Neither do I but it's a good place and time I suppose to start looking for those answers.
I think your right about the genetic factor, there is definitely a part of it that seems related to anxiety disorders.
Something interesting, someone I'm close with has worked physical therapy in a "vestibular" setting before. I'm not doctor or PT, but vestibular problems essentially fuck with you relation to the space around you and cause dizziness, vertigo, and other symptoms that seemed eerily similar to LTC. She also brought up how many of these people deal with anxiety disorders because the vestibular system is closely related to how your body reacts to anxiety. This seemed to ring a bell with many of the stories I've read over the past 7-8yrs, but not sure much else on that subject just thought might be worth sharing.
But back to the anxiety, OCD pre existing conditions.. You could very well be on to something, a thread which popped up recently where the guy was only a few days past a roll and very worried about visual snow. A few responses tried to calm him down and realize it's not detrimental and likely temporary but to no avail. If it were me and my first time with lasting weird symptoms, I'd probably think "oh well I guess took a powerful psychoactive, what more can I expect and everything fades in time."
I deal with all sorts of visual artifacts but I realize it's because I've taken mass amounts of drugs, a list of variety longer than most, and I'd say that's a pretty good trade off for years of fun and enlightenment. Id imagine my symptoms could freak some out though. But then there's obviously a difference between those with visual snow/after images and those who feel like an empty shell walking around with seemingly no purpose.
Your also right in that the internet has only become more and more of people's lives. I wonder if in the 90's people dealt with this??
About the impurity. The theory is this, PMK glycidate comes from China typically. Chinese anything is not known for being pure as snow. Once in awhile you get lucky but we can almost assume there's impurities present in most of the PMK glycidate shipped over. And we can also assume once arrived the chemists assume decent purity and proceed. Once completely synthesized acrylamide would be formed, along with a whole host of other toxic impurities.
Acrylamide has a decent amount of research on it as it's found in certain foods and is known to cause neurotoxicity. This neurotoxicity has been found to be associated with the serotonin system. This we know as fact.
Research shows that the toxicity is long lasting similar to what we see with LTC. It's also shown that the toxicity presents itself the same whether a large or multiple small doses, it just takes longer obviously to build up to with small doses.
With all of this the evidence is mounting that we may have a neurotoxic impurity problem on our hands, and at the very least it's toxicity on the Serotonin system is in combination with that of MDMA's neurotoxicity.
I made this thread to see if the problem is isolated to European countries, or people with Dutch/European sourced MDMA. As that would only further indicate PMK glycidate may be the culprit. Although I'm sure chemists elsewhere in the world use PMK glycidate, it seems more common in certain parts of the US to find MDMA synthesized from safrole.
Really hard to know the problem but my guess is no matter what, if people consume a high antioxidant rich diet/supplements before during and after the roll they'll negate most or all of the potential risk.
Which leads to one more thought I've had. The modern diet and food is poor in nutrition, a complete lack of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. As we as a society progress into a more unhealthy state, we'll become more susceptible to the potential risks of things like taking MDMA for instance.
-GC
