Ecstasy - One of those desirable poisons?

Ecstasy effects can create pain in the mind and body of the very user who seeks pleasure from ecstasy effects. Pleasurable ecstasy effects that are sought include a relaxed upbeat mood and feelings, reduced anxiety, increased sensitivity to others and a high energy level that can be sustained for many hours.
Ecstasy, a street name given for the chemical MDMA, is a synthetic, psychoactive , neurotoxic drug with many negative effects. Ecstasy has similar structure to stimulants, like coc aine, and hallucinogenics like '___'. Also similar to coc aine and amphetamines is the highly addictive nature of ecstasy effects. Another commonality of ecstasy and all other abused drugs is the down-side, the negative often long-lasting ecstasy effects that far outweigh the few short term pleasures listed above. Here are a few that may come as quickly as the first dose and increase with continued usage.
Confusion Sleep problems Anxiety Teeth clenching Blurred vision Acne like rash Brain damage Depression Addiction Paranoia Nausea Chills and sweating Liver damage Aggression

www.ecstasy-effects.com...

I suspect that those already taking this substance will ignore the precautions due to their addiction, not unlike ones addiction to cigarettes. Every time I come across these kind of articles about drugs in general, I�m grateful I have never become an experimenter of such substances.

Im probably the kinda guy you would cross the street to avoid being a recreatinal smoker of the green leaf, but I thought you might appreciate my own perspective on "Drugs".
If u look at the main drugs mentioned in your article such as '___' and mainly extasy.....these are all drugs which are manufactured and have been created by science and by un-natural processes......I think its because of the way they have been created that is the problem. You see drugs like the weed I smoke are not naturally anywhere near as addictive as these man made killers. Even look at alchahol, it doesnt occur naturally in the way we drink it or use it, its manufactured for us......these drugs interfere with our body and the way they work becuase they are designed to....and thats part of the reason why so many people use them and get hooked on them. I dont blame the people who use them for doing what they do, I feel sorry for them, and we can only use/abuse drugs because we live in a world where they are freely available to us. Like my smoking habit, I wouldnt have been able to start it if weed wasnt so freely available on most street corners/skools and even from colleagues at work.

To be honest I have a great dealof respect for you, and the fact that you've never experimented with these types of drug......but extasy is only the tip of the iceburg.........look around the net for some of the effects of this drug (Crystal Meth) as I believe that it is one of the most dangerous substances next to heroin and its usage seems to be creeping up in the US and Canada......this is a greater worry than xtasy. I'll try and find the info and post it or the link.....take care and long may your abstinance from drugs continue.

Originally posted by sen5e
I suspect that those already taking this substance will ignore the precautions due to their addiction

MDMA is not an addictive substance.

RA
You see drugs like the weed I smoke are not naturally anywhere near as addictive as these man made killers.

Ecstacy and '___' are not addictive substances.


There are two issues with ecstasy. One is that it drives up body tempurature, and it can do it to leathal levels, and, in relation to that, it also causes severe dehydration. Those two things can and have killed people. Especially when they're rolling around a crowded night club.

The other issue with it is that it cuases nerve cells to not "re-uptake' seratonin ( I'm pretty sure thats the neurotransmitter it affects). This is what results in the 'ecstatic' feeling users describe. This means that one nerve cell dumps seratonin into the gap between it and another nerve cell, which stimulates that cell and causes the progression, cell to cell, of a signal. This is normal, except in ecstasy use its lots more cells. Anyway one problem with this is that the brain's storage of seratonin is depleted all at once, so a user might be edgy or unhappy for a little while. The drug, again, stops re-uptake, meaning that once a cell releases the neurotransmitter, it can't 'suck it back up' ro take it back into the cell. So soon there is a really high concentration of the transmitter in the inter-cell synapse. Importantly, this high concentration can (but not allways) result in the cell re-uptaking seratonin via a dopamine re-uptake channel. This is bad because the seratonin gets put into a vesicle (internal cell bag) where dopamine is normally processed. When seratonin is processed in these vesicles, one of the by-products is hydrogen peroxide.

Yes, it can, literally, bleach your brain. The hydrogen peroxide is caustic and destructive to that brain cell, I suppose it can damage it to varying degrees. But this doesn't allways happen.

