MazDan
Bluelight Crew
Ecstasy (MDMA) Myths
Colour/appearance of a pill is indicative of its contents.
Status: Untrue
The colour/appearance of the pill means absolutely nothing. A quick search on ecstasydata.org would turn up many pills of different appearances with the same contents; or with the same appearance, but different contents.
Don’t have sex while you’re rolling, you’ll never enjoy normal sex again.
Status: Myth
Supposedly sex on MDMA is so good that normal sex can never compare. This is false. Many people don’t particularly like sex while on MDMA. Many men find it hard to achieve an erection, and almost everyone has difficulty (or inability) reaching orgasm. Sex for them is much better while sober. Even those who do enjoy the sex do not report feeling dissatisfied with sober sex.
Ecstasy burns holes in your brain.
Status: Untrue
Source: Oprah; MTV's Special on Ecstasy, 11/28/2000.
Rebuttal: Rick Doblin, PhD – see http://www.maps.org/media/mtvclarify.html
MTV presented a brain scan of a woman named Lynn Smith, who had consumed a large amount of MDMA. This brain scan was described as showing ‘holes in her brain’, similar to the brain of an elderly woman who had had many strokes. However, the scan actually measures the amount of blood flow in the brain. The ‘holes’ merely demonstrate a lower blood flow in some regions of her brain. These lower figures are relative, not absolute – they are lower relative to her own brain, not to anyone else’s. Not to a “normal” standard. In other words, you could scan anyone’s brain and get the same results, if you wanted to.
Another study, which used more sophisticated techniques to compare MDMA users and non-users, found no significant difference in brain blood flow between the two groups.
Ecstasy contains crushed glass
Status: Untrue
Source: various, including Time Out and Mix Mag (UK magazines).
No pills have ever been tested and shown to contain glass. A search on ecstasydata.org would confirm this. When the root source for this claim was tracked down, it turned out to be a dodgy and self proclaimed manufacturer who produced zero evidence to support his claim.
Ecstasy contains heroin
Status: Basically a myth
There have only been one or two pills that tested positive for heroin. A search on ecstasydata.org would confirm this. If someone says they felt ‘smacky’, and blames this on heroin in the pill, they are mistaken. MDMA, particularly in large doses, can "sit you on your ass".
Ecstasy contains LSD
Status: Untrue
A search on ecstasydata.org returns no hits for LSD. This suggests that, if LSD is ever found in pills, it is found very rarely. Hallucinations are possible on high doses of MDMA. However, major hallucinations are more likely to be due to the presence of some adulterant in the pill – MDA is a strong possibility.
Ecstasy contains mescaline
Status: Untrue
No pills have ever been tested and shown to contain mescaline. A search on ecstasydata.org would confirm this.
Mescaline is incredibly hard to get hold of – there is absolutely no way that someone would waste it by selling it as Ecstasy. If someone had mescaline, they would sell it to people who wanted to buy mescaline. Furthermore, an active dose of mescaline would not fit in a pill.
Ecstasy contains rat poison
Status : Almost a myth
Source : Various, including Time Out and Mixmag.
One pill in Holland was tested and found to contain rat poison, although this was probably a result of contamination. Reports that large numbers of pills have been found with rat poison in them are a myth. The root source for this myth was the same as for the crushed glass myth.
Ecstasy drains your spinal fluid.
Status: Untrue
Source: Oprah among others.
Discussion: A total myth. One of the ways of measuring the effects of MDMA is to take measures of serotonin production. Serotonin is produced in your brain, but also in your spinal fluid. Therefore, researchers have measured serotonin levels in spinal fluid, to determine whether MDMA usage was affecting them. See for example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2471824&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2463059&dopt=Abstract
Ecstasy does not actually drain your spinal fluid.
