Students will soon have the opportunity to learn more about the dangers involved with Ecstasy use.

A panel discussion and information forum about Ecstasy and other predatory drugs will take place today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Goldstein Auditorium at the Schine Student Center.

The forum will begin with a PowerPoint presentation on general information related to Ecstasy and other predatory drugs. Aside from predatory drugs, the illicit use of pharmaceutical drugs will also be discussed.

The panelists will discuss their knowledge on these topics and then the floor will give way to an open forum with the audience, said Dessa K. Bergen-Cico, associate dean of students.

Bergen-Cico said 30 percent of sexual assaults on campus involve Ecstasy or some other predatory drug.

‘I think there was more of a problem [in] my high school than there is here,’ said Meghan C. Dye, a sophomore in the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a resident adviser at Lawrinson Hall.

‘It is not a particularly new and large problem,’ Bergen-Cico said.

Dye said in meetings with other advisers, Ecstasy is never discussed because in college, marijuana and alcohol use are far more prevalent. This doesn’t mean Ecstasy is not a problem, Dye added.

Syracuse University was contacted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency first, and after receiving positive feedback from the community about a forum of this type, decided to go ahead with it.

The DEA also contacted Anthony C. Adornato, an anchorman at WSTM Channel 3 in Syracuse, to cover the event. Adornato said he hasn’t covered anything on this topic before and believes it is the first of its kind and size for the area.

‘I think that they wanted a representative of the media to get more exposure and reach a lot more people,’ Adornato said.

The event will reach only hundreds while the media can reach tens of thousands, he said. Adornato said a forum of this type is important because of the growing problem of Ecstasy and other drugs.

The forum will include Special Agent Anthony Placito from the DEA, U.S. Attorney Glenn T. Suddaby and Dr. Ronald Dougherty, the director of medical services at Tully Hill and Pelion, among other guests.

For those who want to attend, there is an online registration (http://assessment.syr.edu/deaForum/deaHome.htm) and the forum is free.

Bergen-Cico said as of Tuesday, about 320 people had registered, most of them from the Syracuse community.

Published on October 22, 2003 at 12:00 pm