When I take E, I feel sooooo good!! But I use it in partys sometimes, I'm not addicted at ALL, but I know what you mean...Any kind of un-natural drug is bad for the human body. The effects of E last a few hours and the day after, it's o.k, you don't get a hang over
I'm not scared of these drugs (heroine is really really scary!!!), but we should not abuse it and some people get addicted to anything, that is not good for them to try these drugs, it gives such a "high" feeling....then get the "low" and feel depressed
But instead of snorting coke, I think E is better...better than speed that lasts too long in the system
I just wanna say, I'm not a druggie, It's recreative but I know people who are a bit addict to Exctasy....I think it's on a long period of time they will really feel the negative effects on health

Just my opinion
Ameliaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thanks for all the info on E's Nygdan and your open and honest opinion Amelia. heres some info on Meth that was enough to scare me off ever trying the stuff......notice ist more addictive than crack!!!!

Methamphetamine affects your brain. In the short term, meth causes mind and mood changes such as anxiety, euphoria, and depression. Long-term effects can include chronic fatigue, paranoid or delusional thinking, and permanent psychological damage.

Methamphetamine affects your body. Over "amping" on any type of speed is pretty risky. Creating a false sense of energy, these drugs push the body faster and further than it's meant to go. It increases the heart rate, blood pressure, and risk of stroke.

Methamphetamine affects your self-control. Meth may be as addictive as crack and more powerful.

Methamphetamine is not what it seems. Even speed drugs are not always safe. Giga-jolts of the well-known stimulants caffeine or ephedrine can cause stroke or cardiac arrest when overused or used by people with a sensitivity to them.

Methamphetamine can kill you. An overdose of meth can result in heart failure. Long-term physical effects such as liver, kidney, and lung damage may also kill you.

Get the facts. The ignitable, corrosive, and toxic nature of the chemicals used to produce meth can cause fires, produce toxic vapors, and damage the environment.

Ninety-two percent of methamphetamine deaths reported in 1994 involved meth in combination with another drug, such as alcohol, heroin, or coc aine.

Meth can cause a severe "crash" after the effects wear off.
Meth use can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain.
Meth users who inject the drug and share needles are at risk for acquiring HIV/AIDS.
Look around you. Everybody doesn't think it's okay to take methamphetamine. A 1999 National High School Survey indicates that over 80 percent of teens disapprove of using meth even once or twice.(3)

How can you tell if a friend is using meth? It may not be easy to tell. But there are signs you can look for. Symptoms of methamphetamine use may include:

Inability to sleep
Increased sensitivity to noise
Nervous physical activity, like scratching
Irritability, dizziness, or confusion
Extreme anorexia
Tremors or even convulsions
Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and risk of stroke
Presence of inhaling paraphernalia, such as razor blades, mirrors, and straws
Presence of injecting paraphernalia, such as syringes, heated spoons, or surgical tubing

[edit on 14-12-2004 by radiant_obsidian]

I have done E allot of times and I can honestly say that it is the greatest feeling in the world(especially when having sex). I have read up on it allot and I have come to the conclusion that I am not going to do it any more or do any other drug except weed.It is true that it dipleets your serotonin and in the long run it makes you depressed. I heard that for everytime you use E it takes 30 years to replace the seratonin that you have lost. Eh but you live and you learn.

I miss my ecstacy taking days. I took lots of it. Never clenched my teeth. Never got acne. No brain damage.



I miss my ecstacy taking days. I took lots of it. Never clenched my teeth. Never got acne. No brain damage.


crap, I said that already.

Ecstacy is not chemically addictive however a user can get addicted to the mental state.

Originally posted by Nygdan
MDMA is not an addictive substance.

Ecstacy and '___' are not addictive substances.

Thank you for pointing this out. The only addiction one can possibly have to ecstasy is mental. People that can't get off this stuff have only their own weak mind to blame. I was addicted to hydrocodone, so I think I know a little about addiction. I took a bunch of ecstasy in college and was able to stop cold turkey with zero withdrawls. I'm not condoning it's use, but I do think that the public is being misled by reports like this.

