Dancing with Danger

Among other illegal drugs, ecstacy pill was also causing high on users which makes them use it again once they got hooked.

Oi Tik Keong, a 14 year old boy was fascinated at how his friends danced wildly with the sounds at a disco bar in Penang, Malaysia.

He asked how they do it when one of his friends handed him a pill that he paid with 20 ringgit (about $5) which they divided by them both.

Within 20minutes, he felt light headed and dizzy.

Euphoria began washing away the boy's inhibjtion, he got into the dance floor and gyrated with hundred others with the music. For five hours, he danced with abandon stopping only to drink ice cold water to soothe his parched throat.

The pill called ecstacy, soon took hold of the young boys life. He'd wander from home before dawn, sleeping til late in the afternoon despite his parents protests.

He was once a healthy young boy who grew thin and sickly as his appetite waned. His addiction caused him to buy the drug from his hard earned money instead of using it in important things he might need.Sometimes steal from his father and asked money from his sister. Friends avoided him knowing he would only ask money to buy a pill.

For four years he lived in desperation. Good thing, he had a cousin who introduced him to a rehabilitation center where he was successfully cleaned out of his addiction.

Oi was just one among thousands of young men and women in Asia who was caught up in the drugs craze years back.

Ecstacy which was often consumed in discos and nightclubs is actually a chemical called methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. Though illegal was very popular. Within half an hour that it enters the bloodstream, the drug triggers the release of serotonin, the body's primary mood regulator. This makes users dance and party to the point of exhaustion. Additionally, with consumption, it heightens sense of touch, freedom from inhibition and increase sexual desire.

By word of mouth and on the internet, ecstacy is promoted as harmless. A website claimed that users report that the experience is very pleasant and highly controllable. .Even at the peak of the effect, people can usually deal with important matters.

Medical authorities, on the otherhand point out the risks. Heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature rises under the influence of the drug, often bringing on overheating and dehydration.

"As body temperature rises, muscle cells can be damaged, releasing substances that can shut down the kidneys", Says Dr Lai Siang Hui of Singapore's Centre for Forensic Medicine. "Liver damage, spontaneous bleeding, seizures and brain swelling can result.

Ecstacy can be harmful to one person, yet leaves other users with little more than a hangover. One individual can have a pleasure using it while another experience very adverse effects, even death. This unpredictability of the drugs effect makes it very dangerous.

Pamela, for example was a 19-year old college student who attended a party on St. Valentine's Day. She begun to vomit later that night and rushed to the bathroom. When she emerged, she collapsed, gasping for air and foaming at the mouth.

By the time an ambulance arrived, she was dead. An autopsy revealed she suffered from an adverse reaction to ecstasy.

Five years until 2003, ecstacy was a primary contributing factor in death. Victims were healthy young people who should not have died.

One particular hospital in Asia admitted that they treated several ecstacy-abuse case every weekend. Most cases involved first time users who complained of rapid heartbeats and showed signs of emotional instability.

Like any other illegal drugs, it is expensive but local productions make it more affordable. One more thing is that tablets sold on streets are often laced with other substances including speed, prescription drugs, and even insect repellent -which makes the drug more unpredictably dangerous.

Most users are teenagers who are being bribed by their peers into using it. Some take it without their knowledge which was added on their drinks. Teenagers are at the peak of emotional hormonal changes that's why they spend most of their time with peers and make themselves entertained by partying on bars and discos.

Parents need to keep watch of their teens of any tell-tale signs, if not ecstacy then its other abusive drugs. Mood swings, irritable behavior, loss of interest in school and family, sudden request use of money which they don't usually do, loss of appetite and change in sleeping pattern are the signs parents need to be aware of.

A good family bond and constant reminder of telling your kids of the effects of trying to go with bad influence peers keep them from doing such thing. We have all under gone puberty stage so we need to understand how they feel, thus getting ourselves on their shoes and befriending them when you see they are becoming distant towards you is a must. Surrounding them with love and establishing rapport make them at bay from bad influences.

07-18-21

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