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| E for Ecstasy or 'ealth? Rafael Ramos Note: The information on this website is presented for
educational purposes and This document was provided by At this time of the year it is remarkable how people abuse their health with copious amounts of sweet food and alcohol. Most extraordinary is to watch homosexual no less than heterosexual club-goers speed up the gluttonous process with heavy drug-taking, freeing themselves of daily chores and social constrictions, invoking Christmas and partying without remorse. Hypocrisy and commercialism have turned this Christian festival, along with its peaceful myth of godliness and its religious imagery, into icons for cult hoards following extremes of consumption. At least since the era of the ancient Greek god Dionysus, such cults have come and gone, united in the energetic pursuit of euphoric extremes. Their aim is ecstasy, ecstasis, which can mean anything from ‘taking you out of yourself’ to a profound alteration of personality.1 Ecstasis Ecstasy, the contemporary recreational drug, has become the smartie white god who by very simple means produces pleasure and liberation, for a short while, allowing people to transcend barriers, creating the illusion of freedom. It can in some circumstances dissolve fears and remove inhibitions, allowing communication and energy to flow. But how many people ponder the underlying reasons for this urgency to overcome barriers and awkwardness? And how many forget wider aspects of health, not questioning the consequences for their physical or mental reality, preferring to become near hypnotic instruments of this chemical? Assuming that ’E’ is ingested in its ‘purest’ form, MDMA – which is rare in the commercial party scene where it is now generally manufactured to contain other drugs like amphetamines, LSD, ketamine (Special K), caffeine, ephidrine, triprolidine, etc. – it is believed that it facilitates an openness of the heart allowing love to flow – the reason why it has often been referred to as the ‘love-drug’. The sensation may extend to a pervasive loosening-up, freeing tempered emotions. The combination of the drug with rave music and dancing can produce an exhilarating trance-like state, perhaps similar to that experienced in tribal and folk dance or religious ceremonies. It also seems that a universal effect of the drug is to remove male sexual aggression, contrary to the effect that excessive alcohol may have, and to bring out the feminine qualities in men. This phenomenon may explain why gay clubs today, where ’E’ is common, are becoming increasingly popular with women, lesbian and straight, who find themselves in a more congenial environment. Both the ecstasy and the female presence attract growing numbers of straight men to these venues while making them behave less aggressively than they might elsewhere. Another social effect of ‘E’ is to break down barriers between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Women feel free to hug one another and gays are as likely to be hugged by straight women and men, without harassment or hostility. People feel more loving than passionate and unusually sensitive towards each other. Used as an aphrodisiac, ‘E’ can be regarded as the libido poppy-pill of the 90s’ club-culture. Ian Young describes recreational drug abuse as a tendency to recreate "inappropriate emotional bonding" by which people believe they are falling in love. This quick-fix method of breeding emotions is not necessarily matched by sexual sensations or orgiastic desire: but when it happens, the effect of believing that you’re experiencing different forms of love and affection with a sense of sexual engagement is a complex impulse that can lead to frustration or misleading the person you’re with. In the right environment, passionate emotions can be enhanced with a trusted partner. At times the chill-out period after raving becomes the ideal occasion for long, slow or fulfilling sexual experience. ‘E’ as a chemical compound has a profound effect on most people and does not always suit everyone. The ideal scenario would be to be able to let go of unwanted attachments, particularly fear and anger, expanding towards a space of love and freedom. However, this is unlikely to take place if the overpowering urge to celebrate is being thwarted and repressed by the insulated, overheated and overcrowded atmosphere of most clubs. As many people have probably noticed, the ‘loving’ effect of ’E’ becomes weaker the more one takes it. Increasing the dosage in order to regain stimulus can lead to increased toxicity. Can we demystify the rise of ecstasy in homosexual and heterosexual drug culture? Project LSD (UK) estimate half a million people in the UK take ecstasy each week. Outside of statistics and media hype about moral concerns on the use and dangers of ‘E’ as an illicit class-A drug, questions about safety play an intrinsic part in understanding its biological functions. Raising awareness about possible harmful effects allows people to take responsibility for themselves and practically deal with potential health risks.
