NEWS: The Age - 07/01/2007 'Ecstasy: a home brew to die for'

[hoptis]

Ecstasy: a home brew to die for
Mark Russell
January 7, 2007

MORE than 100,000 ecstasy tablets, with a street value of more than $3 million, are consumed every weekend in Australia — and, police say, much of it is now made locally by backyard operators cashing in on demand.

Australia is a world leader in the consumption of the dangerous and illegal drug, with 3 per cent of the population using the so-called party drug on a regular basis.

Police say local criminals are increasingly using the internet to find out how to make ecstasy and to order chemicals and equipment instead of importing the drug from overseas.

Detective Inspector Pat Boyle, acting head of the state's major drug taskforce, said Wednesday night's seizure of 1900 litres of liquid ecstasy in Sydney would have only a short-term impact on the market

The chemicals could have been used to make 18 million tablets, worth $540 million.

"There might be a situation where the drug that's now on the market may be more expensive (because of the seizure) pending another flood of this stuff," Inspector Boyle told The Sunday Age.

He said ecstasy was popular because many people believed it was a safe drug that had no side effects, whereas medical evidence suggested it could cause brain damage and even kill.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty last week warned the public not to forget the dangers of using ecstasy. He said there had been a lot of discussion about the deadly drug ice, but ecstasy was an even bigger threat.

"I'm not saying we don't worry about ice; what I'm saying is that, in my mind, ecstasy remains a problem, cocaine remains a problem."

Victoria's acting Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland, has estimated that 100,000 ecstasy tablets, with a street value of more than $3 million, are being taken every weekend in Australia.

The nation's ecstasy users are living up to their reputation as the largest consumer of the designer drug in the world. Three per cent of the population use ecstasy on a "reasonably regular basis", he said.

The demand for ecstasy was fuelling a dramatic increase in the local production of the drug by organised gangs and opportunistic fly-by-nighters attracted to the high profits and low costs.

In evidence given late last year to a federal parliamentary committee inquiring into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs, Mr Overland revealed:

• There had been a 30 per cent increase in ecstasy use in Australia between 1993 and 2004.
• Victoria Police were now in the process of developing their own illicit drug strategy.
• More criminals than ever were using the internet to order chemicals to make ecstasy.
• A concerted national approach was needed to tackle the large amounts of chemicals being imported to "cook up" the drug. At present, 500 to 1000 people in Australia had the ability to make the drug.
• Ecstasy was used mainly by people in their 20s but appeared to be the drug of choice for various age groups.
• There continued to be no random testing of police for ecstasy use when there was evidence that some officers used the drug on a recreational basis.
• Police had stopped sending undercover officers to nightclubs and rave parties to arrest drug dealers.

Mr Overland told the committee that while most ecstasy was manufactured overseas and imported, local production was increasing.

"Once the technology and the know how becomes available here, you could expect it to spread, and it is a growing problem," he said.

There were plans to crack down on the use of pill presses, key tools in the production line.

In its submission to the committee, the Australian Crime Commission said the internet was widely used to source chemicals, equipment and information to make the drug.

"AOSD (amphetamines and other synthetic drugs) 'cooks' are able to access techniques and information through websites, chat rooms and dispersed networks. In addition, online auction sites appear to have significantly assisted the capacity of groups and individuals to procure equipment and other materials needed for the production of AOSD," the ACC said.

Questioned on the use of undercover officers at rave parties and nightclubs, Mr Overland said police no longer went into these premises to make drug arrests. "We have found from past experience they can be quite volatile and doing that can actually cause more problems than it solves."

Police did run drug operations using sniffer dogs but usually in the street outside licensed premises, he said.

The Age

 

[hoptis]

Altered states 'ancient human hobby'
John Elder
January 7, 2007

FOR Shane Warne, it was a couple of Red Bull drinks that gave him a buzz and the little lift he needed to work some magic with a cricket bat.

Nobody commented on the dangers of a role model loading up on caffeine and heading out into the sun — or the fact that the spin king had three years ago been suspended from play because of imbibing a banned substance. Instead, at the Sydney Test match last week, there was a larrikin tone to the reporting of Warney and his little liquid helpers in a can.

