Campus drug officials say Ecstasy has left UConn

By Matt Dwyer

UConn officials who deal with illegal drugs say ecstasy seems to be down and out at the university, at least for now.

"We have not had any instances in several years with ecstasy," said UConn Police Captain Craig Rich, who said there were several major busts involving the drug in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He said those were the biggest years for the then-hot, new drug at UConn.
"We have not seized any in the last year at all. It has died out significantly," Rich said.

Ecstasy is a synthetic stimulant and psychedelic drug that alters a user’s perception, and enhances enjoyment of touch, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The federal institute also says the drug can be addictive, interferes with the body's ability to regulate temperature, and can increase heart rate and blood pressure, causing muscle tension, teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision and difficulty for people with heart or circulatory problems.

"There has been a drop off in ecstasy use," said UConn Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Services Tom Szigethy. He says it is difficult to quantify the decline, because there is no efficient database at the university to calculate drug use by individual substance.

Nationwide, the Community Epidemiology Work Group, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that lifetime ecstasy use by twelfth graders dropped from 8 percent in 2003, to 5 percent in 2005. 

Szigethy said he has had no students referred to him this year for ecstasy counseling, but he was unsure if any other counselors in his office had seen any students who were using the substance.

"We went through a period where ecstasy was big, but now you don't hear kids talking about E," said HEART Program Coordinator Janice Wilbur. The HEART Program is part of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Services. HEART focuses on treatment of and intervention with students who may have substance abuse problems.

Wilbur says the decline of ecstasy is part of the regular rise and fall in the use of certain drugs. "They just cycle in and out. Some kids get really into them, and then some bad things happen to some people. Maybe that impacts the popularity of the drug."

Szigethy said "Types of substances [used] change every couple of years or so, you will see different waves of drugs that come through."

Rich agrees that drug use goes in cycles. "There are always new things coming out, it is usually a fad and usually they don't last very long, and we are back to the same old things we have been dealing with in this country for a hundred years: Marijuana, cocaine, and heroin."

"You always have marijuana," Rich said. "It has always been the most prevalent illegal drug we see. Over 90 percent of our illegal drug seizures are marijuana."

Rich says abuse of prescription drugs is a crime, so UConn Police do deal with those drugs as well. "We see use of prescription drugs like Rittalin, ADHD drugs, painkillers like Vicodin, and misuse of mood altering prescription drugs [combined], probably second to marijuana.

"I think Prescription drug abuse is more of a problem than it used to be because there are a myriad of drugs out there now," Rich said. "There are so many mood altering drugs, drugs for ADHD, and information about how to abuse them is readily available on the internet. I think sometimes you have people experimenting with things they wouldn't have [experimented with] without the information."

When Szigethy ranked abused drugs, the Alcohol and Other Drug Services director included legal substances like alcohol, which he said always tops the list as the most popular, followed by marijuana, then followed by over-the-counter or prescription drugs including Adderall and Rittalin.

"[ADHD drugs are the current wave right now," Szigethy said. "They are an issue more around midterms and finals, as a study aid. Back in the day [students] would drink a pot of coffee to stay up all night. Now they will pop an Adderall pill."

Wilbur also said there is a growing use of pharmaceuticals among students. "There are more and more college students on some type of psychotropic medication, so I think pharmaceuticals are more available than they ever have been.

"They go home and there are pain killers in the medicine cabinet, and mom and dad are on anti-depressants." Wilbur said. "Somebody else is on anti-anxiety medication. [Prescription drugs] are just really available to kids."

Several UConn officials who deal with substance abuse say the university's drug problem is neither growing or shrinking.

"I don't think it’s that different than it was when I came in 1991," said Wilbur. "I think drugs cycle in and out of favor. When I first came, LSD was big, then it went away, now I am hearing more reports about it. Is it back? I don't know. It is more common than 5 years ago."

Szigethy said UConn used to have reputation as a party school, but that reputation is fading. "The reputation attracted students who may already have had [substance abuse] problems. As the school's trajectory heads into higher academic standards, you see fewer students coming in just to party. But with higher-achieving students you can also have pretty severe partying with the mantra of 'We work hard, we party hard.'"