." Neurologist George Ricaurte is convinced that only after one night of taking ecstasy, it causes brain damage in monkeys. The studies and test done on the monkeys showed it killed the brain cells that produce dopamine. "Dopamine deficiency is linked to cognitive and psychiatric problems, which may partially explain why users feel sad and sluggish after a night out," Ricaurte said. He went on to explain how dopamine deficiency can lead to Parkinson's disease, which is where you can't control some muscle movements. His main conclusion to his article is that monkeys are similar to us, and if it deleterious to monkeys, it will have that same effect on humans.

The second article I read was called Ecstasy: A possible new role for a banned club drug by: Eve Conant. Her theory is that using MDMA on cancer patients could be the cure to confronting their fears that come with the end of life. Doctors can prescribe antidepressants, but for some it's not enough, which is why using a more powerful drug could be the answer. "Harvard doctors plan to start testing MDMA in 12 terminally ill cancer patients with moderate or severe anxiety as soon as the DEA grants approval," Conant stated. Conant continued to say how is South Carolina; studies have already taken place on cancer patients using MDMA. "Our hypothesis is that MDMA lowers fear and increases trust, a combination that allows patients to revisit trauma in a therapeutic way," says principal psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer. It helps cancer patients, rape victims, and anyone traumatized compromise with themselves and cope with the severe problem that attacked them. He also thinks that it helps people express their fears more openly and not keep it bundled up inside. "I thought of MDMA as the rave drug," says Shuster (another psychiatrist). "But the more I read, the more I realized this was a scientific question worth asking."

These are two extremely two different articles, one stating how ecstasy causes brain damage, and the other stating how ecstasy could be the new cure for cancer patients, rape victims, or anyone that has been traumatized. Both of these articles could convince someone and make their decision go either way.


Sources
Carmichael, Mary. "Gale Cengage Product Failure." GaleNet. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .

Contant, Eve. "Gale Cengage Product Failure." GaleNet. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .

I watched A Mid-Summer Nights Rave for my movie review and everything I've been learning about ecstasy, this movie backed up all my information. I've been reading about why kids love it ecstasy and raves so much, and this movie proved my point in 3 different ways, along with showing the scary side of raves, which most kids haven't encountered. Although, it contradicts something that I've learned about raves as well.

Puck, who was gay and was the one who was dealing ecstasy to everyone at the rave was given special yellow glowing ecstasy pills and was told that they were extremely potent. This movie was very pointless and there was no plot. It showed how ecstasy bonds people and makes them want to have a passionate connection. "You have really nice eyes." "Really? You think I have nice eyes?" Yeah, I do, I think they're beautiful." This was the conversation between two straight guys who just sat down next to each other and felt like they could confined in each other. This is the first piece of evidence that proves my statement.

(This is puck from the paragraph above, and those are the glowing yellow ecstasy pills. )


"I love you so much, I love how I love everything and anyone, and I just love to love, don't you just love to love? Do you love me? Because I love you so much!" was said by another girl who just met this guy and this is how she started out the conversation between the two of them. This shows that even if you are total and complete strangers and you're on ecstasy together, you can become instant lovers or best friends. This is the second thing that proves my opinion statement, because I believe ecstasy is insecurity. Diffident teenagers like to be able to find people who like them and have an excuse to make friends, which is why they attend raves. I think that is the biggest addiction to raves.

(The girl on the left was the girl from the paragraph above who was talking about loving everything.)


"Moreeeeee baseeeeeeeee!!!!!" said nick while he was on five ecstasy pills at this rave. At the past raves he attended, his friends told him he was always taking too much ecstasy and getting out of control. He'd built up a tolerance for ecstasy and when he told himself he was only going to take one ecstasy pill at this rave, his body wouldn't let him. He took one and it gave him a body high and he wanted to feel what he'd felt at the past raves when he took 4 or 5 ecstasy pills, so once again he fell into the feel good addiction and took another one. He found a water bottle and was so hot and dehydrated from dancing he chugged it all, little did he know 3 potent ecstasy pills were in it. This is the last and scary piece of evidence that supports what I've learned about raves. Most of the teenagers that attend raves are going there to meet new people and have a good time but a lot of the time they don't know what kind of pills they're taking or who can be trusted. The teenager who took five pills in the movie was rolling so hard, he couldn't even talk and he was leaning against a 10 foot sub screaming, "More baseee!" at the top of his lungs, because he felt as good as a little kid getting a new puppy for Christmas.

