
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995                   TAG: 9509180005
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEALER SAW ERROR OF HIS WAYS

Nothing could stop Christopher Schrader from getting high on ecstasy: Not losing his college scholarship; not even getting arrested for selling the designer drug at a rave, an all-night dance party.

But then he saw first-hand what the drug life had done to others.

"Their lives were ruined," he testified during the first part of his sentencing hearing in Roanoke County Circuit Court last month.

"They had lost everything - their family, their cars," he said, detailing his experiences at a detox center in Newport News. "That's the way my life was going. ... I stopped denying I was an addict, a very sick addict."

In February, Schrader was the first local raver to be charged with selling MDMA, or ecstasy, a drug that creates a hallucinogenic high. Undercover officers arrested him at a rave at the Olympic Roller Skating Center in Vinton.

He touted the drug to police, saying it brought people together and that police ought to try it. In a statement to police, he wrote, "I love to give people ecstasy," according to court testimony

In June, the Lynchburg 19-year-old pleaded no contest to selling ecstasy. He faced five to 40 years in prison.

But Friday, Judge Richard Pattisall reduced the drug charge to an accommodation, which means Schrader did not sell the drug for profit.

Pattisall sentenced him to 12 months in jail, making him available for work release. Schrader will serve his time at Lynchburg City Jail, and will be allowed to attend school, work and counseling sessions between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Schrader's sentencing occurred in two parts. On Aug. 31, Pattisall heard a summary of the evidence, character witnesses and testimony from Schrader.

"I think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Schrader said last month, fighting back tears. "I wanted my friends, and I found my friends at the raves. ... I'm doing the best to try and get back where I was. But I don't think I'll ever get back there. Once you miss the window of opportunity, it's kind of hard to create a new one."

Schrader will report to jail Monday to begin serving his sentence.

by CNB