July 25, 2000
Ecstasy: Underestimating the Threat
Steven S. Martin
Scientist
Center
for Drug and Alcohol Studies
University of Delaware
The Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control-Testimony
Chairman Grassley and Senator Biden, Members of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Steven Martin, and I am a research Scientist at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies at the University of Delaware. The University of Delaware is a Land, Space, Sea, and Urban Grant Research University of 21,000 students located in Newark, Delaware. Sixteen thousand of the students are undergraduates and 7,200 live on campus. I appreciate the opportunity to address you today on the issue of Ecstasy on campus.
I know that our Dean of Students Timothy Brooks submitted a document commenting on the drug, Ecstasy, from his vantage point as a college administrator. That statement will be entered into the record. I want to amplify a few of his observations in my remarks and to add some information from my own work and studies.
As you may know, Ecstasy has been around since 1914, became a "new age" phenomenon in the 1970s, and was recognized as a Schedule I drug in 1985. Still, through the late 1980s and early 1990s, we were getting information that Ecstasy was being used by young adults and working professionals as a party drug. Only recently are we beginning to see a new and disturbing trend of use by younger people. The University of Michigan "Monitoring the Future" surveys for 1999 showed significant increases from 1998 in use nationally for 10th and 12th graders: 4.4% of 10th graders and 5.6% of 12th graders reported Ecstasy use in the past year. No other drug showed a significant increase in past year use in these national data. We have some information from our survey of Delaware 11th graders, which indicates an increase in past year "designer drug" use, including Ecstasy, from 3% in each of Spring 1998 and Spring 1999 to 7% in Spring 2000. No other category of drug use we follow showed a marked increase among Delaware 11th graders.
Use of Ecstasy is spreading to college campuses as well. A researcher from the CORE Institute in Illinois indicated that the most recent study done in 1999 by the Institute found that 7.4% of college and university students nationally used Ecstasy in the past year, a marked increase from reports in previous years. As Dean Brooks indicated in his document, University of Delaware students have had a relatively low interest in Ecstasy, but it has risen, particularly in the last two years. Delaware is a participant in both the CORE surveys and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Surveys which include information on self-report of Ecstasy use. In the Fall of 1992 only 2% of our students indicated that they had used Ecstasy at least once in the previous year (CORE survey). That number rose to 3% in the Spring of 1997 (HSPH), 4% by the Fall of 1998 (CORE), and 9% in the Spring of 1999 (HSPH). Ecstasy use was the only drug (including cigarettes and alcohol) that went up at the University between 1997 and 1999. These numbers come from surveys with different methodologies, so they are not strictly comparable. However, they do indicate a pattern of recent increase. Happily, the data show that relatively few users are current or regular users. It appears at the moment that use is still an occasional fling and not a frequent pattern for our college students. But clearly Ecstasy use appears to be on the rise, and both Dean Brooks and I think that it is now moving from the all night dance party scene to becoming part of college and university cultures across the country.
Ecstasy use is appearing in campus area criminal justice statistics as well -- again in small but increasing numbers, Dean Brooks queried other Campus Judicial Affairs departments nationally about the use and abuse of Ecstasy. He received 19 responses from a range of campuses. Most indicated some recent involvement with disciplinary cases concerning the use or selling of Ecstasy. Most colleges reported rumors of significant Ecstasy use. Clearly, administrators who responded to the query were very concerned about the potential impact of Ecstasy use on their campuses. I know from talking to students in my class on Alcohol, Drugs and Crime this Spring that rumors of use are prevalent at the University of Delaware too. Such rumors are supported by recent information from the Delaware State Police. Captain Ray Hancock and Sergeant Tim Hulings recently told me that they had no cases of Ecstasy possession in all of 1999 but 12 cases in the most recent 6 months, most in the Newark, DE area.
I have highlighted some data from Delaware because that is what I know. However, I think the numbers from the State of Delaware and the University of Delaware are simply indicative of national trends that need to be recognized and addressed by secondary schools and colleges and universities nationwide. In his document, Dean Brooks noted that there appears to be more and more concern about the health risk of Ecstasy, everything from the drug masking the sense of thirst to psychological problems to major organ failure. He suggested that college administrators need to take a two-pronged approach to the use of this drug: first, develop effective educational programs especially for incoming freshmen that highlight the health and other risks; and second, take swift disciplinary action when the drug is found on campus. I would add to his conclusion that we need to begin that two-pronged attack even earlier in high school or middle school.
Again, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today.