'Ecstasy' is too good a name

DENPASAR, Bali: Ecstasy is too good a label for the stimulant pills increasingly gaining popularity among wealthy teenagers and rave partygoers in cities, a psychiatrist insists.

"If the name is maintained, it will make the damned pills even more popular," Robert Reverger, the director of the Bangli mental hospital, said yesterday.

He suggested that Ecstasy be renamed PPK, a local acronym that stands for "destructive pills", to create a horrific image for the dangerous drug.

Reverger argued that "ecstasy" actually pertains to a glorious religious feeling of being close to God and thus the name is misleading.

Reverger is one of many to come up with another name for the pills. Many people laughed when a Jakarta newspaper called them pill kuda binal (sexy horse pills). (23/mds)