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(NYTIMES) Molly: Pure, but Not So Simple aka MDMA is now hip!

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It depends on which metrics you want to determine safety with.

Alcohol has a pretty awful LD50 compared to typical recreational dose, leading to frequent cases of alcohol poisoning and death. Worse LD50 than cocaine. It also has extremely dangerous synergy with many other substances. It impairs motor skills and inhibition at the same time, leading to many thousands of drunk driving deaths, fights, and instances of domestic abuse. The short and medium term consequences include rapid weight gain, and long-term you're looking at cirrhosis, cancer, etc.

I would rank crack cocaine more harmful to its individual users and society than alcohol on the basis of its addiction potential and the rate of physical wasting involved with its chronic users, pretty clearly, but make no mistake, alcohol is a hard drug and among the most dangerous. It's just culturally entrenched. Crack is also known for being cut with all manner of really terrible toxic chemicals, which is its main problem beyond cocaine's long-term effects on the heart.

That doesn't mean that I necessarily want coke and heroin for sale at Walgreens to "even it out," or that I would like to see alcohol banned either, but I do believe these data are relevant in discussions about significantly less dangerous substances like marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and MDMA, all heavily regulated and demonized.


The bolded I did not know at all, that's really surprising . I wasn't trying to downplay the dangers of Alcohol and heavy drinking, and everything you've said about is undeniably true,( I've had people who've been close to me who've been addicted to both,and I've seen the fallout from both, so I know the side effects) but I was just considering addiction rate and the direct harm each drug causes to the user. Getting drunk can have dire consequences and can be just as deadly no doubt about it, moreso than any other drug out there, but when it comes to quality of life, crack seemingly has more adverse and far reaching effects than alcohol and alcohol addiction.
 
Crack is safer than Alcohol? That's kind of hard to believe.

EviLore pretty much said/typed it all.

I will add that at a ground level, even if you personally are out drinking responsibly, it isn't uncommon to witness or be drawn into violence, aggressive behavior, provocation, territorial disputes over boys, girls, friends, drinks, seats, or even over a stare - in the UK, at least. ;)

And a drinker's fondest anecdotes will often revolve around a profound loss of motor control and impaired cognition, eg "...and then I fell down the stairs and accidentally pissed on the dog, lol."

It sounds like a good time - and it can be - because we have been exposed to this routine our entire lives. I assume that when viewed by a person from a culture that abstains, our weekend rituals make for a rather disturbing spectacle.

However, my main concern is that it so easily leaves a person extremely vulnerable if they unintentionally find themselves incoherent in the wrong place and in the wrong company, which happens all too often.

Have a graph from the 2010 revised report :)

harmcausedbydrugstablcnusb.png


It's from David Nutt's wikipedia page. Actually (I think) the entire report can be downloaded for free from David Nutt's wikipedia page, if you just scroll down a bit to:
Code:
"Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis" (pdf).

I'm not trying to vilify drinking - I've been known to have one or two lager-shandies, hehe - merely highlighting a POV.
 
It's just my personal experience and opinion, but MDMA has actually changed my life for the better. I used to be shy and I used to care what people thought about me (not extremely so, I could still function yet it was annoying) but that's gone now. It just made me open up and made me realise that I should just be myself.

The feeling you get when one of your favorite tracks starts playing during a show from your favorite dj/band is also indescribable. Couple that with some of your best friends and it creates one of those moments that you'll never forget. Which is also one of those things that I prefer about MDMA: I don't get any blackouts like I get with alcohol.

Don't be mistaken, I only take it when I'm going to a festival or some huge party (so maybe five or six times a year). As long as you drink some water and you keep an eye on yourself and your friends, you'll be all right.

It's a wonderful drug and it really can change your life if you do it responsibly.
 

Allforce

Member
Is this mostly ingested in pill form? Or is it a powder you snort like cocaine? If both what are the differences in terms of experience?
 
Is this mostly ingested in pill form? Or is it a powder you snort like cocaine? If both what are the differences in terms of experience?

it takes effect faster but does not last as long if you snort it in powder form. note that snorting ANYTHING long term is destructive to the nose, and should probably be avoided.
 
When I've had it it's been powder inside a tiny, generic capsule.

That's what I've seen too. Clear large-ish plastic capsule, sort of like half-full with white powder.

Then Ecstacy are in round tablets, usually with some dumb stamp on them, as if that is supposed to be some indicator of quality. Back in the late 90's/early 2000's when I did them the experience was always different, some were speedier, some barely did anything, some were really trippy, it all depended on what the MDMA was cut with. We always thought "oh its the mood you do into the experience with..." and while that may have had something to do with it it was more about the other shit in the pill.
 

J-Rod

Member
I haven't rolled in a long time, but back in high school I would not each lunch all week in order to go to a rave and buy pills. We'd go every every other week and eat as many in a night as we could pay for. It's a wonder I didn't kill myself.

Also, we were a bunch of non sentimental bros, but even the toughest would come up and say, "man, I love you, man. For real man, I love you" every damn time. None of us would've said that to another in a million years even if they were fucking dying, but on x you can hardly stop yourself.
 
The connections you can make with friends and your significant other is truly amazing. I think I read they are trying to treat people with PTSD with MDMA too.
 

dcdobson

Member
Did it for the first time last weekend and absolutely loved it. The physical effects were great, for sure, but even more noteworthy was how candid I became over the course of the night. I stayed up until 5 AM in the morning just having really open, honest conversations with my friends who'd also taken it.
 
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