(The guy on the left in the yellow shirt, was the guy talked about in the paragraph above.)

From talking to my friends that have gone to a rave, they said there are policemen everywhere patrolling the site. Although they can't do anything to anyone unless they personally see them eating a pill, or if they have suspicion that you have drugs on you and are trying to distribute them for money. If you're just walking around on ecstasy, they can't do anything about it. In A Mid-Summer Nights Rave though, there are no police until the end when the entire rave gets busted. I'm not sure if the difference is because maybe raves back in the day didn't get patrolled like they do now? Or if someone over dosed or got into a fight back when there were no cops around back in the day, and higher authority thought it was necessary to have them there for safety issues.

I personally loved this movie even though it had no plot. I don't think I've ever agreed with a movie that didn't have a plot, but this was an acception. I would define this movie as a comedy, because most of the characters were hysterical and feckless which made the movie what it was. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this movie to just any person, because they'd probably just turn it off after the first thirty minutes. But if you have a good sense of humor and you're interesting in knowing what a rave looks like, this would be an informing movie for you to watch. Considering there was no plot, the message I got out of it was only that ecstasy bonds people. I don't know if that's a good message to portray to kids and teenagers because it might encourage them to try it. Over all it was extremely helpful for me to see this movie, because now I have that to use as a source in my future blogs.

Source

A Mid-Summer Nights Rave

Relfection Blog

When we were asked to pick a topic that we wanted to learn more about and that we were going to be stuck with for a long time, I had no idea what to chose. I thought about it more and more and I wanted to learn something that I could talk to my friends about. Then it hit me, a group of my friends got into ecstasy and I didn't really know much about it, so I wanted to learn all about it to be able to warn them what it does to your body. I knew barely anything about it, which is why I chose it as my topic. I would much rather write a blog each week instead of writing one big term paper on it. Since we focus on one topic each week, I think it's easier to store the information and actually learn what you're reading. I think it also helps us learn to site our sources because almost every week we have to do it. There's nothing I really don't like, the only thing I forget to do sometimes is add the two vocabulary words in.

I've learned a great deal of information about ecstasy. One of the facts that are most surprising to me is that ecstasy is non-addictive, but the drugs it's based with is the addictive part. It blows my mind because 9 out of 10 people would think the opposite of that and think just because it's a drug that it's addictive. I've also learned each about chemical in ecstasy and the specific things it does to your body. I like knowing this information because I can relay it to other people and warm them about the dangerous of drugs. One of the most interesting things I learned about was the history of where ecstasy originated from. I never would've though that it was only a mistake by two German scientists. But now that I've read that it wouldn't surprise me if that’s how other drugs came to our society because they are all from man made chemicals. I still feel like everything is abstemious, because ecstasy was once used in psychiatry but it shouldn't be used in large amounts or all the time.

I know I've learned a lot about ecstasy but I'm sure there is still so much more I can learn. I want to learn about where it's imported from and all the different kinds that there is. I'm interested in learning how much it takes to overdose, and how you know you've overdosed, like what the symptoms are? I want to become very auspicious in knowing everything there is to know about ecstasy.

Research Blog

The chemicals in ecstasy are MDMA, also known as (methylenedioymethamphetamine), cocaine, meth, lsd, and heroin and they each have different effects on and some on different parts of your body.

MDMA is in all ecstasy pills, so there for it's the most common. Once taken and given the time to have an effect on your body it stimulates many things. One of those things is called serotonin, which has the effect to change your mood, appetite, muscle contraction, sleeping habits, learning and memory. Besides humans it can also be found in plants, animals and certain types of fungi. The second thing MDMA stimulates is dopamine which is produced in several parts of the brain and can make you sleepy. The last thing that is affected by MDMA is norepinephrine which affects parts of the brain where attention and responding actions are controlled. (National Institute Of Health) MDMA affects those three areas of the brain, which is not as big of an affect as other drugs have on your body.

Cocaine is one of the many things ecstasy can be based with. Besides being based in ecstasy, you can also snort it, inject it, and smoke it. It's a brain chemical that releases pleasure and movement. The long term effects of this drug are your heart attack rate increases, chest pain, respiratory failure, seizures and headaches, strokes, abnormal pain and nausea. (Duhaime, Lloyd)It mainly affects your central nervous system and makes your blood pressure rise through the roof. This can be extremely bad or not severe at all depending on how much you do over how big of a time period.

