Love, Peace and Harmony

[commonpeople1]

One of the reasons I stopped taking ecstasy was an article in The Face magazine, in 1998, that said ecstasy caused long-term brain damage plus depression (they claimed a drop in serotonin production over time for ecstasy users.) Even Pulp recorded a song around then, "Sorted for Eez and Whizz", which echoed that fear of "leaving your brain behind in a field".

But according to the last Horizon show, a group of scientists who have been studying the drug for over ten years have come to the conclusion that it's one of the most harmless out there - more so than marijuana, alcohol or cigarettes, for example, and just slightly more dangerous than poppers (you can only die from it if you dehydrate). All those past media claims turned out to be urban legends.

This calls for a celebration! :-)

Ecstasy has always been my favourite drug (especially when in its pure MDMA form - not mixed with speed, etc.) My best memories from Hong Kong and Sao Paulo's clubs were the ecstasy fuelled nights I shared with my friends. Sometimes, the party never left our own apartments. It may have affected negatively our taste in music (I seem to have a Renaissance compilation at home which I bought purely for getting high). We are all still alive today, blissfully free of Prozac or its derivatives.

The documentary had some damning evidence on alcohol and cigarettes (which everyone already knows), but it especially burst the marijuana bubble. Studies have already been published linking pot to gum and lung disease, but these scientists claim that new research shows a link between the appearance of psychosis and long-term cannabis use. I'm the first one to admit that I enjoy a joint once in a while, but to me it has always been a drug that should be used with other people - like sharing a bottle of wine - instead of smoking/ingesting it by yourself every day. A treat for the weekend, for that special get together, rather than a daily escape from reality. I was a pothead for a while in university - the wake & bake kind - and I experienced all the negative side-effects even when I wasn't smoking: paranoia, loss of memory, loss of concentration. In the end, I realized I was psychologically addicted to it and it wasn't fun any more.

This is not to say I'll be showing up tonight at Camden, looking for a bag of pills; but it makes me feel more excited about the possibilities in the future if I get the chance to purchase some MDMA (apparently, a pill goes for £1-5?!?!)

Meet me on the dancefloor.

Comments

[geosh.livejournal.com]

i can't believe one only costs 1-5 pound(s)! i'd be hesitant to take it though again because the last time i did (well i was wildly drunk, too, but) i kissed someone i'd been courting for a while and then totally blacked out and called her at like 4 in the morning and asked if we'd actually kissed. she got really fucking pissed b/c after all my promises i didn't even remember a first kiss... :(

*sigh*

I'd also be hesitant to take it because of all the crazy people i ended up making out with when I used to take it - but really i'd be hesitant because that type of neural fluctuation seems unhealthy no matter what (would have to cause crazy unreliable thinking in some way...)
but it's certainly drug I'd love to believe is harmless.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

If we are to believe the research, it's far and away more harmless than alcohol, for example. Or cigarettes. So....

The danger in my opinion is when it's cut with other drugs - like speed. Ideally, I'd take MDMA in its pure format, with nothing else added.

[geosh.livejournal.com]

enhh. sounds too good to be true. the kind of research motivated by ten years of hoping to find the answers they found...?

can you really trust research? what i trust is memory, and i don't remember it ever feeling harmless...but I admit whenever i did it, it was mixed with lots of other things...

you're funny, though. it seems like you're very invested in this research being reliable (in a way that kind of frightens me a little, actuallly). like you're hearing what you want to hear? pardon my frankness and concern.

is the program available online?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The programme is highly respectable - in the sense that the scientists are all people in the top of their field, from Britain's major university.

Perhaps you are the one wishing to believe it's harmful? (even though you know you have never experienced it without other substances?)

For me, we can only make judgements on drugs based on studies. If you talk to a junkie, he may praise heroin to high-heaven - but can he be believed. Shouldn't we listen instead to people who have spent 10 years in clinical trials, who have compared their findings to previous research (as is the case with this programme).

It's thanks to research that we learned the damage caused by cigarettes...

I think you can get the programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/index_non_flash.shtml

[geosh.livejournal.com]

good points about research. i didn't mean to sound like such a luddite. this is just so weird to hear....

Perhaps you are the one wishing to believe it's harmful?

Just as good a theory as any.

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

I recently completed a Psychopharmacology class in my Master's in Counseling program and the research paper I turned in for my class was on Ecstacy. It was originally created to be used in the psychotherapy field, and is shown to be not only harmless but highly effacacious in treating many clients struggling with a range of mental dis-ease. Because it was, coincidentally, so immediately popular "on the street" with so high a potential for misuse and abuse, the DEA stepped in and effectively curtailed not only its use in treatment but further exploration into its therapeutic qualities. Pity. Now excuse me while I join commonpeople and geosh at the beach!!!

[geosh.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh...weird. I can't believe this....

[geosh.livejournal.com]

just so foreign to my experience with substances...

I mean I believe what you're saying. it's just so unexpected!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The documentary talked about that!

I found these two articles quite interesting:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/01/18/notes011808.DTL

and

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/feb/17/usnews.drugsandalcohol

[geosh.livejournal.com]

The research--though presented appealingly--seems myopic and self-satisfying.

"It is staggeringly effective...and when taken somewhat responsibly and with a slight hint of intelligence, has very few, if any, notable or permanent side effects."

The same can be said of alcohol. I wonder if the wonderful effects of MDMA are thought of as such because the drug isn't as acceptible/accessible as alcohol. their clubs might be more placid, but imagine a whole city full of people coming down from ecstacy, and not the occassional somewhat responsible kind who use with hints of intelligence - the kind, like many people who drink or smoke pot, who use regularly, more than once a week.

I'm not saying alcohol or cigarettes are good, or that MDMA is particularly bad, or that pharmacutial companies are honest. I guess part of my point is that moderation doesn't seem to be as common as myopia.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thing is, if we take that attitude than we have to ban every stimulant. There are people out there overdoing coffee, cigarettes, you name it. What this latest research showed was that MDMA does far less damage to the brain, for example, than alcohol. But alcohol is legal and we, as a culture, encourage its consumption. Why the fear of MDMA? Because it's new; because people know little about it, and governments have been unwilling to invest in its study (as the journalist said, nobody holds a patent...)

I don't speak for anyone else except myself. As I said, I'm not going out tonight looking for a bag of pills, but I'm happy to think that next time I'm posed the choice, I'm running far less risk than stumbling around drunk off my ass.

[geosh.livejournal.com]

I believe you'd use it responsibly

MDMA does far less damage to the brain, for example, than alcohol

*grits teeth*

and if I were comfortable taking it again I would, too!