Pills and Powders... ‘E’...Part1  What was developed by the U.S military as a possibility for use in chemical warfare in the 1950’s has fast become the drug of choice amongst clubbers in the nineties and now the noughties, around 500,000 people a week use it. Along with the rapid change from poison to ‘love drug’ have come myths and confusion, surrounding Ecstasy with a mystique of danger and intrigue.
So here are the hard facts to explode the myths and show the reality behind Ecstasy. What it looks like and how you take it:   Ecstasy comes in the form of pills and tablets, which you swallow. They come in many shapes, forms and colours and have different names associated with their colour and the shapes on them. For instance ‘doves’ are an ‘E’ tablet with a dove logo on it, the same goes for ‘Mitsubishis’, which have a carmakers logo on them. It can be a white, yellow, beige, pink, blue tablet or clear or even mixed colour capsules.
 Where it comes from:
Ecstasy doesn’t grow on trees, it’s made by back street chemists and imported into the UK from places like Holland. It’s illegal to have it, sell it or make it and is a Class ‘A drug’, so carries the most serious penalties, you won’t get a caution for having this stuff on you, you may go to prison. Other names for it: E, XTC, Doves, Mitsubishis, Disco Biscuits, Adam, pills, salmon What it contains:  E contains Methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA for short, this is what causes the effects on the body. The problem with ‘E’ is that shady guys make it, who are out for as much money as possible and are willing to put anything in it. So a tablet may not contain any MDMA and recently research found that 40% of pills had no MDMA in. Not only that but the amount of MDMA in the pill varies wildly so the  experience you feel can be unpredictable. Plus they shove any old stuff into pills to sell, like aspirin or dog-worming pills or similar or other drugs like MDEA, MDBD, Selegaline and Ketamine, which produce much different ‘trips’. The random substances could cause harm if they’re poisonous and could make you very afraid as the other drugs produce much different experiences that you may not be used to.
How much it costs:  Ecstasy varies in price depending on where you are, who you buy it from, how much you buy and how the ‘market’ for it is. It will usually be about £8 for a tablet or £10 if you buy one in a club. The price has drastically fallen from the £25 it used to cost, meaning more people are taking more of it more often. (August 2000)
 Where to get help:
If you or anybody you know are having problems with ecstasy try the following places for help and support @ the Addictions Links Page. Read:
by ChrisM
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