Expert slams ecstasy downgrading

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E-llusion

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Ecstasy is too dangerous a drug to be downgraded, said an expert in psychology.

Professor Andy Parrott claimed it was a "very powerful" substance that could cause major physical and social harm.

He presented his argument to a Government advisory council which is considering whether MDMA - the chemical name for the clubbers' drug - should be reclassified from Class A to Class B.

Prof Parrott, from the Department of Psychology at Swansea University, said: "It's not a weak drug. It is one of the most powerful of the recreational drugs."

He said that over the course of 14 years researching the issue, a number of problems had been reported by users, in particular those who took ecstasy regularly over a long period of time.

In the immediate term, the stimulant damaged the brain and body by affecting neurotransmitters, causing the release of serotonin and leading to an increase in levels of the stress hormone cortisol while long term effects could include immune system problems, functional deficits in cognitive tests, altered information-processing, sleep disorders, memory problems, sexual dysfunction, as well as overheating (hyperpyrexia)-related deaths, liver and heart problems, according to Prof Parrott.

The new chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor David Nutt, has previously suggested ecstasy is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco.

Prof Parrott gave a scathing criticism of two articles written by Prof Nutt in the last two years, one of which ranked ecstasy as 18th out of 20 drugs in terms of "harm".

"I have been fairly conservative," said Prof Parrott. "I was trying not to overstate it. But ecstasy is up there with the other Class A drugs as the fifth most dangerous drug. My proposal is it should remain a Class A drug. The proposal to downgrade MDMA should be withdrawn."

Prof Nutt said the ACMD would consider all evidence on the issue of reclassifying MDMA/ecstasy before it prepared a report to go to ministers in January.

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Expert slams ecstasy downgrading
Nov 25/2008

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iAK7AQamIlXFDuty2wUiTGwgg5PQ
 
Also would like to say that most people who take E, take it responsibly. They know when it's time to stop.

E is a drug that is great. It allows people to take a look at there life. I did E and have a very addictive personality, however I only took it once! I'm sure i'll take it again in my life.

But it really doesn't do anything that's bad. You get a little hotter then normal. You feel amazing. You think how stupid normal drugs are.

E really does allow people to see things in a better way. Also while making them feel good. If theres any drug that needs to be down graded it's this.

People can take E and then quit doing coke. They can take E and quit other drugs to. It just depends on the person. This is what it did for me besides opening my mind to feeling close to my friends.

Also the "hangover" is only for 1 day a feeling of funnyness.

Drugs need to be decriminalized because although E is powerful, what is your definition of powerful? People dont die from this shit like heroin overdoses.

You take E and feeling so amazing and trippy. It's just a wonderful thing that I haven't even done for 2-3 years and can still remember perfectly.
 
hydrochron said:
Also would like to say that most people who take E, take it responsibly. They know when it's time to stop.

E is a drug that is great. It allows people to take a look at there life. I did E and have a very addictive personality, however I only took it once! I'm sure i'll take it again in my life.

But it really doesn't do anything that's bad. You get a little hotter then normal. You feel amazing. You think how stupid normal drugs are.

E really does allow people to see things in a better way. Also while making them feel good. If theres any drug that needs to be down graded it's this.

People can take E and then quit doing coke. They can take E and quit other drugs to. It just depends on the person. This is what it did for me besides opening my mind to feeling close to my friends.

Also the "hangover" is only for 1 day a feeling of funnyness.

Drugs need to be decriminalized because although E is powerful, what is your definition of powerful? People dont die from this shit like heroin overdoses.

You take E and feeling so amazing and trippy. It's just a wonderful thing that I haven't even done for 2-3 years and can still remember perfectly.
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Fuck yes. I couldn't agree with you more. I would give you a big plurry fucking hug right now if I could, since I am rolling at the moment and all. =D8o=D

I could not have said it better, although I take MDMA one to two times a month these days, after going through a binge of eating pills for a little over a year. I couldn't roll for TWO YEARS, no matter how many beans/how much molly I dropped, and everyone else would be rolling balls and I'd just be moderately happy and a little tweaky and a little sleepy.

Finally, this year, I dropped again...and THE MAGIC WAS BACK, AND THAT MAGIC IS STAYING BACK! I space out my experiences in order to let my head level out and to keep from losing the ability to feel the light and love and life that MDMA induces.

Now, I personally use MDMA, along with other hallucinogens, as tools to delve inside and become one with everyone and everything. It holds a really dear place in my heart and is what got me to see what opiates, cocaine, and benzos were doing to me. I have done opiates, cocaine, and benzos since, so I'm not saying MDMA is something to per say, cure addiction. It is a beautiful molecule that causes the most amazing release of neurotransmitters, it makes you feel amazing, and it's just wonderful, and to top it all off, it's an empathogen/entactogen. "Touching within", as Shulgin put it. It will show you many things and you can gain many tools through the experience, and if you choose to, you can bring these things back with you and apply them to your life...And to say that alcohol is a better drug than ecstasy...are you out your damn mind? %)

So, as I see that I've wrote a book here, I'm going to close it up.

<3<3<3I LUHS YOU BLUELIGHT!<3<3<3

much peace, much love, much unity, and much respect.

stonedandrolling89 =D8o=D
 
While it is true that MDMA is powerful, it is only dangerous when used to EXCESS... just like many other prescription drugs. But when taken in moderate doses and for the the right reason, it is effective and relatively safe. ALL drugs carry some risk when overused. So it should be studied, the true benefits and risks well defined, and then made available by prescription like all other powerful drugs. It is not inherently evil, nor it is a panacea for all of life's problems. It is a medication that can enhance one's quality of life. That's my 2 cents!
 
