MDMA Fail at a festival - Advice welcome

[Stringer_Bell]

Am married, late thirties. I've done too many drugs over the years (including MDMA) and my wife has only done mushrooms, once. That's it. She loved the experience.

I'm on Mirtazapine, she is on no medications.

I stupidly convinced her into trying MDMA at a festival. I got a couple of Ikea pills. That festival has an Energy Control booth. They were amazing. Tested the pills and confirmed they contained MDMA only, 253mg per pill.

So on Saturday I wanted us to peak for Eric Prydz. I took half a pill (so around 125mg) around 2:30am and she took 1/3 of a pill (so around 85mg) at the same time.

We were told by Energy Control that the pills were a hard press so they would take a while to act. EC were right. Didn't really feel any effects for an hour. Then after an hour my wife said she had tingling, was seeing a glow around lights and had nausea. At this point I was optimistic. I was feeling ok, not amazing yet but was more anxious about her. But from this point on things got worse. I thought the bliss would kick in and overpower any anxiety or sickness. But she just got more and more nauseous, was finding the experience unpleasant and freaked out to the point where she wanted to leave. I tried to convince her to stay for a minute or so because I thought she would get over it but she insisted on leaving so we left. She also asked for a Xanax which I gave to her.

Once we got outside she was still freaking out but then eventually we got a taxi and, weirdly, at this point she seemed to calm a bit and I had a huge meltdown. Like overwhelming anxiety attack to the point where I literally could not speak. I was really afraid I was going to die and felt insanely hot all of a sudden. I don't know if my weird experience was brought on by her having such a bad time and me feeling guilty.

I necked some Xanax then we got back to the hotel. We sat outside. I felt calm by this point and quite good but not euphoric, just a sense of general calm. She felt ok, neither terrible nor good although she had really bad leg cramps (which just got worse and worse).

I should also mention that we had both preloaded per RollSafe's guidelines (Magnesium, EGCG, Acetyl Caritine, etc).

I don't know what to make of this. If it hadn't been tested I'd assume this wasn't MDMA but it absolutely was, pure and strong. I've taken MDMA before and it felt good for sure, I've never had the magic but when I took it before it was at home by myself so I wanted this amazing, magical experience at a festival. But instead it just fukked up our night.t

Since then we've both had some weirdish symptoms (anxiety and depression) but are doing okish I think. She will never touch the stuff again, I still want to have that great experience with MDMA but am going to wait a few months at least.

So, where did we go wrong?

Edit: Sorry for mentioning the festival name, had forgotten that wasn't allowed. Thanks for editing!

 

[Swim15]

Combining with mirtazapine could be mildly unpredictable given the anecdotal experiences I've heard.

As far as she goes...everyone is different although that isn't what I would have expected. Potential anxiety from drug consumption could play a big role.

I'm not familiar with the on site testing at some venues in the world but I suppose there is some possibility they could have been wrong or mixed up samples.

 

[Stringer_Bell]

Combining with mirtazapine could be mildly unpredictable given the anecdotal experiences I've heard.

As far as she goes...everyone is different although that isn't what I would have expected. Potential anxiety from drug consumption could play a big role.

I'm not familiar with the on site testing at some venues in the world but I suppose there is some possibility they could have been wrong or mixed up samples.

Thanks for the reply. These were the blue and yellow Ikeas with the NL stamp - the Q Dance press. They were qualitatively and quantitatively tested by Energy Control. In my mind I'm certain this was pure MDMA. But yeah I see where you're coming from because our reaction was off.

I think Mirtazapine definitely played a role for me. Not sure what was going on with her, I shouldn't have talked her into it but thought we'd both have an amazing experience. Very strange.

The Xanax also killed the roll more or less completely I think (she took 1mg and I took 2mg) which was the intention. But I thought maybe it would just take the edge off but we'd still roll a bit. But no, it really crushed things.

I'm not sure if her dosage was too high or maybe too LOW.

 

[Ionized]

Did you see how they tested? Did they only use the liquid reagents like Marquis and such? Cause usually that is how they test at the festivals.
If that is the only way they tested you can not tell for sure that there was nothing else in it.
It sounds like there was something else in the pill.

 

[psy997]

Dosage could have been too low or the high just brought up suppressed emotions and energies all at once causing her to breakdown.

 

[Stringer_Bell]

Did you see how they tested? Did they only use the liquid reagents like Marquis and such? Cause usually that is how they test at the festivals.
If that is the only way they tested you can not tell for sure that there was nothing else in it.
It sounds like there was something else in the pill.

It was Energy Control and they did a quantitative test. I think they used a gas chromatograph, lol. Seriously, most amazing testing service ever. It wasn't a simple reagent test. I honestly have no doubt that this was pure MDMA. We just had really weird reactions.

 

[Clocktower]

They used thin layer chromatography, not GC/MS. TLC is very cool and is definitely a step up from reagent testing. That said, I'm not sure quick-turnaround TLC performed by volunteers (?) in an on-site lab is a foolproof way to rule out adulterants. Good? Certainly. Perfect? Maybe not.

Of course, I've never seen one of their labs so I could be wrong.

