The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) decided it would change its standard operating procedure by confronting a problem before it reached a crisis mode. With old-line drugs like marijuana, heroin, and cocaine, the response was readied when the abuse of these drugs was out of control and use was skyrocketing. With the so-called "club drugs," MDMA ("ecstasy"), GHB, flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), ketamine, methamphetamine, and LSD, NIDA decided to act at the first hint of increasing popularity.

These drugs are commonly used by young adults at all-night dance parties, known as "raves" and "trances," dance clubs, and bars. Each drug has potentially life-threatening effects. Two of the drugs, GHB and flunitrazepam, have been associated with "date-rape" and sexual assault cases around the country. National surveys have shown slight increases in the use of these drugs the last two years in a row.

The Club Drugs initiative was launched in December 1999. Six months later, observers are cautiously optimistic about how successful the initiative will be at reducing current use and preventing future use of club drugs.

The Club Drugs initiative is a multimedia educational campaign that was the progenitor of the steroid abuse initiative launched by NIDA last month. The Club Drugs campaign involves a mixture of print, broadcast, and Web media to educate teens, parents, and school professionals on the often extreme dangers of club-drug use.

The centerpiece was the distribution of 250,000 copies of a card showing a color-enhanced scan of two halves of the brain, one brain on ecstasy, the other normal. On the back of the card is a message: "Ecstasy. A not so bright idea," followed by brief information and a referral to NIDA’s Web site, <www. clubdrugs.org>, for more information. By mid-March, the site had recorded more than 170,000 visits.

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., director of NIDA, explained, "What we’re trying to do, in nonhyperbolic ways, is to explain what drugs do, and then people will make more rational decisions.

"The biggest determinant of drug use is always the perception of harmfulness; the more harmful people think it is, the less they use it," Leshner told Psychiatric News.

Several drug abuse counselors told Psychiatric News that the cards do attract the interest of young adults. How well they lead them to the appropriate, correct information remains to be seen.

"The downside," said Leshner, "is we won’t know for probably a year or two whether or not this statistically makes a difference, but what I can say is it’s getting a lot of notice."