Each to their own but I think taking drugs like MMC for a trip to Bunnings is stupid.
The physical symptoms you described whilst taking large quantities of this substance are concerning for your health and not fun.
The paper is far more interested in this stuff than alcohol because this is new, this is interesting and the police and the media are just waiting for someone to die on it. So the police can use it to spread their message against the use of the drug and a heavy crackdown on those that possess it and the media can use it to cause even more hysteria. The more media hype the more idiots that want to try it. The size of one's brain is what matters when it comes to the "safe" ingestion of psychoactive substances.
Anyone who is seriously harmed or dies from using an illegal or quasi legal substance only causes further demonisation of the substance in the eyes of the wider populace when it is the user that is the problem and not the substance. MDMA is the perfect example of this.
Have your fun. But heed the warnings. Not much is known about this, it is easy to continue to redose because of how much you have and the cost of it, but it is not what you should be doing over and over again and for days on end.