Sorry to keep banging on about dance music but its fairly relevant
By 2001 my pill use was at silly levels. At the second Gatecrasher event at the NEC (NEC NXT) the NEC arena decided to host just 5 dj;s all night, none of whom I wanted to miss. I arrived fairly early and had already taken a gram of speed (when I could get real speed) and arrived about half way through Matt Hardwicks warm up set. With Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, Mauro Picotto and Scott Bond i was determined to stay in the main room for as much of the night as possible so I double dropped 2 Versace's (excellent beans at the time) with the idea that I would be flying by the time Oakenfold came on. Due to the crowds it was one of those that if I left the main arena =, chances are it would be ages before I got back in again so I just danced up the pills and was flying by the start of said set.
Then everything went west. I noticed how hot I was becoming and within the next 5v minutes my 'roll' had completely disappeared while I continued to get hotter and hotter, despite having a bottle of water on me. I knew things were serious when I stopped sweating as despite being a stupid immature twat I was aware of the safer dancing guidelines and realised that I was having a classic hyperthermic episode (when you overheat on E and die). I quickly found a security guard, explained what Id taken and the situation after which he got a colleague to help before taking me straight to the medical centre.
The initial nursing assessment confirmed what I had guessed - I was having a hyperthermic episode due to stimulant overdose and to make matters worse I caught a glimpse of my observations- my BP was 190/ 100 and my heart rate was 147bpm. Thankfully i didnt get to see my temperature. So, the space blanket was quickly brought out, I was given 10mg diazepam IV and told to sit off and drink a bottle of water slowly. After about 3 hours I was considered fit enough to finsih cooling off in the med centres 'halfway house' (basically a chill out room for people with medical problems.
I got back out onto the arena about 4 o clock, just in time to hear the epic thump of Mauro as he started his set. As it had been a disaster of a night, and also due to the fact that Picotto was my fave jock at the time, I rejoined the dancefloor, and me being me I had another pill. I knew I wouldnt come up on it properly due to the diazepam Id been given but I wanted to dance through the last 3 hours so I justified taking it for the amphetamine effect alone. The last 3 hours turned out to be really good, mainly thanks to the beautiful sounds of Mauro and Scott Bond
Its incredible to believe I used to be an even bigger twat that I am now but hey ho there you go. If any lesson came out of it all that night marked the last time I took pills and speed at the same time. The whole thing could have been avoided if I wasnt such a greedy music obsessed twat