Ecstasy can be cut with other drugs to lower the production costs or change the effects. A popular “brand” a few years ago was called Mitsubishi, which was MDMA and methamphetamine mixed to create a faster-acting drug. While it may be that some X is cut with heroin, I would doubt much is, because the drugs are often taken for different reasons. As stated above, most is mixed in secret labs that have the pill presses. Some X is cut with DXM (dextromethorphan), found in cough syrup, to simulate the effects of the drug with lower costs. Sometimes pills can in fact contain little or no MDMA. Hope this helps. I know I can’t get someone to stop recreational drug use, but I can provide accurate information.
Actually, to label any “brand” of ecstasy as good, not good, or cut is a terrible idea. Different chemists can use the same stamps, and to say that “Mitsubishis contained X and methamphetamines” is wrong.
For a very long time, all Mitsubishis tested pure for MDMA, both with the marquis regeant kit, and on dancesafe.org. A few may have been found to have been cut with meth, but I was not aware of any. A couple of summers ago, a batch of Mitsus going around Chicago turned out to be PMA. There were 3(I believe, perhaps just 2) deaths in Chicago, and if I remember correctly, a couple more elsewhere. I still came across mitsus that tested to be MDMA after the Chicago incident, but it was very rare, and I haven’t seen a Mitsu in over a year now.
Probably the most dangerous thing you can do with X is to assume that it is good/pure because of what is stamped on it.
I don’t have anything but personal experiance to back this up but I thought I’d share anyway. I have done heroin before and can definately say that the feeling I got from X, that was supposedly cut with heroin, was nothing like the feeling of being on heroin. The only thing that was the same about the two highs was the fact that I pucked. I would also like to back-up previous posts by saying that drug dealers wouldn’t cut X with heroin for the simple reason that it is too expensive. You could get ten times the amount of money by selling the heroin by its self rather than useing it as cut. Take it from an ex-dealer, drug dealing is a business. It’s all a matter of numbers. Whatever is going to be the most profitable is what you are going to do.
I knew a guy who was selling capsules that contained heroin, cocaine, and LSD as ecstasy. He got repeat customers too, probably people who had never done the real thing.
New Scientist this week does a three page article on ecstasy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1935000/1935369.stm The basic findings: the jury is still out on its neurotoxicity. None of the studies so far are good enough. Interesting, long time x-users have been shown to perform better on some mental tests.
As for the danger - less than skiing. About 50,000,000 man-skidays in america = 40 deaths (+ 10,000’s injuries). 50,000,000 tablets of ecstacy in UK every year = 20 deaths. Ban skiing?
I don’t know why anyone would put cocain and herion in a pill or capsule anyway, as they are NOT orally active at any dose that you could ingest.
On the safety of MDMA front…I was a very heavy user for quite a while(1-2 times a week), and I did notice that after a few months of this, my short term memory began to slip some.
After cutting back, I now “feel” back to normal. I suppose it is possible that some damage has occurred, and I don’t realize it.
not true. They are a lot less effective and there is no great rush, but they still work. Millions of people chew coca leaves in SAm, can’t tell me they aren’t getting something (though its true that alot of absorption is probably in the mouth).
Apparently, orally administered heroin is converted into lower potent forms such as morphine, possiblyalso accounting for its lower activity http://www.tiaft.org/tiaft98/wed/w_o_2.html
scotth : I agree, there are some mistake in this link. But they are not as bad as they seem.
quote:
Ecstasy can be combined with methadone, LSD, opiates such as heroin or Fentanyl, or strong anesthetics such as Ketamine.
As you mention, MDMA can be combine with whatever you want. but, i can not stress enough the fact that most dealer use PCP to alter other drug, it’s effective and cheap. In unexperience drug user, which include much of the population, the effect of PCP can be mistaken to be heroin, methadone, fentanyl or whatever else they can think of.
quote:
Although rumors abound, there is no evidence that demonstrates that Ecstasy is an aphrodisiac.