See also Erowid’s MDMA FAQ: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_faq2.shtml
The second misapprehension concerned the fact that MDMA causes some sort of drainage of spinal fluid. This misconception somehow resulted from a misunderstanding of research into the effects of MDMA on levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which are accessed through spinal taps. It's the spinal taps that drain the fluid, NOT the MDMA.
It’s also possible that the myth spread because ecstasy users, having danced all night, woke up with sore backs, and the story went around that this was due to spinal fluid loss. Of course, it was just backache from overexertion.
Ecstasy is a mixture of heroin and cocaine
Status: Untrue
True Ecstasy is MDMA. It’s a completely separate chemical; it has nothing to do with either heroin or cocaine either chemically or in its effects. Pills sold as Ecstasy may contain substances which aren’t MDMA. PMA, ketamine, DXM, caffeine, speed, MDA, and MDEA are all found in pills sold as Ecstasy. Heroin and cocaine are almost never found in pills sold as Ecstasy, and have never been found in the same pill. See ecstasydata.org for more.
Ecstasy makes the cells of your brain stem break off and they travel down your spine.
Status: Untrue
Source: Raver who claimed his doctor told him this
No idea where this one came from. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest it is true. See http://www.dancesafe.org/slideshow/ for details of how MDMA affects your brain.
Ecstasy Makes you Gay.
Status: Untrue
Most likely the talk of silly children or homophobes. No evidence exists to support this claim.
Ecstasy makes you more prone to AIDS.
Status: Untrue
Source: Irish TV ads
There’s no evidence that MDMA makes you more prone to catching HIV/developing AIDS. However, use of Ecstasy has been shown to be correlated with risk-taking behaviours. These include engaging in unsafe sex, which would increase the risk of catching HIV. Of course, there is no suggestion that taking Ecstasy makes you more likely to have unsafe sex – it seems more likely that those who choose to take risks in one area (such as taking drugs) are more likely to take risks in another (such as having unsafe sex). Please, be careful out there.
Ecstasy makes your brain bleed.
Status: Untrue
Source: Unknown, appeared as a question on Bluelight
No idea who started this rumour. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest it is true. See http://www.dancesafe.org/slideshow/ for details of how MDMA affects your brain.
Ecstasy will increase your risk of having a deformed baby
Status: No evidence exists to support this claim.
MDMA makes you want to have sex with everyone.
Status: Untrue
MDMA has been called the ‘love drug’, which has led some people to believe that it is all about sex. It isn’t – it’s called the love drug because it makes you experience strong feelings of love for those around you. It’s love in the emotional sense, not the sexual one. Many people don’t feel any hornier while on MDMA, and many men have trouble getting erections or reaching orgasm.
MDMA in powder form (molly) or in capsules is more pure than in pill form.
Status: Untrue
It is just as easy to have cuts of various other chemicals in the powdered form as it is in the pill form. The powdered form is simply what a pill looks like before it is pressed. There is some thought that in powdered form it is in fact even easier for unscrupulous dealers to cut it with other drugs or fillers and hence it may in fact be even less pure on average.
Taking MDMA just once makes you depressed; and the only way to feel normal is taking more of it.
Status: Partially true
It’s very unlikely that anyone has had this effect from taking MDMA once. However, many of us have reached this point after taking large amounts over a long time. Abuse can lead you to the point where it seems that the only way to feel normal is to keep taking more. It would take a lot of MDMA abuse to reach this point.
Taking MDMA shrinks your penis or breasts.
Status: Untrue
There's no evidence for this. (Although MDMA and other amphetamines may cause temporary shrinking of the penis, this isn't permanent.)
You will die if you take more than five pills in a night
Status: Incorrect
Source: poster on bolt.com
You are putting yourself at greater risk by taking more pills. However, you are still very unlikely to die from taking five pills in a night. This statement is meaningless anyway, as the strength of pills varies so much. There are pills which are tested as containing 20-30mg of MDMA, and others which contain 150mg. So one of the 150mg pills would be as strong as 5 30mg pills.