It's also quite possible that your pills were pressed unevenly.

In any case, you pretty much did everything right OP. Unfortunately, in a world where drugs are prohibited and unregulated even our best safety measures can sometimes fail us. If you try again you should probably take a lower dose in a more controlled setting.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I'm thinking she underdosed and the good effects never kicked in so all she felt was side effects of having a foreign chemical in her body and some anxiety.

I've had shitty rolls from underdosimg like this before

 

[cj]

It was the mirtazepine. You mixed a powerful SNRI with your roll.

 

[BlueBull]

I tend to agree with this

I'm thinking she underdosed and the good effects never kicked in so all she felt was side effects of having a foreign chemical in her body and some anxiety.

I've had shitty rolls from underdosimg like this before

Though it's of course not sure, I had a few rolls where I didn't take enough and you get stuck in that nasty, anxious comeup phase for a few hours. If you then are prone to anxiety, tired, malnourished or under stress it's not unlikely that something like this can happen. I didn't have a panic attack or anything but the feeling I got from those few rolls I can tell you that I can imagine it very much possible for someone to get one. Also, nausea is completely normal, I know people that puke every time they roll so she might just be one of those people more sensitive to it

and this

It was the mirtazepine. You mixed a powerful SNRI with your roll.

For you it was probably the mirtazipam indeed, as said that is an unpredictable combination, for some people it just dampens the roll (for some mildly, for some completely) but for others it can cause unexpected side-effects. In any case, it will have an influence, you shouldn't combine those, apart from possibly dampening your roll it can be unpredictable since not much is known about the interaction between the two. Tread carefully

Also, seeing the person you love go through such a thing will rock you a bit emotionally, this will have catalysed your bad experience as soon as you got outside. MDMA is an empathogen, you empathise more deeply with people, that means also when they are going through a bad experience

 

[Stringer_Bell]

Thanks a lot for the replies. Very interesting on the thin layer chromatography. I guessed at the gas chromatography but yeah it did seem a bit unfeasible they would have that at at festival. Still I think the testing they do is brilliant and they were great people (at EC). Certainly better than taking an unknown substance, even if not perfect.

I researched Mirtazapine + MDMA heavily before taking it. Unlike at a festival a couple years back when I was on Tricyclics, took MDMA and couldn't for the life of me figure out why 200mg MDMA was having so little effect on me. But, yeah, clearly for me the combo doesn't work so I certainly won't think about rolling again until I'm off all meds, whenever that may be.

She has a completely 'clean' brain, unlike me (never been on psych meds, had only one drug experience in her life - mushrooms) so I find it really weird that she would experience this. Maybe underdosing but I think her core beliefs kind of influenced her reaction. She really believes that natural = good and chemical = bad, so she could completely relax and enjoy the mushroom experience with not a drop of anxiety (whereas I was freaking out at the damn seagulls on the beach where we took the stuff and she had to calm me down) but I'd talked her into doing something she didn't agree with, with the MDMA. I can't explain the muscle cramps though, she says they were severe. I didn't get them at all and haven't heard of others getting them.

I'm pretty disappointed. I wanted us both to have a fantastic, bonding experience. I did what I could to make it safe (testing, pre-loading) but it still ended up ruining the night and I know for sure it's not something we'll ever get to experience. Oh well, we're both basically ok now and I'm pretty thankful for that. She swears that about a week after the experience she was getting moments of awful depression and anxiety (and she's, again unlike me, extremely stable mentally) but they have completely cleared up now.

I've been getting the depression and anxiety too but fortunately when those things are entirely normal for you, you don't worry half as much as if it's down to a drug you took, lol, so taking it in my stride.

 

[Dresden]

I do solemny pledge that I truly believe that today's mass quantity e cooks MUST BE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.

 

[Dresden]

From what I've read here, the stupid good MDMA can still be found, especially on the dark net, which does NOT make you uncatchable to LE agents btw.

 

[augustaB]

My two bits on this is that it would have been better if you had introduced your lady to mdma in a calmer and safer environment. Nobody feels good when nauseous and being nauseous in public is like the worst thing ever. So she got into a loop and there was no way to get out of it. Shame. As for your case I would think it was primarily like you said, a feeling of guilt and worry about your lady.

 

[Stringer_Bell]

Thanks Augusta. Yeah it was a stupid thing for me to do. I did much better with the shrooms. We drove down to this beach, was really peaceful, the perfect environment. MDMA is associated with festivals and electronic music so I thought this festival would be a good idea but I was wrong.

I'm going to probably wait at least 6 months before doing it again, and even then only assuming I'm off the Mirtazapine.

Edit: I really would love to believe it was 'bad' MDMA or something that caused this but I don't. As far as I know Q-Dance make the best presses around and the Ikeas were the real deal, plus tested by thin layer chromatography. I don't think you can do much better than that can you? This was down to US and really, me, because as Augusta said this wasn't by any means the ideal first time venue for taking MDMA. I'm disappointed because it's not something we'll ever get to experience as a couple now. Sure I can take it alone but I wanted it to be a shared experience. Oh well.