They’re right about this, Ecstasy do not seem to be an aphrodisiac per say but more what you can refer to as a social drug. Study shows that it does heighten social skill in most user. Most argue that this is the major reason for the popularity of this drug.
quote:
Researchers aren’t yet sure how much long lasting damage occurs from using Ecstasy chronically.
In this case, it’s a safe assumption to admit they are right. The thing is that MDMA is a drug that affect behavior. That is it fool around with your neurotransmitter. We know very little about the brain chemistry. I would give Lithium as an example. Lithium has been for quite a time now the miracle drug for manic-depressive patient, It’s stabilize their brain function very well. We realized only a few years ago that this drug do have long term effect. My point is, Nobody know for sure what are the long term effect of MDMA. Even more, those effects vary from people to people.
In any case, I think everyone will agree that if you buy X on the street, you can not be sure what will be in there. So there IS a real risk about ingesting chemicals that you don’t know about.
As has been mentioned. Dealers generally don’t do anything with ecstasy. It is in pill form from the manufacturer, and is unaltered all the way to the consumer. I will grant that PCP has been that active ingredient in pills said to be E. This is still fairly rare. People only take something for the first time once. MDMA and its related compounds have an extremely distinct feel that is easy for someone to recognize.
Clearly you have never taken it. The drug has an EXTREMELY strong physical component. It makes physical sensation of almost any sort much more intense. What would put this in or out of the Aphrodisiac category is on how you define it. If you define it(aprodisiac) as strictly a performance enhancer, then it probably is not. If you define it as something that may increase one’s desire for and pleasure from it… It could definitely slip in that way. I would also say that it doesn’t “heighten social skill”. It generally makes people act like retards, but not as severly as alot of alcohol does. It does increase the desire for personal interaction.
That’s an interesting assumption, when even the researchers clearly don’t agree on this one yet.
I will heartily agree with you on this point. Buying anything “on the street” is a stupid thing to do. You are likely to be ripped off (at best) doing so. This applies to everything from jewelry to car stereo equipment. Don’t do it.
If a customer knows a dealers phone number and address, that dealer has a vested interest in providing quality merchandise. This is especially true if a dealer is selling something outside the law. If a person is breaking the law, and people know where this person can be found, it is suicidal to do otherwise. If he pisses off his customers, a single anonymous phone call will have the cops over pretty quick.
As you can probably deduce, I have tried this in the past. I am intensely interested in all the info about anything I might put in my body. I have read a mountain of research on it.
The research to date says this:
Probability of long term damage is strongly tied to usage patterns. Very large single doses or repeated usage without recovery time (of at least several days) between usage likely causes long term alteration of brain chemistry. There is further dissagreement about the ramifications of this change. There is almost zero evidence that occasional (once a month, say) use at typical doses causes any long term effects.
Now, having said all that… here is why I suggest that a person not do it. And I really recommend that people don’t. I don’t anymore.
During the recovery period (a few days afterword), people do experience alteration in mood. This is freqently manifest as something similar to depression. It is different from classic depression though. A more accurate way to describe it is an enhanced sense of worry with a little panic thrown in. This isn’t good, especially if the person doesn’t recognize it for what it is.
What could come of this? possible suicide, inspiration to take more E during the recovery period (a bad idea), bad decisions…
This is probably where the largest danger is for the occasional user… you never really see it in the media though… it is too vague and not scary sounding enough I guess.
scotth : You’re right I’ve never taken it, but i had considered trying it sometime. So i don’t have any ‘real’ references to talk about what physical effects it have except for what i read and hear. I’m a psychology buff so i read a lot about pharmacology and MDMA is called a social drug. What i’m saying by ‘heighten social skill’ is exactly that it increase the desire for social interaction ( As you say in fact, let’s blame my bad english for this!! ). Also, most pharmacologist agree to say that MDMA does not cause physical addiction, and now i get to my point. Long term effect can also be psychological. Because, psychological addiction can be as severe as physical one. That’s why i choose not to try it, i was affraid to get hooked to the great feeling it gives. On long term physical effect, i tend to think that we’ll know for sure in about 5-10 years because we’ll have real example. But i’m affraid we’re getting far of the original subject here.