Meth is highly addictive and when mixed with MDMA creates an unreasonable amount of pleasure. When using meth is releases a surge of dopamine (mentioned before) causing an insanely intense rush of pleasure. Over time if you are persistent with using meth, it makes it almost impossible to have pleasure or happiness without it, which is why it's so addictive. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) Meth creates a lot of paranoia, insomnia, extreme aggression, anxiety, and even death. If used for over a year, it deteriorates your body and rotes your teeth. A combination of MDMA and meth is dangerous, and one way people get addicted to ecstasy because meth is such an addictive drug.

LSD is a hallucinogenic that is often mixed with MDMA. LSD stands for lysergic acid diethylamide. It can come in the form of a pill, on a blotter sheep, or in a liquid form. LSD distorts your perception of reality which in some cases can be scary. It affects the serotonin system, which includes your mood, hunger, sexual behavior, body temperatures, sensory perception and muscle control. Once LSD is taken and given the time to hit your body, you start to see things you though you'd never imagine, feel sensations and hear weird things. (National Institutes of Health) Considering MDMA increases your serotonin and if LSD was mixed with MDMA you'd be literally out of your mind. You'd be feeling amazing while you'd be in your own reality. You might see snow during July or you could convince yourself you're a banana and start to peel yourself. If you take this, you need to be in a really happy environment because you can have a bad trip. If you have a bad enough trip you could convince yourself to jump off a cliff depending on what you're feeling.

The last thing ecstasy can be based with it heroin. It's right next to meth as the most addictive drug out there. What heroin does is it turns into morphine in the brain receptors ( a structure on the surface of a cell that selectively receives and binds a specific substance) that looks for endorphins. People like it because it relieves stress, pain, anxiety and gives them a sense of pleasure just like the other drugs I've talked about. It's dangerous because all the opiates (a narcotic drug that has opium) attack the part of the brain that controls your breathing, and if you're alone and you take too much of the drug you can die from suffocation. Its bad when mixed with ecstasy because if taken too much the withdrawals are very severe. It can be a 3-5 day process of nothing but shaking, sweats, diarrhea, insomnia, flu-like symptoms, cramps and goose bumps.

In each of my paragraphs, I've made it clear that each of these drugs is addictive because the main thing they create is a pleasurable sensation through-out your body. I've mentioned before in my earlier blogs that MDMA itself is not addictive; it's all the other things it's based with. Each drug does a little something different to each part of your body. (Spence, W. R.) Your body is a sacred place that should be taken care of and people shouldn't be putting these chemicals into their bodies because they had extremely bad side effects and long term effects.

Sites :]

"NIDA - Research Report Series - MDMA (Ecstasy) Abuse." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/researchreports/MDMA/MDMA4.html.

Duhaime, Lloyd. "Police Station Cocaine." Duhaime.org - Bringing Legal Information To The World. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://duhaime.org/LegalResources/PoliceStation/LawArticle-51/Cocaine.aspx#.

"Methamphetamine, crystal meth effects at SAMHSA's NCADI." Drug and alcohol abuse, treatment, prevention at SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Ed. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/GOVPUBS/PHD861/.

"Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP - InfoFacts." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/hallucinogens.html.

Spence, W. R. "Heroin." Yahoo! GeoCities: Get a web site with easy-to-use site building tools. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.geocities.com/cps17901/Drugs/heroin.html.

The Club Drug Survey

The survey I wrote, that I gave to ten people was short, sweet and straight to the point. I asked the questions I did, because I wanted to know how many people are familiar with ecstasy and what it does to your body. Some kids may be using it, thinking ecstasy is like weed and deleterious. I expected that no one knew any of the health effects of ecstasy, although I was proven wrong. 8 out of 10 people said they knew "some of the health effects", which to me is better than not knowing any of them at all. Out of the random 10 people that took my survey, I didn't think anyone would've checked the yes box for actually trying ecstasy. 2 out of the 10 people said yes. It's interesting to me because one was a junior girl, and the other was a senior boy. That doesn't really tell me if girls or boys use it more often, if I wanted to know the answer to that, I'd have to interview 100 students instead of 10 to get more variety. Although, asking someone if they have tried ecstasy can be considered a personal thing that they might not want to share, so some of the students that took the survey could've checked the no box to save their reputation. Based on the results of this survey, I'd like to research more about the age of kids when they starting taking ecstasy. I'd also like to research if there are reasons that kids are taking ecstasy other than it's fun. I think it'd be interesting to find out, and helpful for adults to talk with their kids about. I'm guessing there are specific reasons that kids need to feel the need to take a pill to make them feel excessive happiness. The last question I asked was do you think ecstasy is an addictive drug? 7 out of 3 people said it is an addictive drug. The other 3 people were correct, ecstasy itself is not an addicitive drug. The other drugs it's cut with is what makes you addicted. It's all the heroin, meth, cocaine, speed, and mescaline it's cut with. I'm sure the 7 people who thought it was addictive said that because they know it's a drug, and most people think every drug is addictive. I think people would be really surprised knowing that ecstasy is not addictive if they were educated about it. From my survey, I got completely different answers that I though I would've of, and it shows how kids need to be educated on all drugs. The biggest thing I'd like to research about ecstasy is how it's made, because it enervates your body more than you could ever imagine.

