A new survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America finds that teen-agers' use of marijuana has declined, but their use of ecstasy has doubled since 1995. As NPR's Margot Adler reports, ecstasy is beginning to gain the kind of popularity in dance and rave circles here in the US that it has held in Europe for many years.

MARGOT ADLER reporting:

Here is Simon Reynolds, the author of "Generation Ecstasy," describing the popularity of ecstasy in the United Kingdom today.

Mr. SIMON REYNOLDS (Author, "Generation Ecstasy"): In England, like, taking ecstasy is as normal as drinking a pint of lager, almost, for a certain generation.

ADLER: Raymond Kelly, commissioner of customs, says the situation in the United States has changed dramatically over the last two years. In 1997, customs seized 400,000 doses of ecstasy, but in the first eight months of this year...

Mr. RAYMOND KELLY (Commissioner of Customs): We've seized over eight million tablets, so clearly there is a tremendous increase. The vast majority of ecstasy tablets coming into the United States are manufactured in the Netherlands.

ADLER: Ecstasy is not a new drug by any means. It was patented by the German Merck Company in 1914. It was studied by the US military in the 1950s. In the late '70s and early '80s, there was underground use of MDMA by therapists and New Agers, who saw it as a drug that increased intimacy. But when it surfaced as a recreational drug, it attracted the attention of the DEA and it was classified as a Schedule A illegal drug(ph), the most restrictive category.

Drug and health officials describe a number of risks associated with ecstasy. The drug is made of a compound called methylene dioxymethamphetamine. The drug increases serotonin levels. It can affect body temperature, and a small number of people have died at all-night dances because their bodies overheated. There are some studies that say there may be memory loss after using ecstasy. There is disagreement over how good these studies are.

Jamal-- he would not give his last name -- started using ecstasy in 1992 as a college party and rave drug. Then, hearing about its dangers, he stopped for three years. Then this past summer he began to take ecstasy again with friends a couple times a month.

JAMAL (Ecstasy User): Now when I do it, we don't really party anymore. We kind of sit around and we light some candles and we all sit around and talk, really, and we talk like we've never talked before. It's hard to describe, but I think it allowed me to be a lot more open with people and to not feel ashamed about letting them know that I love them or that they mean a lot to me. Sometimes it's hard to tell your friends that because you feel a little strange, especially if it's a guy, you know, going to another guy -- 'Oh, my God, I love you. Here's my phone number.'

Unidentified Man #1: 'Let's go on vacation together.'

Unidentified Man #2: And then the next thing -- 'Let's go on vacation together.'

Unidentified Man #1: 'Here's my address.'

Unidentified Man #2: 'Here's my address. This is where I live.' 'Oh, my God, who did I talk to last night? Who did I give my phone number to?'

Unidentified Man #1: 'Where'--yeah, exactly.

ADLER: Joel and Jason Jordan joke about the intimacy created by ecstasy. They are brothers who have authored a book on rave art and flyer design called "Searching for the Perfect Beat."

Unidentified Man #2: We're joking about it because...

Unidentified Man #1: Because, I mean, we've been there.

Unidentified Man #2: Of course.

Unidentified Man #1: I mean, we've been there. Everybody's been there...

Unidentified Man #2: But that...

Unidentified Man #1: ...you know, but that's drug talk.

Unidentified Man #2: When their experience is over, they don't have these feelings anymore. That's why a lot of people do this drug, is because it gives them feelings of empathy and things that they naturally cannot tap into sometimes, which I think is kind of sad.

ADLER: At this point, ecstasy is primarily a dance and club drug, but in the late '70s, it was used by alternative therapists as a talking drug. Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, has been a proponent of researching ecstasy's use in therapy. Doblin has been going around the lecture and TV circuit with Sue Stevens, who used ecstasy with her husband Shane when he had terminal cancer. Sue Stevens says that ecstasy allowed them to break the silence over Shane's illness.

Ms. SUE STEVENS (Ecstasy Proponent): He wouldn't talk to me about it because he didn't want to upset me. I wouldn't talk to him because I didn't want to be upset. And that one night, that first session, we sat down and talked, opened up to each other. Everything that was inside of us we told each other. So for the very first time, we were able to talk about the cancer and about death.

