Chat Transcript: Ecstasy

ByABC News
December 27, 2000, 2:18 PM

Oct. 3 -- Ecstasy is the hottest illegal drug on the market. And along with its popularity come copycat drugs, which can be lethal. Enter DanceSafe, a self-described harm-reduction organization whose goal is to promote health and safety within the rave and nightclub community. The nonprofit group sends volunteers to rave parties to test pills that users may think to be Ecstasy, but in fact may be something even more dangerous. But no matter what the results are, testers always hand back the pills to the individual. Law enforcement agencies and parents are critical of DanceSafe, saying that volunteers are not licensed technicians and that illegal drugs should be confiscatednot handed back to users. Emanuel Sferios, national director of DanceSafe and Steve Casteel, chief intelligence officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration joined us in a chat. Below is a transcript.

Moderator at 3:58pm ET

Welcome Emanuel Sferios.

Emanuel Sferios at 4:00pm ET

Hi, I'm Emanuel Sferios, I'm the founder and executive director of DanceSafe. We're a national nonprofit harm-reduction organization, promoting health and safety in the rave and nightclub community. One of the health issues among youth, not just in the rave community but youth everywhere, is drug use. We utilize a peer-based prevention program along with a harm-reduction strategy, which provides non-abstentionist, lifesaving information to those who make the choice to experiment with drugs.

reyna from saturn.connectexpress.com at 4:01pm ET

What positive feedback have you received from this program? Have anyparents supported you? What about police?

Emanuel Sferios at 4:01pm ET

We have received enormously positive feedback from every media article about us. We have spoken in high schools, we have parents who have thanked us; and in every city in which we operate, we have had the full cooperation from police, who themselves are safety-minded.

We have spoken to police at our booths, while we were testing pills, who have granted the users amnesty-- meaning that they have agreed not to arrest users who seek out our services, because they recognize that fake Ecstasy tablets, like those containing PMA,are far more dangerous, and our program is a public health service that saves lives.

Moderator at 4:03pm ET

What has been the response from clubgoers to your organization?

Emanuel Sferios at 4:03pm ET

We receive approximately 200 thousand hits a day to our website. About ten thousand unique visitors a day. Since we started, approximately a year and a half ago, we have received over ten thousand e-mails, and approximately eight or nine of those have been polite e-mails saying that they think our program is misguided. And the rest have been thankful of what we do, many of whom have said they can't believe that a private organization like us has to resort to fund-raising to do what the government themselves ought to be doing.

alex sawyer from dc.ziplink.net at 4:04pm ET

In what cities do you have active programs?

Emanuel Sferios at 4:05pm ET

Currently we have officially incorporated chapters in the San Francisco Bay area; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles; Pittsburgh; Sacramento; Boston, Massachusetts; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Central Florida; and there's three new ones that I've been on vacation for the last couple of weeks and I'm not sure exactly where they are. But they're all posted on our website. And there are about 15 more groups forming that we hope to incorporate by the end of the year, after we train them and they demonstrate professionalism and responsibility.

Heather from proxy.aol.com at 4:05pm ET

Does DanceSafe have a website?

Emanuel Sferios at 4:06pm ET

Yes, we do. It's www.dancesafe.org. And on the website, we have also posted our official response to the "20/20" episode, which clears up some of the misunderstandings that people might have after watching the show.

JuicyJuice at 4:06pm ET

What was your reaction to the segment on 20/20 last night?

Emanuel Sferios at 4:09pm ET

I thought that the segment was rather sensationalistic, although the footage of us was fair and represented us fairly accurately. Although I was a little upset that the producers chose to ignore so many aspects of our programs, like our peer counseling programs, like the fact that we have support from most law enforcement, that we absolutely do not see ourselves in an adversarial relationship with police or the DEA. We felt it was a little sensationalistic, and in one sense irresponsible, and that is that they said that there have been dozens of Ecstasy overdoses around the world, which is not true. We think this is irresponsible because the deaths that have resulted around the world after individuals have consumed Ecstasy, have been related to heat stroke, not the amount of Ecstasy the person took. By calling them overdoses, this gives the impression to young people that they will be safe if they only take one pill, when in fact people have died after taking only one pill of Ecstasy. It's very important that we understand exactly why young people are dying at raves, and that the causes are more related to overcrowded hot venues, hours of aerobic dancing without drinking enough water. People have died at raves from heat stroke who haven't consumed Ecstasy at all.

Andy B from collins.rockwell.com at 4:09pm ET

Do you believe that DanceSafe saves lives? And in particular, could DanceSafe have helped saved the lives of the two young people featured on the program?