Another Ecstasy Death

A simple party of some Argus, South Dakato teenage girls ended in tragedy when Ecstasy joined the party. A report in the Argus Leader tells the story. Note that the police call it an "overdose," but the friends say Desirae took just one Ecstasy tablet. Ecstasy is like that -- while some deaths are indeed caused by overdoses, others are caused by just one or two pills.

Desirae Marie Kirchner spent Monday night, the eve of her 20th birthday, playing Yahtzee and card games and watching a movie with a group of friends at her home.

"We were all just sitting around. It was going to be a calming night playing games," said Kirchner's friend Tanya Collins, 23. "There was no wild party."

But things changed after Kirchner took the illegal drug Ecstasy, her friends said.

Kirchner was found unconscious Tuesday morning at her home, 6001 W. Silver Place, police said. She was taken to Sioux Valley Hospital and later was taken off life support.

Minnehaha County Coroner Brad Randall said Kirchner died of a drug overdose, but it will take a couple of weeks for the results of toxicology reports.

Roommate Amber Bowar, 19, said Kirchner took one Ecstasy tablet before midnight.

The synthetic drug, typically associated with rave parties, is much more common on the East and West coasts than in South Dakota, where methamphetamine generally is the drug of choice.

While Ecstasy users say the drug lowers their inhibitions and relaxes them, it can cause kidney failure, high blood pressure and death.

"She had taken it once before - one year ago. She was sick for about two days," Bowar said of Kirchner. "She thought it was because of the alcohol she took with it."

This time, Bowar said, Kirchner did not take alcohol with the drug.

"She never did anything like this," Bowar said. "She wanted to do it for her birthday."

Friends said Kirchner looked fine until 2 or 3 a.m., when she started vomiting. Kirchner later complained of headaches.

"She was trying to keep herself calm by lying down," said her boyfriend, Andy Abraham, 20. "About every 20 minutes, the headaches would come back."

About 6:30 a.m., Abraham called 911.

"I went back to check on her, and she was shaking because she was cold," he said. "She started moaning and making sounds I never heard anyone making before. I was trying to wake her up. Her face was pale white, and she started foaming from the mouth."

While they waited for the ambulance to arrive, Kirchner's friends tried to wake her up.

Abraham contacted Kirchner's family around 7:30 a.m.

"My attitude, as a parent, is nobody wants to believe that their kid is stupid enough to try something like this," said Kirchner's father, Darrell Kirchner of Yankton. "It was very unlike her. ... She was a good kid."

My heart goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Kirchner. So often, the kids who die from Ecstasy are good kids, and the parents are shocked to the core when a tragedy like this occurs. That's why its so important for parents to talk to their kids about drugs.

Desirae's sad death reminds me of the tragedy that befell Cathy when she took Ecstasy at her Senior Prom, a story I tell on True Stories of Ecstasy and Ketamine.

UPDATE: Robert L. Halsey, 30, is charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, according to police.