Peace

Crystal Meth of course has nothing to do with ecstasy, and its infamous for having been used by the nazis to keep their soldiers awake during WWII.

killak420
I heard that for everytime you use E it takes 30 years to replace the seratonin that you have lost.

I seriously doubt that. Seratonin is synthesized from tyrptophan, the stuff in trukey that makes people sleepy. So all those little rollers out there should stock up on that stuff.

So are you saying that if you stuck up on tyrptophan(eat allot of turkey) you can counter the depleytion of serotonin?

The other issue with it is that it cuases nerve cells to not "re-uptake' seratonin ( I'm pretty sure thats the neurotransmitter it affects). This is what results in the 'ecstatic' feeling users describe. This means that one nerve cell dumps seratonin into the gap between it and another nerve cell, which stimulates that cell and causes the progression, cell to cell, of a signal. This is normal, except in ecstasy use its lots more cells. Anyway one problem with this is that the brain's storage of seratonin is depleted all at once, so a user might be edgy or unhappy for a little while. The drug, again, stops re-uptake, meaning that once a cell releases the neurotransmitter, it can't 'suck it back up' ro take it back into the cell. So soon there is a really high concentration of the transmitter in the inter-cell synapse. Importantly, this high concentration can (but not allways) result in the cell re-uptaking seratonin via a dopamine re-uptake channel. This is bad because the seratonin gets put into a vesicle (internal cell bag) where dopamine is normally processed. When seratonin is processed in these vesicles, one of the by-products is hydrogen peroxide.

Yes, it can, literally, bleach your brain. The hydrogen peroxide is caustic and destructive to that brain cell, I suppose it can damage it to varying degrees. But this doesn't allways happen.

You know, you almost describe the effects of Prozac exactly. It floods the brain with seratonin causing the equivalent of water on the brain. Since this isn't the thread for it I won't go into the massive amounts of legal drugs (prescriptions) that damage people far worse than the illegal ones.

I had a really good friend recently that ODed on Xtc. That's enough for me to never touch the stuff (again). But yea, I've done my fair share of experimenting and I can safely say that the drug propaganda is exactly that. The people that they take their horror stories from are usually pretty bad off without drugs to begin with.

I have this awesome little flyer that looks like it was made in the 50's. Here's what it says....

======================================
BEWARE! Young and Old -- People in All Walks of Life!

This may be handed you by the friendly stranger. It contains the Killer Drug "Marihuana" -- a powerful narcotic in which lurks

MURDER! INSANITY! DEATH!

WARNING!

Dope peddlers are shrewd! They may put some of this drug in the tea or in the cocktail or in the tobacco cigarette.

Write for detailed information, enclosing 12 cents in postage -- mailing cost

Address: The Inter-State Narcotic Association
(incorporated not for profit)
53 W Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
======================================

Just get stoned and read that for a really good laugh.

Just one thing to take into serious account. When you are purchasing any of these things you are NOT getting it in pure form. It is more often then not mixed with a multitude of other things. In the case of the two before mentioned drugs, they are not physically addictive but what they are mixed with may be. Ecstasy has been known to be cut with small amounts of heroin in order to get the user hooked. I have seen it first hand. Be careful.

Originally posted by Killak420
So are you saying that if you stuck up on tyrptophan(eat allot of turkey) you can counter the depleytion of serotonin?

I;m not sure if havign lots of tryptophan at the ready in the body means that it will produce more serotonin faster or more of it or recoup it sooner or whatnot, but it seems like having it available would make a difference. Tryptophan comes from other random sources too, there's just a lot in turkey.

Shadowhasnosource
I had a really good friend recently that ODed on Xtc

I've never heard of anyone taking a leathal does of ecstasy, how much did they take? THere was some stuff going around as if it were ecstasy that was really other really dangerous stuff that was killing lots of people, perhaps they got that?

jonna
When you are purchasing any of these things you are NOT getting it in pure form

Indeed, sometimes its cut to dilute it, other times its cut for other purposes, other times its some other non-ecstasy garbage thats masquerading as it. Infact, when ecstasy was getting popular there were two type, one was 'pure mdma' the other was a mix of speed, coke, and heroin that was supposed to 'chemically combine' into this new 'ecstasy' drug.

