Drug Chief Sounds Warning

President Clinton’s drug policy advisor warned of an “explosive increase” in the use of the drug Ecstasy by young people who are poorly educated about new substances they use to get high or build muscles.

Briefing reporters on his final report about America’s drug problem, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey noted that drug education and prevention efforts have not kept up with the onslaught of new drugs such as Ecstasy, known chemically as methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. Use of MDMA, once mainly an East Coast drug, has spread rapidly across the country, McCaffrey said, with an “explosive increase in exposure among our children.”