Risky Business

CNN: "The 15th annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study surveyed 7,084 teenagers ages 12 to 18 across the country. It found that although 77 percent of teens see great risk in using ecstasy regularly (at least once a month), only 45 percent, the minority, said they saw great risk in trying it once or twice. Nine percent said they had used the drug in the past year, little changed from the 10 percent in 2001."

Partnership for a Drug Free America: "Even though we have the good news that overall ecstasy use has leveled off after a big surge, we've still got 55 percent of teenagers, 13 million American teenagers, who say they see no great risk in trying it. And that's what we have to reverse."

Battling common sense takes hard work and committment, even for the PDFA. Meanwhile, Esctasy-takers, forced to shop the dicey black market, are taking a bigger risk than they should have to.