Website all about Ecstasy

The Denver DA website was extremely helpful in finding credible and accurate information about all areas of ecstasy. It's up to date because you're able to contact the Denver DA, so they obviously check it occasionally to read the feedback. The layout is very clean cut and simple. Most websites should be this way because it's much easier to find information. If its an informational website and has pictures everywhere, and different colors with crazy fonts, it's very distracting. Each topic they talk about has a link that's just a click away, which is easy to navigate. Although it's not visually appealing, the color scheme they chose goes together nicely. All the information is written well and it's laid out that so people of all ages can comprehend it and use it as a source.
On this website there is only one argument against ecstasy, which would be that it's nothing but harmful and bad. It makes sense because, it's written by the Denver DA, and it's something that they highly outlaw. If someone is researching ecstasy or just interested in it, they can find out: the health risks, about the distribution of ecstasy, what it is, and the consequences for being caught with it. The main goal of this website is to inform everyone about ecstasy, but mainly parents if they have any questions about what it is. Parents might find a tablet in their kids room and not know what it is, and by coming to this website they can find anything and everything they need to know about it. They can then talk to their kid and let them know the health dangers as well as how many years in prison you can receive if you're found with the substance. The website gives good visuals of what ecstasy can look like and there is no chicanery. Another use of this website could be if a teen was given something from a friend and they didn't know what it was, they'd be able to read all about it here and know not to take it.
This website gives a lot of helpful information and people probably use it a lot because it's credible, written efficiently and it doesn't belie facts.



Sites :]

Morrissey, Mitchell R. "Denver DA." District Attorney Home Page. Web. 07 Oct. 2009. .

Agony Of Ecstasy

Now a days, ecstasy is involved in raves. A rave is a dance party that's held in an abandoned warehouse or a club, and it's fueled by ecstasy and techno music. In recent years, ecstasy market has been expanded past the rave scene. Tom Lowe was an undercover cop that exclusively went to raves, and used chicanery to find ecstasy. Kids would offer it to him, and once it was obvious it was an undercover cop, they'd abjure something like,"Oh, no sorry I mis-understood you, that's not what I meant." Even their white lies, wouldn't get put past the cop and they'd be arrested. Last year, Lowe put some of the Latin-King gang members in jail for dealing with ecstasy distribution. Lowe thought ecstasy was mainly used at raves, but then found out it was being dealt with on the streets and massive amounts were being moved. Ecstasy has begun to attract professional drug dealers, who are far more aware of undercover cops, and who are much harder to track down. Since Ecstasy itself in a nonaddictive drug, people have began to cut it with things that are highly addictive, such as: methamphetamine, speed, heroin, cocaine and PCP. It's much more of a street drug than anything now. If this new trend continues to grow, and there is no stop put to it, ecstasy may no longer be the largely absolute, semi low-risk distraction that it's been. It will become a future gateway that leads to addiction and violence for thousands of young and innocent Americans.
Ecstasy is considered a felony anywhere in the world, since it's not aloud to be produced anywhere legally.
In Colorado,and you're over eighteen and caught with it, you can face a sentence in prison for up to twelve years. If you get caught with it and had the intention to sell or distribute it, you can face up to sixteen years in prison, and depending on the circumstances and the amount your caught with, you might face up to thirty-two years in prison. Fines to get you out can range from $3,000.00-$750,000.00. Although, if you're a minor possession to sell or distribute can lead up to two years in a juvenile detention center.
It's been proven today that the psychological effects of ecstasy are: paranoia, confusion, depression, anxiety, and hallucinations. The physical side effects are much worse though, they consist of: severe dehydration and body overheating, nausea, sweating, chills, tremors (shaking of the body, usually effecting fingers or hands) significantly increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tightness, blurred vision, kidney and heart failure, faintness, muscle breakdown, and brain damage. One of the main physical side effects that can lead to death is the severe hydration. When kids are dancing and moving constantly at a rave, their mouths get extremely dry and they are always craving water. If you drink too much watch you can drown your body and that leads to death.

