What Makes Ecstasy So Dangerous? (VICE: High Society)

Introduction

British people take more MDMA per session than anywhere else, averaging 420 milligrams—twice as much as Germans. While ecstasy remains one of the safest drugs, ecstasy-related deaths hit a decade-high last year, bringing it back into the spotlight. Some blame drug dealers for selling dangerously strong, adulterated pills, while others criticize the government for failing to curb the supply and adopt effective harm reduction strategies. It’s also possible that British drug users need reminding that a great night out isn’t measured by how much of your tongue remains. In this episode of High Society, they explore why ecstasy is becoming more dangerous and how its risks can be minimized.

Quotes

“At best, British street dealers will only have a vague idea of what’s in their drugs and that’s because ecstasy, whether it’s too weak, too strong, or too adulterated, is largely manufactured in Holland. And since the advent of the dark web, Dutch pill makers have been shifting 50 kilos of ecstasy per month. Why smuggle drugs when you can just mail them anonymously with legitimate couriers?”

“Gary Bass died from taking a pill laced with PMA, a substance that’s more poisonous and takes longer to kick in than MDMA. Users can think that their pills aren’t working, leading them to take a fatal dose.”

“Drug testing isn’t only important because of adulterants like PMA. It also allows users to know how much MDMA they’re taking, and that’s especially important this year when pills are the strongest they’ve been in a decade. A normal pill contains about 80 milligrams of MDMA, but recently they’ve been weighing in at 240 milligrams.”

These kids, who don’t do drugs all the time, just do it when they go to raves or they go to festivals or just go out for a night, they need to know. They need to be aware of this bad stuff that can kill you by taking it once.”

HILLARY BASS

Adam Winstock – Director of Global Drug Survey
“I think it’s to do with new manufacturers trying to make a place in market place – it’s effectively a pissing contest … and they are quite tragically better pills, the stronger pills. If there was a plea I could make to MDMA manufacturers it would be, guys standardized your pills, always have 100 milligrams in and score them four ways, and it would be fantastic. People could test those, take a quarter of the pill, see how they feel and there would be consistency.”

“I think it’s an easy criticism to say that we [The Loop] are encouraging drug use. What we hope is that we’re reducing drug-related harm. More than 50 people a year die from ecstasy in the U.K. and that figure is rising, so I think there’s a desire from everybody on site to be trying to reduce drug-related deaths.”