Body After being swallowed, the ‘pill’ is quickly digested in the stomach, reaching the brain, and the bowel area where most of the dose – 65% – will be metabolized, passing through the kidneys and the liver soon after, thence excreted in the urine. A small percentage – some 7% – stimulates the brain where the natural chemical serotonin, an amino acid neurotransmitter, and a potent oxidising agent, is released allowing the flow of information around the brain, altering your mood – similar to the effects produced by adrenaline.2 Having absorbed the drug, your body can overreact and start sweating and overheating. Dehydration, nasty headaches, stomach cramps, vomiting, muscular pains and jaw tightly clenched are signs that the drug’s demands to let go are inappropriate for the individual at that time. Interactions between Ecstasy (or other amphetamines) and protease inhibitor drugs have been implicated in at least one death. Investigation is under way into how the drug Ritonavir may have fatally raised the level of MDMA in the body of an individual, who recently died at a night club, by 23 times.3 Although the effects of dehydration inside the body have not been properly understood, the National Drugs Helpline gives a list of possible damage to: the liver and kidneys, heart and genitalia – the latter particularly for women, who are prone to suffer cystitis and heavier periods. Due to overstimulation, serotonin production will in time drop considerably. A person on ‘E’ and dancing for hours on end could beneficially sip about half a litre of water an hour – alcohol is not advisable, nor is more than three litres of water in an evening. Also antioxidants, eg. vitamins E, C and B, or NAC, will help the body to counteract after-effects. Only knowing the level of serotonin produced would allow specifically accurate levels of such supplementation. Seeking the advice of a nutritionist is recommended.
Mind The most unpleasant ‘hangover’ effects are mood swings, confusion, tiredness, sometimes paranoia and depression, and a tendency to interpret situations out of proportion. Although MDMA is not known to be addictive ‘E’, as a cocktail drug, together with the associated life-style of all-night raving and peer group pressure can lead to psychological dependency . One of the disturbing fears about ‘E’ is that it may be causing mental dysfunction or permanent brain damage, often associated with sustained abuse. It has also been suggested that it destroys nerve endings or synapses, and in extreme cases could lead to irreparable brain damage. It is difficult to identify the dangers of ecstasy in spite of it having been originally prescribed to people undergoing psychotherapy. Its medium-to-long-term (lifetime) effects have never been assessed. Psychoanalysts like CG Jung state: "The separation of psychology from the premises of biology is purely artificial, because the human psyche lives in indissoluble union with the body". The reason people under the influence of MDMA feel warm, energetic, and friendly to the point of euphoria is complex: the mind/body, subjected to belief and custom, produces an agreeable delirium of freedom, but free from what and from whom? The fallacies of social and emotional freedom become like an opiate for a person locked in the prison of identity and psyche.
Spirit Powerful impacts of spiritual awakening with ecstasy use have been experienced by many people from San Francisco to Amsterdam – (in that city MDMA’s purity can be checked). A woman in Christiania (the flower-power quarter of Copenhagen) reported her first experience of MDMA as follows: "Ecstasy was a Vision, was Gravity, was Love-in-Idleness ... O Eros, drawing together the moon and the earth!"4 This honest account of spiritual freedom coincides with those who have used the drug as a device to let go of insecurity, and connect with the glories of the unconscious – in a safe environment, preferably in the countryside with plenty of fruit juices and/or water, music and in good company. These accounts extend to a hyper-stimulation of the senses (smell, hearing, vision, taste and touch), with the impression of a veil lifting to unmask the true ego and the soul. Spiritual exploration using MDMA may be an acceptable way of letting-go of unwanted attachments, and self-exploration – gentle ‘teacher’ that can remind people who they are. The ensuing challenge may be to turn to the many emotions learnt into actualities: to practice letting go of fear in the midst of normal daily life. Too often ecstasis can be indulged in with the conviction that, in the process of indulging, one is leading to a ‘higher life’. What can be dangerous about the need for recreational drugs in order to create ‘healthy-loving-feelings’ is that you get conditioned to cheap solutions, instead of deep ones. What seems clear in fact, is that many people take ecstasy assuming that they will enrich their experiences if they explore new avenues. What they do not realize is that ‘it’ is nearly always sold containing a concoction of other chemicals. In this Christmas quest for celebration and freedom or deeper realities, it would be most irresponsible to forget that there are many paths up the mountain, and what goes up must come down. In reality it doesn’t matter which path you take, so long as you do not squander your health.
References 1. Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Penguin, 1990, p. 97. 2. Nicholas Saunders, E for Ecstasy, Nicholas Saunders, 1993, pp. 22-23 & 143. 3. Posting on internet newsgroup misc.health.aids, 22 Nov 1996. 4. Ref. 2, ibid. p. 201. See also: Ian Young, The Stonewall Experiment, Cassell, 1995. |