Also would like to say that most people who take E, take it responsibly. They know when it's time to stop.
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lol, most of the people who take E are cracked out as hell. The impression I get is that a lot of them think it's just a pill with some heroin in it that gets you really high.
 
captainballs said:
lol, most of the people who take E are cracked out as hell. The impression I get is that a lot of them think it's just a pill with some heroin in it that gets you really high.
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That's why ecstasy gets such a bad reputation, if people actually did their research and understood what MDMA does to you then crap like this article wouldn't exist.

This garbage about how neuron DAMAGE is still not proven, and as always other drugs that are legal can have grave consequences in comparison.

There's absolutely no reason at all why Ecstasy should be a Class A drug.
 
People get their X now, and they're gonna get it whether it's class A or class B or even if it's totally legal. What does he think harsher penalties will change aside from clogging the system with more drug convictions and not really fixing any of the real problems like black market crime and a lack of drug education for the public.

I assume he thinks harsher penalties = less people will use but that doesn't exactly work.
 
That's why ecstasy gets such a bad reputation, if people actually did their research and understood what MDMA does to you then crap like this article wouldn't exist.
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Yeah I agree. The higher a drug is up the DEA food-chain, the less people seem to know about it and even worse the more people seem to have myths ingrained into their skulls.
 
"a number of problems had been reported by users, in particular those who took ecstasy regularly over a long period of time."

HOLY SHIT well when are they going to forcibly restrict our daily salt and carbohydrate intake!?!?!
 
captainballs said:
lol, most of the people who take E are cracked out as hell. The impression I get is that a lot of them think it's just a pill with some heroin in it that gets you really high.
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Yeah.. i see alot of people who munch E like its candy.. 1 after the other all night every weekend.. when someone tells me they just had there 4th or 5th pill in the night it just makes me shudder, cause these are the people who do it every weekend..

And your exactly right.. they dont understand what it does, how it works.. im sure they could probably care less (Anyone i've tried to explain it too seems dis-interested) Im sure alot of them just see it as a pill which makes them feel fucking good.
 
Surely this guy relises that excess of anything is dangerous and as its a powerful drug, doing it every weekend, long term is gunna create problems, but far less than the same use of other legal/lower classes drugs.

Its the illegality that makes it dangerous
 
Don't get me wrong, I think ecstasy has a high punishment vs. side effects of the actual drug itself. And fifth most dangerous drug? Where did that guy pull that statistic out of his ass? He must have had to dig deep for that shit.

But anyways, when you have a drug such as...
methylenedioxymethamphetamine
you can't try to tell people that it has no problems associated with it.

It's kind of in the eye of the beholder, a lot of people who smoke tobacco would argue that it is safe to do so, many people who drink or maybe even drink and drive would argue that it is reasonably safe, the same goes for ecstasy, people who do e will say it is safer than it is in reality! There are a lot of people who do not take e very safe, or roll on it continuing to take it dose after dose after dose, yet no one wants to call out that rolling may be dangerous? Bullshit, people who smoke crack like that are called crackheads and likewise for crystal meth.. So I do think that ecstasy has more side effects than many people are willing to consider, but I also agree that it shouldn't be a Class A drug.
Just my two cents..
peace

(is awaiting the big flame coming for this one lol)
 
Doc you serious? These all seem like a bunch of made of statistics you just threw out there. 5th most dangerous? How? I've heard of one person in the 7 years I use to go to raves dying. Was it from the E? Probaly not, was it from the other drugs mixed in with the E? Probaly, was it from the excessive dancing and dehydration? probaly ..but I seriously dounbt that this person's cause of death was MDMA. Its allt he other shit that went on that night. But of course because this person took E thats what they said it was from. Little do people know that most E isn't just E. Its alot of other crazy shit mixed in it.

Also, i've done it for 7 years sometimes 2-3 times a week, that was 4 years ago that I stopped doing it. Im not depressed, I still think fine ..i've graduated from EMT school since then. So to say that E causes all these problems? I highly doubt it. Its probaly because alot of people are already fucked up in the head thats why they take it to begin with. What a load of crap ..can't believe I read all that ..its a bunch of unproven facts that you wrote out there. Theres still no proof that E does the things they first thought they did. Google is a wonderful tool, and I made sure to google it first before I wrote this ..and I found an article pretty recent think it was this month sometime ..and it says no proof that E does what was first thought ..

anyways ..do your research, if u dont do E and you want to ..make sure you look up what you're doing first ..be responsible just dont throw pills in your mouth and expect to have a good time ..because not every pill out there is going to give you a good time ..internet is a wonderful tool when you're about to do something you've never done before ..

ok im out ..
 
the excess of anything is dangerous
does that mean it should be illegal?

when i hear hardcore drugs ecstasy is NOT the first thing that comes to my mind.
If taken responsibly, ecstasy isn't as harmful as it is worked up to be!

Yes, it can cause long term damage, but that is caused by heavy heavy and frequent use.

guess what else can cause long term damage when used heavily and frequently?
ALCOHOL!!!!

its sad how people wont open their eyes.

18th out of the 20 most dangerous drugs sounds right, not 5th
 
Main dangers are the shit mixed into it and pip pills downgrading it probably wouldn't have an impact on this. So the only reason is to give us gentle drug users a break. Not likely to happen eh?
 
Theres one problem with recreational drug users.. the majority are ignorant and the rest tend to push the boat out atleast once in a while.. even if they do know the dangers... if you catch my drift..

Dont get me wrong.. this is no reason to censor the public but.. yknow..
 
it doesn't make sense that speed is class B, yet E, which isn't addictive, is class A.. its just because of all the negative news reporting in the 90's.. virtually all E related deaths are down to mixing with other drugs, yet they are still used in stats as death from MDMA :X
 
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