During a recent session, four black students, all men ranging in age from 19 to 24, were eating chicken and pasta when a student dropped a flier for a spring break ski trip on their lunch table. One of the guys nodded his head at the flier. It'll be there, he said, referring to ecstasy. While an increasing number of black and Hispanic youth are trying the drug, ecstasy use in those communities lags far behind use in white communities, according to experts and students from communities such as Hempstead and Central Islip. Phoenix House officials say the difference in kids' drug choice is mostly economic.
Money is a factor, but youth say drug choice is also cultural.
Black kids will do a lot of crazy things, but they won't put their life on the line messing with something like ecstasy, said sophomore Joy Botting of Hempstead High. The medical dangers associated with MDMA do not apply to every ecstasy pill, because a hit of ecstasy is basically a mystery pill until its examined, police say. And there's no way to tell whether or not a pill was pressed in a laboratory setting or in some teenager's basement. The chemical makeup of the pills presents a problem for police, said Det. Hall Coleman of the Suffolk Police narcotics division.