Ecstasy.
May 31, 2000 8:39 AM   Subscribe

Ecstasy.

What's your view? Time has an interesting article on the drug...
posted by meaning (22 comments total)
 
I dunno who said it first, but as usual, you can be sure that if something shows up in Time (or Newsweek, for that matter), it's over, past its prime, finished.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:16 AM on May 31, 2000


lets grab our glowsticks and go the the rave party! Come on everybody! yes it is over.
posted by frank spank at 9:34 AM on May 31, 2000


poorly written article which conveys little to no info. Time mag sucks.
posted by yo at 10:27 AM on May 31, 2000


there's a lot it doesn't convey. not enough warnings. i knew a guy who was dumb enough to pop a tab while at the beach. got too hot. he had a heart attack and keeled over dead right there on the sand. it's columns like this that show provocative photos of teens, somewhat glamorizing the whole thing. what kind of message does this convey?
posted by jaybarrow at 12:45 PM on May 31, 2000


I'm personally more of a diethyltryptamine, dimethyltyrptamine, psilocyibin or mescaline fan, although I do partake of the occassional dose of LSD-25 (according to those who procure it, anyway) and I'm not adverse to controlled experimentation with Serotonin-derivatives or physicallly induced states (starvation, exertion, that kind of thing.) MDMA always seemed to be the 90's version of poppers to me; fun, but not really anything to do with the serious work of fucking up your mind permanently.
posted by Ezrael at 1:15 PM on May 31, 2000


Jeez! The article makes this stuff sound fantastic! It's mostly harmless, makes you feel great, helps people work out their problems. And you can get it anywhere! Wow, this sounds great. Can I get this stuff online? Maybe they should put it in milk or something. I WANT TO BE HAPPYY TOO!
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:26 PM on May 31, 2000


Unfortunately, it makes your friends talk bullshit like thye're in a cult: 'it's all about the love, and the freedom' and then try to talk you into taking it, and telling you you're 'boring' if you don't want to take it and go to the parties where they play the crap music that goes with it.
posted by prolific at 1:31 PM on May 31, 2000


Really, it's the crap music. :)
posted by dhartung at 3:57 PM on May 31, 2000


Reading that article, I thought for a moment that Sen. Bob Graham had introduced an ecstasy anti-proliferation pill. I was wondering how it worked.

I'm glad they mentioned the two Chicago deaths (within two days of each other, not apparently related) where people who thought they had ecstasy pills were taking PMA instead ... which is lethal when you take four, like one girl did.

They also talk about the connection to SSRI serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac.
posted by dhartung at 4:09 PM on May 31, 2000


I was a 'raver' for a long time ('88 - '96) and Prol has it exactly right (except for the music, I like the music but hey, thats got quite a lot to do with the drugs too). For 8 years I was constantly chasing the same feeling I got the first time (impossible), talking absolute bollocks to complete strangers ("wow, I've only just met you but I feel like were soulmates"...bleargh!) and looking down my nose at anyone 'unenlightened' enough not to do it.
I risked my health (though the short-term health risks of MDMA are minimal, unfortunately no-one knows the longer term effects) and my job. Apart from the first few times, it really isn't that great.
And that article was bloody terrible.
posted by Markb at 1:29 AM on June 1, 2000


Since the death of teenager called Leah Betts, who died on her 18th birthday party, after taking her second ecstasy pill ever (and has since been made a cause celebre), teens in the UK have had the one-pill-can-kill-you slogan rammed down our throats. Though the rave culture of ecstasy has faded somewhat in the UK, we're still bombarded with the message that it's a highly dangerous Class A drug. The short-term dangers, as I understand it, lies in either becoming dehydrated, or (as in the case of Leah Betts) over-hydrating and flooding the brain.
posted by kitschbitch at 1:46 AM on June 1, 2000


