Ecstasy
Ecstasy (chemical name: MDMA) is an unpredictable energizing pleasure drug that often comes in tablets of different shapes, sizes and colors. Often cut with speed and other divergent chemicals, the effects of ecstasy can be unpredictable. Before it became illegal, it was produced by pharmaceutical companies and the effects were relatively dependable. When it hits about an hour after ingestion, the drug brings waves of pleasure onto the user, releasing inhibitions and discarding emotional limits.
Upon crashing from the high, users feel as though their brains had been barbecued, spending the following day wrecked in bed. Upon realizing what was said and done, the user often regrets their actions, surprised that a drug could devastate personal boundaries with such ease. The comedown leaves the user tired and depressed. The true danger lies in damage to the brain as research has shown that MDMA dramatically affects the neural chemistry of monkeys. For a blast of deluded pleasure, the user pays for the experience with a lifetime of brain damage.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What does Ecstasy do to the spinal chord fluid?
Ecstasy appears to exert its effects through increasing levels of serotonin (a brain chemical) in your body. The idea that MDMA drains spinal fluid likely derived from a 1994 study in which levels of serotonin breakdown products were measured in the spinal fluid of several long-term ecstasy users. In order to obtain spinal fluid from their subjects, the experimenters had to insert a needle into the lower backs of the participants and remove some of their cerebrospinal fluid. It seems that somehow, this procedure was distorted in the popular imagination into a myth that the drug itself depletes spinal fluid. Although there are many other reasons that ecstasy use is dangerous and harmful to your body, the theory that it drains you of your spinal fluid it not true.
What is Ecstasy?
MDMA or Ecstasy (3-4-methylenedioxymethampheta-mine), is a synthetic drug with amphetamine-like and hallucinogenic properties. It is classified as a stimulant.
What do Ecstasy pills look like?
Ecstasy comes in a tablet form that is often branded, e.g. Playboy bunnies, Nike swoosh, CK.
How do you use Ecstasy?
Taken in pill form, users sometimes take Ecstasy at “raves,” clubs and other parties to keep on dancing and for mood enhancement.
What are its short-term effects?
Users report that Ecstasy produces intensely pleasurable effects — including an enhanced sense of self-confidence and energy. Effects include feelings of peacefulness, acceptance and empathy. Users say they experience feelings of closeness with others and a desire to touch others. Other effects can include involuntary teeth clenching, a loss of inhibitions, transfixion on sights and sounds, nausea, blurred vision, chills and/or sweating. Increases in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as seizures, are also possible. The stimulant effects of the drug enable users to dance for extended periods, which when combined with the hot crowded conditions usually found at raves, can lead to severe dehydration and hyperthermia or dramatic increases in body temperature. This can lead to muscle breakdown and kidney, liver and cardiovascular failure. Cardiovascular failure has been reported in some of the Ecstasy-related fatalities.
After-effects can include sleep problems, anxiety and depression.
What are its long-term effects?
Repeated use of Ecstasy ultimately may damage the cells that produce serotonin, which has an important role in the regulation of mood, appetite, pain, learning and memory. There already is research suggesting Ecstasy use can disrupt or interfere with memory.
