LETTERS: Ecstasy reconsidered

To the Editor: "Belladonna is Ecstasy's core ingredient," writes Wise. Belladonna is a plant containing the natural deliriant scopolamine, which is occasionally used medicinally as a sedative. Ecstasy is neither naturally occurring, nor a deliriant. Wise's got the wrong drug on the brain. "Usually, E is laced with speed or cocaine." This seems implausible, given that both speed and cocaine are typically much more expensive than Ecstasy. "If you're a chronic user, you can look forward to depression, liver disease and permanent damage to muscle tissue." This is where the reference belongs. I don't happen to believe Wise's claim and I'd like to know where he got his information. However, it is Wise's dismissal of the administration's anti-alcohol abuse campaign that is most upsetting: "Another task force to disseminate trite warnings." Wasn't it just last year that a Penn graduate drank himself to death at a fraternity? Perhaps Wise considers this good clean fun. Perhaps he is unaware of the adverse health effects of long-term alcohol abuse ranging from liver disease to fetal alcohol syndrome to sudden death by car. Perhaps he doesn't realize that alcoholism is one of the most difficult addictions to treat, whereas Ecstasy is not even considered habit-forming. I'm glad our University is better informed than Wise. Jeremy Bagai Psychology Ph.D. Insensitivity To the Editor: "Islamic Chechen rebels?" "Chechnya-based Islamic rebels?" The Daily Pennsylvanian, as most other channels of mass media, continues to label a number of political movements that have taken on a military dimension "Islamic" when they are essentially nationalistic in nature. One should note that most Chechens and Dagestanis alike are "Islamic," so that the term "Islamic Chechen rebels" is severely misleading and requires either elaboration or elimination. You fuel powerful anti-Muslim prejudices held unquestioningly by many Americans, without offering any insight whatsoever into the causes of, in this case, Chechen separatism, the Chechen-Dagestani conflict, Russian involvement and particularly the extreme degree of violence that these political contests have reached. In this rarefied intellectual atmosphere, labeling the rebels "Islamic" suggests itself to the ignorant or prejudicial mind as an explanation. This is supposed to be an educational institution, not an indoctrination camp. Roberto Samaniego Economics graduate '01