ADLER: Alan Leschner, the director of NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is quick to insist that there is no scientific basis for the therapeutic use of ecstasy.

Mr. ALAN LESCHNER (Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse): There has never been a clinical trial demonstrating the therapeutic efficacy of MDMA for anything. The situation today for me harks back a bit to what we experienced with LSD in the '60s and '70s, when people were telling us it was going to have tremendous therapeutic value. It, too, turned out to be a very dangerous substance.

ADLER: Leschner says it's one thing to talk about terminally ill patients, another thing to talk about kids with a future. Ecstasy supporters argue that almost all the deaths attributed to the drug were preventable. They argue that most deaths occurred because people did not drink adequate fluids while doing vigorous dancing. Some of the drugs that led to the deaths were not MDMA, and there is some agreement that knockoff or copycat versions of ecstasy have led to more problems than the drug itself. But drug enforcement and health officials argue that that fact should not lure people into thinking ecstasy is safe.

How did ecstasy achieve such popularity as a club drug? Here again is Simon Reynolds, the author of "Generation Ecstasy."

Mr. REYNOLDS: There is a sort of amphetamine content of the experience that goes well with clubs. You can stay up later without feeling tired; it gives you energy. But what really connected and forged this connection between ecstasy and dance music was when people found there was a real fit between that sort of ecstasy sensation and very repetitive dance music made using synthesizers.

(Soundbite of dance music)

Mr. REYNOLDS: There's something special about this kind of music that's based around loops and this kind of puts you into a trance. You kind of step out of time a little bit.

ADLER: Reynolds believes that the drug has affected the culture of the United Kingdom. He says more than a million tablets are being consumed by British youth every weekend.

Mr. REYNOLDS: Especially, like, in England it was devastating, because you imagine what the English were like, and then suddenly they're all out hugging each other and saying, 'I really love you. You're my best mate, but it's not the drugs talking.'

ADLER: And how did they feel afterwards, the next day? I mean, were they still talking that way...

Mr. REYNOLDS: ...(Unintelligible).

ADLER: ...or did it...

Mr. REYNOLDS: Yeah. English people now are much more huggy and affectionate. In part, I think it's the European thing. Like, people are very kissy. Like, when they see each other they do the kiss on either side of the cheek. But I think a lot of it is ecstasy culture.

ADLER: Reynolds also argues that there's something peculiarly appropriate about the popularity of this drug in our stressed-out workaholic society.

Mr. REYNOLDS: People these days are so--time is so scarce that they just want to go straight to the peak of the party. They don't want the buildup: the nervous milling around, the drinking and drinking until finally the ice breaks. So the idea of this pill that, like, you know, takes about 45 minutes to an hour to really come on and then you're in this intense, happy, happy phase is quite sort of a modern idea.

ADLER: Not only modern. The culture of raves and ecstasy has seeded itself into American popular culture. Joel and Jason Jordan say they often see their own art and poster work stolen by major ad companies.

Unidentified Man #1: Even, like, the Microsoft ad where they show--there's these kids dancing with dilated pupils, OK, which is clearly, like, a reference to ecstasy, OK? And it says `Where do you want to go today?' And it's like...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Unidentified Man #1: I want to go to bed.

Unidentified Man #2: Yeah, and it's like 6 in the morning. These kids should be going to bed.

Unidentified Man #1: And that mint commercial where the lady takes a bite of mint and her eyes turn, like, green and then she's like...

Unidentified Man #2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Unidentified Man #1: And they're all at a club and stuff.

Unidentified Man #2: Yeah, yeah.

ADLER: If rave culture has become so much a part of American culture, it may explain why Jamal, who stopped using ecstasy because of the risks and then three years later started using it again, has this response to the question of danger.

JAMAL: It does worry me, but everything worries me, down to putting hand lotion on your hands, there's chemicals that are going in your body. And there's a point where you just have to draw the line and say, 'I'm just going to go have a good time for right now and worry about it later.'

ADLER: It's a very American response. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

(Soundbite of dance music)

SIEGEL: The right to privacy in the bedroom, just ahead on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

(Soundbite of music)

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