How about we start a great debate about long term effect of drug that affect behavior… that would be nice
I hope all of this, even the exchanges just between the two of us has been providing useful information directly related to the desire of the OP for “links on x, the ingredients, and the effects”.
If nothing else, I hope it goes to show that what we (as a scientific community) know about E still leaves a lot to be desired. There has, in fact, been some very provocative research. None of it has shown conclusively (or even close) that there is certain risk to the kind of use described in the OP (“sometimes drug abuser”, granted that was awfully vague), though. By the same standard, not being able to prove that something is “certainly” dangerous does not make it safe. I just wanted to point out that much/most of the “research” bandied about as “clear proof” of the dangers isn’t as reliable or clear cut as its proponents would have you believe.
I would go so far to say that one of the absolute worst places to go for accurate information for a true risk assessment of any substance is the Partnership for a Drug Free America. They have shown time and again that they will selectively tout any piece of info they can get their hands on, no matter how poorly documented, if it agrees with their agenda.
If you find something to debate in this, fire up a thread, and I’ll happily join ya. Or if you want to fire one up to discuss tangential issues or allow you to broaden the discussion, I’ll be happy to join also…
I hope all of this, even the exchanges just between the two of us has been providing useful information directly related to the desire of the OP for “links on x, the ingredients, and the effects”.
If nothing else, I hope it goes to show that what we (as a scientific community) know about E still leaves a lot to be desired. There has, in fact, been some very provocative research. None of it has shown conclusively (or even close) that there is certain risk to the kind of use described in the OP (“sometimes drug abuser”, granted that was awfully vague), though. By the same standard, not being able to prove that something is “certainly” dangerous does not make it safe. I just wanted to point out that much/most of the “research” bandied about as “clear proof” of the dangers isn’t as reliable or clear cut as its proponents would have you believe.
I would go so far to say that one of the absolute worst places to go for accurate information for a true risk assessment of any substance is the Partnership for a Drug Free America. They have shown time and again that they will selectively tout any piece of info they can get their hands on, no matter how poorly documented, if it agrees with their agenda.
If you find something to debate in this, fire up a thread, and I’ll happily join ya. Or if you want to fire one up to discuss tangential issues or allow you to broaden the discussion, I’ll be happy to join also…
I would love to find a way to compare the damage done to your brain/body by going out and getting drunk, vs. going out and taking some MDMA.
I always got Epressed on Sunday night-Monday morning…thoughts of suicide never entered my mind, though, as I knew it was a result of what I had done over the weekend.
I’m not sure where I originally heard this statement, but it definately rings true in the MDMA debate:
No drug is as safe as its users claim, or as dangerous as its opponents do.
No drug is as safe as its users claim, or as dangerous as its opponents do.
I love this one LOL…
scotth : I think we finaly reach an agreement here I’ll probably start a debate on monday ( can’t do this on weekend! ) So those interested be sure to take look.
I’ve never taken it, but i had considered trying it sometime. So i don’t have any ‘real’ references to talk about what physical effects it have except for what i read and hear. I’m a psychology buff so i read a lot about pharmacology and MDMA is called a social drug. What i’m saying by ‘heighten social skill’ is exactly that it increase the desire for social interaction ( As you say in fact, let’s blame my bad english for this!! ). Also, most pharmacologist agree to say that MDMA does not cause physical addiction, and now i get to my point. Long term effect can also be psychological. Because, psychological addiction can be as severe as physical one. That’s why i choose not to try it, i was affraid to get hooked to the great feeling it gives. On long term physical effect, i tend to think that we’ll know for sure in about 5-10 years because we’ll have real example. But i’m affraid we’re getting far of the original subject here.