someone sourcing two different drugs seems entirely more likely than someone synthesising large amounts of an unpopular one when the sought after one is just as easy at no extra cost.
The thing is..............I've seen this kind of hysteria about MDEA pills before. I lived in Australia from early-2006 til early-2009, and trust me - MDMA is all but non-existant over there.
But then in late-2008, a pill called the 'white mercedes' came out. They were the talk of the town in Melbourne. Several of my friends had them and said they were 'absolutely top notch', with some people even saying they were the best pills they'd ever had. Then when I had them, whilst I did enjoy them, I came to the conclusion that they contained little or no MDMA.
Shortly after I had them,
this pillreport was made. It's one of the best pill reports I have ever seen. The pillreporter ('ekstasis', who I think used to be one of the pillreports moderators) goes into great detail about why he beleives those pills are infact a combination of MDEA + speed. But if you look at the comments under the report, you'll see that most people absolutely loved them.
I would actually say that, given the complete lack of MDMA in Australia, the combination of MDEA + speed would be my next best choice. Those pills actually felt a lot like the green stars I had last weekend, although the white mercedes made me dance a bit more (which is easily accounted for by the fact they contained speed as well as the MDEA). But, even though I did like them, they still rank a long long way behind MDMA in my estimation.
But the idea that MDEA is an 'unpopular' drug is a myth. Honestly, I think a lot of people love the stuff.
And as has already been mentioned in this thread, MDEA is made using ethylamine, whereas MDMA is made using methylamine. Ethylamine is less closely monitored than methylamine, which may mean that it is currently more readily-available to the drug manufacturers than methylamine (which would mean that the drug manufacturers are churning out MDEA instead of MDMA).
In other words, there is a perfectly logical explanation as to why MDEA may currently be cheaper and easier to manufacture than MDMA.