In 1985, the DEA ordered that MDMA be classified as illegal. To hear central Indiana authorities tell it, what drove smugglers to bring tens of thousands of Ecstasy doses into the area every month was basic economic theory. They supplied the stuff because young people demanded it. Jeff Kehr, a Monroe County deputy prosecutor who heads the South Central Indiana Narcotics Strike Force, said he suspects Ecstasy use might be approaching epidemic proportions. Earlier this week, investigators announced the arrest of a man they described as a kingpin in the U.S. distribution of Ecstasy.
Officials say the use of Ecstasy statewide is rising at an alarming rate.
Although college campuses are primary targets of distributors, the drug also known as MDMA is so readily available that many teens can buy it at school and on the street corner. Kehr said most Ecstasy use in Bloomington doesn't seem to be on the Indiana University campus but rather among high-schoolers. I have a lot of friends who have taken it. Patrick, a rugby player who intends to major in actuarial science at Purdue University next year, said he had never taken Ecstasy and that the drug was unheard of in Bloomington until about a year ago. Now, he said, it's easy to find.