Prometheus 6   

I almost moved to Boston until I realized what they were talking about

Boston called ecstasy 'hot spot'
Ads will target teenage abusers

By Jim Geraghty, States News Service, 10/17/2003

WASHINGTON -- Boston teenagers are among the nation's leading abusers of the drug ecstasy, according to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. But parents do not seem to be addressing the rising danger.

"These are the notorious hot spots," said Steve Pasierb, president of the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America, pointing to a map that highlighted Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Denver, and Seattle. "It's heavy in the Northeast, and spreading around the country."

Comcast Cable, with about 2 million subscribers in Boston and millions elsewhere in New England, announced yesterday that the company is donating $51 million in advertising time over three years to help the Partnership launch the nation's first media campaign warning teenagers and parents about the dangers of ecstasy.

Pasierb said his organization launched the campaign in response to a 71 percent jump in teenagers' use of ecstasy between 1999 and 2001. One in nine American teenagers has taken ecstasy at least once.

But a recent survey of 1,200 parents by the Partnership found that while 90 percent of parents said they had heard of ecstasy, only about a quarter had talked to their children about it.

"We think there are two possible explanations," Pasierb said. "One, parents are more comfortable talking about drugs that they have firsthand or secondhand experience with, whether it's alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, or other drugs. Ecstasy is new to the scene."

He said the second reason parents do not talk about the drug is the widespread sense that their child is not likely to use or encounter the drug -- a perception that is wrong, he added.[P6: Ah, yes. Denial springs eternal…never goes out of style]