Pipes suck because they are made with the worst intentions. They are not marketed and sold as pipes, they are sold as ecstasy (which is supposed to be MDMA) but they are not. They are the most crude wanna be bullshit copy of MDMA. In small doses, some people enjoy it, but most people do not. Taking more than 1 or 2 pipes pills (which is quite common because the pipes come up is long and slow and leads people that think they're taking MDMA to believe they need more) usually results in very awful side effects including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, increased heart rate, and the inability to sleep for a long time afterward. It really lacks all the "magical" feel good qualities of MDMA.
Every time I have taken pipes, I found that the high had to be constantly managed. I always felt like I was on the edge of being sick, and felt confident that if I had taken anymore I would be. I had to sit down a lot and monitor my breathing. One of my favorite things about MDMA is how easy and comfortable the high is. If you're in a good setting and it's real, there's a very slim chance you won't have a great time, and it comes very naturally. With pipes, I have to keep telling myself I feel OK and just wait for it to end.
It doesn't happen anymore, because I won't take anything I don't test, but when I got piped, I always felt like I'd been had. The producers of these pills set out to trick people. Pipes wouldn't sell like ecstasy does, so they try and trick new users into thinking it's what they have. Pipes are cheaper, so these scummy assholes are producing these garbage pipes pills so they can make a killing off you. They know they are scummy too, because they often make copies of good pills, or add a tiny amount of MDMA to trick a testing kit to convince you to buy them. IMO they are the absolute worst adulterant out there (OK.. PMA is really bad because it kills, but it's very rare in the US) because they are really watering down the quality of pills. Too many new users take these shitty pipes pills and believe it is ecstasy because they do not know any better. They have no clue with MDMA is and the demand for these shit pills grows. Nowadays, when someone tells me their going to try ecstasy, I cringe and try to warn them, because the odds that they are going to get MDMA is very slim in my part of the country.