Sites
Morrissey, Mitchell R. "DenverDA." Web.

History Of Methylenedioxymethylamphetamine

Ecstasy has been around for about 100 years. Ecstasy itself it a slang name for methylenedioxymethylamphetamine, as well as E, XTC, rolls, the club drug, the designer drug, the party drug, the hug drug, disco biscuits, white doves, love drug, lover's speed, and ills. The German scientists, Mannish and Jacobsohn created the drug on accident in 1912 when they were trying to create an intermediate to a vasoconstrictor (which is the narrowing of blood vessels resulting from closure of the muscular walls of the vessels, especially the large arteries, arterioles, and veins.) When blood vessels close, the flow of blood is deceased, which makes the skin pale because not enough blood is getting to the surface. Back then it was considered to be a weight loss drug but wasn't advertised strongly. The drug was unused for around 40 years until. It's next appearance was used in the US military during drug tests. They believed it would work on the soldiers like a lie detector, so they could find out the truth about certain things. Between the 1950's and the 1960's ecstasy was still undiscovered until Alexander Shulgin began to use it in his psychiatry practice (which is medicine that deals with diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders), which started in the late 1970's. He continued to experiment with psychedelic drugs and once he tried it on a friend who was about to quit psychiatry, and he immediately changed his mind and didn't want to quit. Shulgin then found out the power of the drug and kept it on the down low because he didn't want it to be abused. Other psychiatrists found this discovery and began to use it frequently on their patients to relate to them better and terminate defenses. The most intense affect that ecstasy had on people was how it would break down the walls of communication by taking feelings of remorse, fear and guilt away from the brain. Which is why all the street names for it are based off of happy feelings. During the year of 1984 was when people started to abuse it's use. Mainly college students took advantage of it, because it was easy to get. Some bars in Texas sold it because at that time it still wasn't illegal. Considering ecstasy wasn't nicotine or alcohol and didn't/couldn't have a paten put on it, it was became illegal after the public exposure. In June of 1985 congress passed a law that gave the D.E.A. (drug enforcement administration) rights to abrogate any substance that was harmful to public health. M.D.M.A. was tested on rats, and it caused brain damage. Although psychiatrists made a point that M.D.M.A. was helpful during their treatment, they didn't have enough convincing points to make the D.E.A. legalize it. Therefor the psychiatrists had no choice but to stop using it in their therapy. Ever since it has been exiled, people now are finding ways to make the substance their selves and are selling it illegally. Once you get involved, you can make a ton of profit. A jar of pills is 100 pills, and it can be bought for 700 dollars, which is 7 dollars a pill. And then you can take it into different cities and sell them for 20 dollars a pill, and that is 13 dollars for profit for each pill. It doesn't take a lot of acumen to find out that you can make extreme amounts of money buy selling drugs. There is a lot more history than I ever wouldn't expected, and I'm sure there is more un discovered stuff as well.

Sites

Wall, Aaron. "Ecstasy History." Drugs, Depression, &Anti Depressant Drugs. Web. 02 Oct. 2009. .

"In The Know Zone - Ecstasy." In the know zone. Ed. Syndistar, Inc. Web. 02 Oct. 2009. .

Ecstacy

ECSTACY

Ecstacy is a highly addictive drug, that people use to change their emotion. It's a stimulant for the brain that burns up the seretonen. Seretonen is a chemical in your brain the produces happiness, and when it's all burned up the only feelings you have left are depression, anger and sadness. That's where the addiction comes in, once the ecstacy wheres off and the comedown hits, some people can't take the depression so they purchase the drug more and more and the useage increases.
Ecstacy is normally taken at Raves. A rave is a place where loud techno is played, and different color lazers are flashing through-out the area. Ecstacy is insecurity. At a rave, everyone is extremely happy and open to pretty much anything. You'll be introduced to people that'll become your best friend instantly. You're complimented and you'll feel at home by 1000 strangers you've never met. That is the addiction.
-Kelly Fisher

Questions I Want To Explore
- How do you help people that have the addiction?
- What happens if you take too much ecstacy?
- What are all the chemicals in ecstacy?
- How is it made?
- What does it do to your body?