Hollywood HIGH

For awhile, anyway. I wanted to learn for myself what '90s Hollywood is up to when it comes to drugs, so I asked a couple of young actor friends to take me undercover on a tour of the town as seen by 20-year-olds in the know. Okay, so they laughed a little. I am, after all, a guy who doesn't even drink or smoke and who, even during the height of the drug revolution, stayed clear of the fray. Still, I've been around booze and drugs plenty. But what I learned about '90s Hollywood shocked the hell out of me.

L.A. dance clubs, which go in and out of fashion in seconds, have long been major hangouts for young celebrity party animals. On my whirl through these interchangeable, you'd-better-be-somebody-or-you'11-never-get-inside places, I caught on to something quick: The '90s--in terms of music, fashion and drug use--are the '60s as refracted through the Ray-Bans of the '70s. In fact, club-crawling got me wondering what year I had stumbled into, period. "I'm crazy about the '60s," explained a twenty something movie star, "because it seemed to be all about peace, love, happiness, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. What could be better?" At one club, a pal and I cut through billowy clouds of marijuana smoke from dancing throngs of smiley, bizarrely polite kids decked out in tie-dyes, fringe jackets, peace symbols, love beads, and jewelry made from human bones. The crowd--among whom bobbed faces recognizable to anyone who's been to the movies in the past five years--whooped in approval as dancers onstage in Tina Turner-meets-Terminator drag mimed every conceivable form of unsafe sex.

Above the din, I heard the sweaty, pretty kids chanting "E!, E!" Clueless, I asked my friend what the deal was. I got hipped: Folks were checking out the crowd for a guy sporting a hat or T-shirt that reads "E" or "X." Hunhhh? Well, think of the "E" or "X" he wears as the equivalent of one of those "Ask me about Mary Kaye Cosmetics" bumper stickers. The guy deals ecstasy. According to enthusiastic users, ecstasy makes one feel warm, trusting, and touchy-feely. (And all you Just Say No enthusiasts thought people took drugs to feel bad!) Sometimes, the guy with the initial is actually in possession of the stuff--which comes in a little white 100-milligram capsule that costs $20 to $30. Other times, he'll introduce you to a deejay who might introduce you to another middleman who knows where ecstasy can be scored.

"Ecstasy has been holding on for a very long time as a major all-night and underground club drug," says a club-friendly actor, who estimates that, at some happening clubs, easily half the clientele is soaring on it. That phenomenon hasn't gone undetected by local police, who frequently bust clubs where drug use gets particularly flagrant.

Also in sync with the current mania for all things '60s is the comeback of psychedelic "shrooms," mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a substance that, like LSD or pey-ote, unleashes intense hallucinations and visions. You can eat the mushrooms au naturel or swallow the powder that contains the psilocybin. And dance the night away, literally.

But, as the thriving practice of Dr. "X" suggests, not all young Hollywood craves the same drugs and not all of them go club-crawling to score them. "Few celebrities are foolish enough to get drugs from dealers anymore," says one of my actor guides, because they know that dealers are out trying to get money for blowing the drug covers of celebrities. People who abuse drugs tend to have drug abuser friends."

A moviemaker associated with some of the business's youngest and most blighted explains, "The kid who gets famous, makes a million a picture, and lives in a great house keeps in touch with the kids he came up with, who live in seedy Hollywood apartments and are struggling to land that first break. The big star calls up his old bud, who either sets him up with a guy who's holding or who scores it himself to stay tight with his famous friend. Other star kids tell their personal assistants, 'I'm not feeling so great, get me something to take care of it.' And they do because their jobs depend on it." And where, besides doctor's offices and dance clubs, do the deals go down? "The most workaday places in the world," explains the movie man, "like shopping center parking lots, parties, expensive health clubs and coffeehouses."

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