Cheat-Seeking Missles

Friday, November 11, 2005

The Shock Of An Ecstasy Death

My wife was crying again this afternoon.

It happens everytime she hears about another kid dying from Ecstasy or another designer drug. She's spent the last few years trying to stop that from happening through her Voice of the Victims films and all the work she does in that area. But of course the deaths still happen, and happen all too often.

This time she was crying for Brent Shapiro, Robert Shapiro's son. He died a while ago, but she'd been reading up on it via Nexis.

The ignorance and denial about the dangers of these drugs is so overwhelming. Just look at this interchange between Shapiro and Larry King from late last month:
R. SHAPIRO: Dr. Lacksmanan told me that [Brent] had a small amount of ecstasy based on reports that we know. He took one half a tab of ecstasy with a lot of water. The water increased the toxicity of the ecstasy, which I did not know.

KING: You mean had he not taken the water it might not have happened?

R. SHAPIRO: I don't know. I don't know.

KING: Ecstasy can kill you?

R. SHAPIRO: Not can, did, half a tablet from somebody who had been sober for 18 months.
People have so bought into the myth that Ecstasy is just a fun party drug, you often hear a shocked question like King's. He went on:
KING: Was something wrong with the ecstasy? I mean was it a bad ecstasy? I don't know anything about ecstasy.
Ecstasy is not manufactured by altruistic companies in pristine labs. If a kid takes a pill that looks just like the one he took last time, it's likely something very different.

And it doesn't even have to be bad Ecstasy to kill you. Cathy took the same Ecstasy a bunch of other kids at her Senior Prom took. She died. They didn't even get sick.

Please poke around Beth's site and get familiar with what's going on with these drugs and our kids -- even our kids who appear so clean cut. Look at these four kids, Sara, Erin, Cathy and Steven. They look like normal kids.

And they were. They just believed, as normal kids do, they hype about designer drugs. Erin is still alive, but struggling with a severe brain injury. The rest are gone.

Here's the order page. Beth's running a special. Do you know anyone who's life you'd like to save ... whether you think they're at risk or not? Then do something to protect them.

If you have a blog, please help Beth reach the kids before they make a fatal mistake! Please link to this post and to her blog.