Adelaide
09-08-2013, 02:43 PM
Twenty minutes before the concert started, he was popping a nondescript pill. At first, he felt nothing. But as the concert continued, the colors of the stage became amplified and his feelings of self-consciousness slipped away. “I was happy. I started to just smile and dance to my own drum,” he remembers. Six years later, Adam is still “rolling”—that’s slang for the use of Molly, or MDMA, a purportedly pure form of ecstasy or 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine—two to three times a month, or every day if he’s at a music festival.
He has company. Despite its suspected role in four recent deaths and an accompanying rash of frightening headlines —and clear medical evidence that Molly isn’t as harmless as her name suggests—interviews with a half dozen users suggest the drug’s young demographic isn’t about to give it up. And why would they? Molly, its users say, is cheap, easy to access, and more fun than alcohol, weed, and cocaine. Plus, pop culture has virtually given its blessing—Miley Cyrus, Kanye West and even Madonna have recently been singing Molly’s praises. The upshot: a huge spike in self-reported use over the last year alone.
Molly isn’t new, of course. The drug of choice for 1980s clubgoers, it gained a sticky reputation as “speed with a psychedelic and empathetic twist.”
But in the last week, the deaths of three young adults linked to its use—two of whom, a 20-year-old and a 23-year-old, were at an electronic music festival in New York called Electric Zoo—have put the drug front and center in a spate of negative publicity. (The third and final day of the concert was canceled as a result.)
...
The hysteria surrounding these deaths, Sarah believes, is misplaced. “No one deserves to die just because they want to experiment or have some fun and were unlucky to get like a bad batch of pills,” she says. “The U.S. drug policy and public opinion tends to get stuck on this ‘drugs are bad’ kind of moral crusade, when there are practical things we could be doing to make them less harmful for people. I feel like that's the conversation we should really be having.” Sarah, like many other Molly users, doesn’t think that abandoning recreational drugs completely is the answer. “People do drugs because they are fun, and they're probably not going to stop…so we need to focus on how to make it less dangerous.”
Molly: Dangerous Drug That's Too Good to Quit (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/08/molly-the-dangerous-drug-that-s-too-good-to-quit.html)
So the article sort of turns around with a woman named Sarah who has a masters in public health who takes the drug and essentially suggested that this might be where legalization could guarantee quality so people aren't ingesting meth, PCP, draino, so forth without knowing. She didn't come right out and say legalization, but it seems to me she is hinting at it - how else could you make it safer?
I was a heavy user for about 1-2 years. It was not very popular when I was doing it. Of course, I knew someone who had taken pills from a bad batch and that scared us off for a while. Most of this kids I knew who overdosed or died were using cocaine or binge drinking, or doing both. MDMA was safer in our minds, and it was very affordable. We were actually pretty savvy - we'd make the dealer take a pill in exchange for buying a certain amount. If he wouldn't take it, we wouldn't buy it. It was our way of trying to ensure we didn't get a bad batch.
Anyways, teens have always been warned about MDMA because it's easy to get a bad batch, it's easy to get dehydrated or over hydrated, plus a whole slew of other negative side effects. Still, I've done my share of different drugs and if someone walked up to me today and offered me it, I'd take it even though I rarely drink and don't do drugs. The feeling is amazing, so I can see why it's becoming popular again. I've never experienced anything like it, and I've tried most drugs at one point or another.
I'm not sure if I would support legalizing it, but if it's growing in popularity I do think that suppliers/cookers are going to be more inclined to put crap in with the MDMA that will hurt and possibly kill users in order to be able to keep up with demand.
He has company. Despite its suspected role in four recent deaths and an accompanying rash of frightening headlines —and clear medical evidence that Molly isn’t as harmless as her name suggests—interviews with a half dozen users suggest the drug’s young demographic isn’t about to give it up. And why would they? Molly, its users say, is cheap, easy to access, and more fun than alcohol, weed, and cocaine. Plus, pop culture has virtually given its blessing—Miley Cyrus, Kanye West and even Madonna have recently been singing Molly’s praises. The upshot: a huge spike in self-reported use over the last year alone.
Molly isn’t new, of course. The drug of choice for 1980s clubgoers, it gained a sticky reputation as “speed with a psychedelic and empathetic twist.”
But in the last week, the deaths of three young adults linked to its use—two of whom, a 20-year-old and a 23-year-old, were at an electronic music festival in New York called Electric Zoo—have put the drug front and center in a spate of negative publicity. (The third and final day of the concert was canceled as a result.)
...
The hysteria surrounding these deaths, Sarah believes, is misplaced. “No one deserves to die just because they want to experiment or have some fun and were unlucky to get like a bad batch of pills,” she says. “The U.S. drug policy and public opinion tends to get stuck on this ‘drugs are bad’ kind of moral crusade, when there are practical things we could be doing to make them less harmful for people. I feel like that's the conversation we should really be having.” Sarah, like many other Molly users, doesn’t think that abandoning recreational drugs completely is the answer. “People do drugs because they are fun, and they're probably not going to stop…so we need to focus on how to make it less dangerous.”
Molly: Dangerous Drug That's Too Good to Quit (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/08/molly-the-dangerous-drug-that-s-too-good-to-quit.html)
So the article sort of turns around with a woman named Sarah who has a masters in public health who takes the drug and essentially suggested that this might be where legalization could guarantee quality so people aren't ingesting meth, PCP, draino, so forth without knowing. She didn't come right out and say legalization, but it seems to me she is hinting at it - how else could you make it safer?
I was a heavy user for about 1-2 years. It was not very popular when I was doing it. Of course, I knew someone who had taken pills from a bad batch and that scared us off for a while. Most of this kids I knew who overdosed or died were using cocaine or binge drinking, or doing both. MDMA was safer in our minds, and it was very affordable. We were actually pretty savvy - we'd make the dealer take a pill in exchange for buying a certain amount. If he wouldn't take it, we wouldn't buy it. It was our way of trying to ensure we didn't get a bad batch.
Anyways, teens have always been warned about MDMA because it's easy to get a bad batch, it's easy to get dehydrated or over hydrated, plus a whole slew of other negative side effects. Still, I've done my share of different drugs and if someone walked up to me today and offered me it, I'd take it even though I rarely drink and don't do drugs. The feeling is amazing, so I can see why it's becoming popular again. I've never experienced anything like it, and I've tried most drugs at one point or another.
I'm not sure if I would support legalizing it, but if it's growing in popularity I do think that suppliers/cookers are going to be more inclined to put crap in with the MDMA that will hurt and possibly kill users in order to be able to keep up with demand.