No vacation when ‘Molly’ visits

If your teenage children start talking about “Molly,” they’re probably not talking about a new friend from school, but a drug that is making its way through the Nassau County drug culture, particularly with teens and young adults, police sources say.

“We have seen a huge upswing in the use of Molly in the past year, particularly in every club and bar that allows kids younger than 21 to come in,” says Sgt. Brian Sweeney a member of the Nassau County Police Department’s narcotics unit. “This has probably been going on for longer, but we don’t see it until it starts to really affect people. Molly along with other forms of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine) has become the new gateway drug for teens in our county.”

“The kids don’t know what they are getting into,” Sweeny added. “They hear rumors that the drug is pure and can even be healthy. They take it and get a real high, but three days later they’re sitting in their rooms, staring at the wall and very depressed. They don’t know what it is doing to their body.”

“Molly,” is the street name for the powdered or crystal[zed form of MDMA, which has been a popular drug at music festivals this year, CNN said recently in an hour-long report about the drug scene nationally.

References to “Molly” can be found in a number of hip-hop songs, such as Kanye West’s “Mercy,” in which he sings, “Something about Mary, she’s gone off that Molly.”

According to the on-line Urban Dictionary, Molly, short for molecule, is pure MDMA, unlike Ecstasy, which generally is laced with other ingredients, such as caffeine or methamphetamine. According to Pax Prentiss, co-founder and CEO of Passages rehabilitation centers in Southern California, molly users tend to be ages 16 to 24.

Sweeny agrees.

“Most of the 84 arrests we have made for using Molly, MDMA and Ecstasy since 2012 have been teens and young adults,” he said. “Those numbers are low, just the tip of the iceberg. We don’t actually know that the drug involved was MDMA until the tests come back from the crime lab. By then the case has been classified as unknown drugs, and it is never reclassified to show that it was Molly.” The website for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says that MDMA is a Schedule I controlled substance, which means it has a high potential for abuse, and no accepted use in medical treatment. The DEA notes that MDMA can cause confusion, anxiety, depression, paranoia, sleep problems, and drug craving. The drug also can cause muscle tension, tremors, involuntary teeth clenching, muscle cramps, nausea, faintness, chills, sweating, and blurred vision.

“High doses of MDMA can interfere with the ability to regulate body temperature, resulting in a sharp increase in body temperature (hyperthermia), leading to liver, kidney and cardiovascular failure. Severe dehydration can result from the combination of the drug’s effects and the crowded and hot conditions in which the drug is often taken,” the DEA website reports.

While fewer than 4 percent of emergency room visits nationally in 2009 were due to MDMA use, the national Drug Abuse Warning Network found that from 2004 to 2009, there was a 123 percent increase in the number of emergency room visits involving MDMA taken alone or in combination with pharmaceuticals, alcohol or both.

Sweeny said that parents of teenagers need to be aware of the danger signs.

“If your kids are talking about Molly, it probably is not about a new kid in school,” he said. “If a parent finds gel caps that are usually used to make vitamin mixes in their kid’s room and there is a brownish-tinted powder in the capsules, then it is time to ask questions. If the kid is constantly drinking water, one bottle after another, that may be because they have to cool down and the drug makes their temperature to go up to 104 degrees so the body craves cold water.

Police and drug experts have an explicit message for those who seek to experiment with the drug. That message is “don’t mess with “Molly.”

That’s a lesson that was learned the hard way on October 28 of last year when 50 young adults were rushed from the Nassau Coliseum’s “Haunted Coliseum” program to local hospitals because, police say, many of the revelers used a combination of Molly and alcohol.

“The name makes the drug sound benign, like the girl next door,” Sweeny said. “That is far from the truth. This is a very dangerous drug and it is making inroads among teens all over the county.”