You mentioned Glastonbury and the people that live in that area and that scene ties in pretty closely with Glastonbury festival, and the wider UK festival, rave and party scene generally. Hardly making it the point of my debate; you just said these people are somehow icons of ideal drug use, I just proposed that they aren't.
Provided you stick within something like 14 units per week there is little evidence that alcohol will cause you many short or long term health problems. Obviously if you abuse alcohol then that isn't the case but the same goes for any drug. People using MDMA however frequently present with psycho-social and cognitive dysfunctions after using at equivalent dosages and frequency which would not cause significant problems if the drug being used was alcohol.
I think it's quite difficult really to compare dangers of drugs as every drug has an entirely different set of risks, but you see you can't simply say 'MDMA is safer than alcohol, bottom line'. Some aspects of MDMA are safer, some aspects of alcohol are safer. It all depends on the way you're using the drug.
Where on earth did I say I need drugs to accomplish these things? I simply said that I have had inspiring and life changing experiences from these types of drugs which have changed my life for the better. Besides tea, and a couple of beers and weed at the weekends, I don't actually use any other drugs any more. I will trip or take MDMA if the occasion presents itself but that's like, once every year or two now.
My point is not that any drug is safer than another, but strictly in the context of going on frequent 'nights out', moderate alcohol use is less likely to present you with problems than moderate MDMA use when doing so.
What exactly is poisonous about recommending that people research the specific risks of any individual drug they are taking, and use them appropriately? The irony is that most of those who seek out our services at festivals are those who've taken the kind of 'advice' you are putting across: "my mate said it was good shit", "I took half a gram of MD" etc