Jan 4, 2008 9:05 pm US/Central
Drug Officials Warn Of 'Extreme Ecstasy' Dangers
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is warning Americans about Extreme Ecstasy, a dangerous new drug illegally crossing the Canadian border into the United States.
The poly-drug combination is a mix ecstasy laced with methamphetamine.
Police estimate that two million tablets are being produced every week in Canada. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, some of those tablets are already in the United States, and dealers are targeting young people.
Kay Degel said that she had a 30 year addiction to methamphetamine. "I felt euphoria," she said. "I felt that feeling when you eat chocolate or when you're in love. It's just a good feeling. Your heart's beating faster. You got a lot of energy."
When that feeling left, her addiction took over.
"It's evil," Degal said. "It's evil."
Don Fielding is a local licensed counselor. "When you're dealing with illicit drugs, clandestine drugs," he explained, "there's always the possibility that you never know what you're going to get."
Fielding said that drugs laced with methamphetamine is a growing threat, and Ecstasy users are typically younger people, in their teens or 20s. For an adolescent, the mixture can be deadly. "Here, you have a brain that's not fully developed," he said. "And we're introducing very powerful stimulants. I just feel like that's a scenario for disaster."
Counselors have said that they do not see many patients for dependency to Ecstasy, but methamphetamine is highly addictive. Fielding believes that Extreme Ecstasy is just another way to get users hooked.
Degal stopped using methamphetamine 12 years ago. "I was locked up in the Tarrant County Jail in 1995," she said. "Meth took away my freedom and it took away what I loved most in the world: my family."
Incarceration, Degel said, made her realize that her life had a purpose. "I don't go to church on Sunday. I'm not a religious person, but I am a spiritual person, and I owe everything, I owe my entire recovery to God."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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