Leah Bett's death has done nothing to educate kids on the use of ecstasy. Unfortunately most reports give the impression she died because she took a pill. She died because someone told her she had to drink lots of water when she took one, which is correct. But what she didn't know, and what her death should have taught people, is that you can drink too much water and, as you rightly state, over-hydrate.
This is something that most clubbers have known for years, but inexperienced users, like Leah have always been less well informed.
The fact is, you can't stop people from doing something many of their peers do just by telling them it's bad and can kill them. They look around and see thousands of people doing the same thing and not dying, so evidence suggests that what the one-pill-can-kill-you crowd are wrong.
As far as I know, there have been only one or two deaths in the UK in the last 12 years that can be directly attributed to the drug itself, far less than aspirin, and both to do with an allergy to the chemical itself. Most of the deaths that occur are because people didn't know that they should keep themselves hydrated by sipping water throughout the time they are on the drug, they either drank alcohol to excess (by far the most common cause of death) or drank too much water (Leah Betts).
The drug itself doesn't kill people, ignorance kills people.
posted by Markb at 3:02 AM on June 1, 2000


Ok, I admit it, I like some of the music ;-)
But god knows we have to pretend we don't, so as not to encourage our unfortunate friend(s).
posted by prolific at 4:40 AM on June 1, 2000


i'm just fond of the fact that a Microsoft millionaire funds a 'pro-rave' e-testing project (see my late night, sloppily posted "didn't see this one first" post). And I'm a total head for the music (depending on the genre - but if you ain't into it, i won't go there). I've a friend who brought up a good point - basically saying this was Time's attempt at getting youth to purchase their insipid magazine. And no, the drug doesn't kill people. Doing it in copious amounts, however, can result in some long term effects they're still leery about admitting, even though it's being shown already in plenty of people *ahem* who spent a good ten years or so popping copious amounts of the pills.
posted by cadence at 7:28 AM on June 1, 2000


I don't mean what you know cadence, fine me I am...
posted by Markb at 7:40 AM on June 1, 2000


Don't do any drugs in the first place. Only an idiot would do any of that shit.
posted by FAB4GIRL at 9:21 AM on June 1, 2000


Or St. John Chrysotam, FAB4GIRL. Or Aldous Huxley. Or Terrance McKenna. Or Kary Mullis, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction DNA test. Just a pack of idiots, they are.
posted by Ezrael at 9:25 AM on June 1, 2000


By the way, I remember the Leah Betts case because I was there. As in the same club the same night, back in late 95, if I'm not mistaken. That was a seriously messed up event. Part of the problem was she lost track of how much water she drank, and I don't understand that one. I mean, MDMA really doesn't have that much of an effect, at least not when I took it. But mileages vary, I suppose.
posted by Ezrael at 9:26 AM on June 1, 2000


Well laid out, cogent argument FAB4GIRL, nice to see MeFi isn't going the way of Slashdot.
Ezrael, the whole Leah Betts thing has always struck me as a little odd, like there's more to the story but no-ones saying. It took a long time for the fact that she died from over-hydration to come out, and the whole affair has been used as a vehicle by the 'anti-everything' brigade so I guess any more than the bare facts may destroy their argument (basically Leah Betts = Ecstasy victim so don't do it kiddies).
posted by Markb at 10:47 AM on June 1, 2000


Thank you! It took me a long time to come up with that argument! *bows* ;-)
posted by FAB4GIRL at 11:11 AM on June 1, 2000


Most of the stuff I read at ecstacy.org which listed things you can do while on ecstacy sound like cool things to do when you're sober. I don't get it. Why does this society have to medicate itself to realize that life is inherently pretty cool? I must agree with Fab4Girl. I wouldn't go so far as to call all users idiots, but it just seems like those people go a roundabout way to just get back where they were in the first place. It's all sound and fury signifying nothing.

I prefer just watching other people who are doing drugs while I'm sober. I find that incredibly stimulating. And then they still have a safe ride home.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:46 PM on June 1, 2000


Well, Zachs, as someone who takes drugs a lot more psychoactive than MDMA, one of the great things about the experience is that it takes something you know intellectually (that all life is interconnected, that there is no death, that bliss is attainable through thought, will and imagination) and makes it concrete. It allows one to experience the numinous.

Plus, for some of us it greatly magnifies sexual confidence and potency. Not that anyone asked.
posted by Ezrael at 8:22 PM on June 1, 2000


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