Club drugs, popular for years at all-night rave parties, are moving steadily mainstream, and kids say the drugs, particularly Ecstasy, are easy to get in schools and neighborhoods.

Experts cite the emerging club-drug scene as one of the two key changes - the other being an increasing supply of exceptionally pure heroin ‹ in the "otherwise stable" illicit drug landscape since 1999.

"Availability of club drugs has increased dramatically across the nation, especially for Ecstasy, which has increased in nearly every city," according to Pulse Check, the twice-yearly drug abuse trend report from the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy.

Pulse Check reports that the use of club drugs, which include Ecstasy, ketamine and GHB, has emerged or intensified over the past year in 17 cities: Boston; Chicago; Columbia, S.C.; Denver; Detroit; El Paso; Honolulu; Los Angeles; Memphis; Miami; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; Portland, Maine; Seattle; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Washington, D.C.

"The data are clear that it's moved out of the club scene," says Alan Leshner, executive director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md. "We are now seeing the drugs used by everybody. Parents can't just say, 'My kid doesn't go to clubs, so I don't need to worry about it.' "

Law enforcement authorities in Miami say that club drugs are "everywhere, even at ice skating rinks," Pulse Check reports. In New York, Long Island youths are buying the drugs from the Internet and from dealers at local malls. In Seattle and Billings, Mont., the drugs are sold on high school and college campuses, police say.

Last year, more than 1.4 million people ages 18 to 25 reported taking Ecstasy at least once, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found. Among students surveyed in 2000, 8.2% of 12th-graders, 5.4% of 10th-graders and 3.1% of eighth-graders say they used Ecstasy in the past year.

"That means 165,000 eighth-graders, kids who are 13 and 14 years old, are experimenting with their own brains," Leshner says.

Ecstasy, by far the most popular of the club drugs, produces both stimulant and psychedelic effects, and users often dance all night. Ketamine, an anesthetic used mostly on animals, is a disassociative drug that produces hallucinations. GHB is a tasteless, odorless depressant that sedates and intoxicates users and may be used to come down from Ecstasy.

GHB also has been used by rapists to subdue their victims.

Club-drug users and sellers, Pulse Check says, tend to be "young, white, middle-class males and females" who use the drugs in combination with other drugs, such as hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and prescription drugs. Teens or college-age students may gather to "trail mix" at a potluck drug party where various drugs are pooled and shared.

Most club-drug activity occurs in the suburbs, the report says.

"Ecstasy user and seller groups are also expanding to include more blacks and Hispanics, and use and sales settings continue to expand from exclusively nightclubs and raves to high schools, streets and open venues," the report says.

The use of Ecstasy and other club drugs has spawned an entire culture and lingo. An Ecstasy high is called "rolling." Ecstasy users become bewitched by flashing lights and music with a steady bass beat. Teens may attend all-night rave parties featuring techno music and light shows that cater to an Ecstasy user's heightened sensitivities to light, sound and touch.

To capitalize on their heightened senses, partiers wave light sticks, tape flashing "belly lights" to their navels or wear luminescent, flickering bracelets called Toobies. Users may wear fuzzy sweaters or other soft fabrics. Some Ecstasy users coat surgical masks with vapor rubs for the cooling rush sensation.

Ecstasy also causes involuntary jaw clenching, so users suck on pacifiers and candy necklaces to alleviate the effects.

Abuse experts and law enforcement authorities say that as users get bored with Ecstasy alone, they are experimenting with dangerous drug combinations. Ecstasy users may snort a "bump" of ketamine to intensify the hallucinatory aspects of Ecstasy at the peak of a "roll." As the Ecstasy wears off, users may drink a shot glass or capful of GHB to ease off Ecstasy's speed effects.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks emergency-room visits in 21 metropolitan areas, reported 4,969 emergency-room visits for GHB overdoses, 4,511 visits for Ecstasy and 263 visits for ketamine in 2000.

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