Shadowhasnosource
I had a really good friend recently that ODed on Xtc

I've never heard of anyone taking a leathal does of ecstasy, how much did they take? THere was some stuff going around as if it were ecstasy that was really other really dangerous stuff that was killing lots of people, perhaps they got that?

He took about 6-10. I never got the exact number. It's quite possible he got some bad stuff. He also went to sleep while on it which probably isn't too good. But hey, what better way to go out than sleeping on Xtc? Sure beats getting stuck in a combine.

Originally posted by Nygdan

There are two issues with ecstasy. One is that it drives up body tempurature, and it can do it to leathal levels, and, in relation to that, it also causes severe dehydration.

Thats a really good way to go kill someone, anyone reading this may think next time they take ecstacy to drink loads of water due to that statement. Sure if you danced loads and didnt drink, youd become pretty dehydrated....doubtful it would kill you though. However, the almost universal reason why people die after taking ecstacy is that it stops signals from your brain to your kidney to process fluid, thus any water you drink, you retain. Another consequence of this is that your thirst is never quenched. People unfortunately make the mistake of drinking and drinking, most of your body can deal with it, except your brain...which swells and haemorrhages and you die.

Nygdan

here in the Uk most Xtasy related deaths...and there are a few each year, are coming form people who try it just the once. There is a very famous case that stayed in the british media for mnths a few years back......if u search the net for the story of Leah Betts you will find out what happened. Although overdoses are unlikely when using xtasy compared to alot of other drugs, it can dehydrate the brain very quickly and cause death and brain damage.......although where I live your never getting 100% pure E's in the first place....some are mixed with horse tranqs, and the like to increase profiltability. Drugs dont make bad people tho, we do that by ourselves and most users I know are fantastic folk to know.....its the scumbags who would act like w@nkers with or without drugs that give the rest of us a bad name hehehehehe

One of the main problems is that getting true ecstasy in pure form MDMA rarely exists. When the drug was initially created and still legal, it was even put into bowls on college campuses at the bar. After a couple of years, it took hold among the youth and became a banned substance. What almost everyone takes these days as X is not pure form MDMA, but a mixture of drugs including fertilizers, coc aine, etc. It is hard to put an accurate measurement on something that really doesn't exist anymore.

Concerning your choice to never experiment with drugs, that is your own choice. It is not a negative nor admirable. Natural substances (not necessarily X) that altar the state of the mind have been used for 1000's of years, and many were parts of cultures. The problem with using many of these natural drugs is in the abuse of the substance. Whether it be marijuana, mushrooms, peyote, etc, many cultures of the world have used these to reach spiritual states that have helped solidify and mold their societies. The problem that we have in the world is not so much in the use of drugs, but rather the abuse of them.

The problem with MDMA as lots of people have stated is over hydration or hyponatremia.. (Ritz cracker syndrome is a name we have in class for it). Drinking loads of water dilutes the salt in your body to very unhealthy levels. These 'electrolytes' get all out of harmony and thus the user starts to get the effects of brain edema. Which include diarrhea, vomiting, above average amounts of saliva, and then of course brain damage, paralysis, and finally death.

In one our studies, users could potentially save themselves by eating Ritz crackers or some other salty foods.

[ Tryptophan comes from other random sources too, there's just a lot in turkey.

Nygdan, obviously this is peripheral, and not really germane to this thread, but the tryptophan in turkey thing is a myth. I think there might even be something on snopes about it.

It annoys me so much when people read an article, then make there own veiws from 1 article. People dont deserve the right to talk about drugs if they have never done them.

Its like a 2 year old child giving a lecture about sex. I smoke marijuana, it is not a poisen, no more then the air we breathe. People say its unmotivational...i get even more motivated when i am stoned.

I think everyone should try drugs, atleast once. If not, its kind of a waste of life. Your only here for an amount of time. Why not try to experience everything? I mean why not just once? You don't do a drug once and your hooked for life. I've done herione, coke, and E, and...i'm not addicted. I just did them to try them. Havent touched any of them since.

People these days....told how to live...you need to avoid such and such. I say F--- it. They shorten your life...3 months OH NO>.!!! You don't know when your going to die anyways. Try everything. You might go outside tomorrow and get smashed by a bus.

I don't know. I am stoned. My first point was the main one. Then I just kept typing.