Why not? This is where we live: land of the quick chemical fix.

The three girls moving along Chapel Street just after daybreak yesterday morning — licking their lips and grinding their teeth, wild-eyed — had been fuelled by tabs of ecstasy through the night and were now hoping to score some Valium from a friend so they could come down easy.

Minutes later, in Coles supermarket, I met two young men looking for headache pills because the speed and booze had left them dehydrated in the dog-breath heat.

Stop just about anyone in the street — save for the Mormons — and you'll find they use a little something to help them get by, even if it's a cup of tea in the morning. And, while Australians are emerging as world leaders in consuming consciousness-altering substances — particularly amphetamines such as speed and ecstasy — the enthusiasm for chemically enhanced living is "an ancient human hobby".

Says anthropologist and psychiatrist David Mitchell: "Every society, going back to hunter-gatherer days, uses drugs that affect the mental state."

The Andean Indians chew coca leaves to stave off hunger and give them the energy to travel far at high altitudes, Native Americans use peyote to seek spiritual knowledge, and Aborigines have used nicotine-like plants for long-distance endurance. Most famously, Amazonian Indians used the entire rainforest as a pharmacy. For at least 40 years, international drug companies have been profitably exploiting that knowledge.

Much of Dr Mitchell's research has been in Indonesia, where the betel nut is chewed to stave off hunger, keep alert, lubricate social meetings and, when taken in larger doses, aid sleep.

"It doesn't have terribly deleterious effects on personality. It doesn't make you all that mad. But it turns your mouth red, increases saliva flow and makes the face warm — and, more seriously, rots the teeth and gives you mouth cancer," says Dr Mitchell.

While just about every social group in the world "has their favourite drugs of social importance, there are always rules that govern acceptable use that are always deeply embedded in the culture", he says, including rules on behaviour when intoxicated.

On illicit drugs, Dr Mitchell says: "A lot of people do know the rules of using ecstasy sensibly and safely, where, with the ice (crystal methamphetamine) epidemic, the rules of safe usage haven't yet been worked out."

Vic Health chief executive Rob Moodie says Australia's pill-popping culture is being enabled by our relatively high disposable income.

"A lot of people want to change the reality they're living in. That's always been the case. Now … our capacity to pay has never been better …

"This is coupled with our huge dependency on the short-term fix. Our approach to environmental and obesity issues represents this on the larger scale."

Where the high incidences of depression and anxiety have led to widespread prescription-drug use (with booze and illicit drugs as crutches), Dr Moodie says people's lives often would be better improved by "increasing physical activity or paying more attention to one's relationships than seeking a pharmaceutical solution …

"We also know that bullying, discrimination and domestic violence are huge generators of anxiety, depression and illness. Changing how we treat each other is what we need to be working on" — and sitting down and working out what we want in life.

Dr Moodie notes: "There are other prosperous societies who aren't popping as many pills as we are. In amphetamine use, we are among the global leaders. I'm not quite sure why that is. Are we just good-time charlies? Or maybe we're just bored."

The Age

 

[hoptis]

NEWS: The Age - 'Fears for a drugged generation' (SSRI's)

Fears for a drugged generation
William Birnbauer
January 7, 2007

Thousands of Victorian children are being prescribed antidepressants despite misgivings throughout the medical community
Photo: John Donegan

A STAGGERING 337,553 prescriptions for antidepressants were written for children and adolescents in the past year, raising fears about whether "happy pills" are being used as a quick-fix for despondent youngsters.

Australia's drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, has not approved any antidepressant medicines for children or adolescents younger than 18 but can not prevent doctors from prescribing them.

Medical regulators and drug companies warn against the use of antidepressants in young people and there is concern that the drugs, including the newer breed known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been associated with suicidal behaviour in the young.

Yet more than 75,500 prescriptions for antidepressants were written for children under 15 in 2005-06, according to figures prepared exclusively by Medicare Australia for The Sunday Age.

A further 262,000 antidepressant prescriptions were filled for youths aged between 15 and 20 in 2005-06. In Victoria there were 12,351 antidepressant scripts for children aged 14 and younger in 2005-06. In the 15-to-20 age group, 64,663 medicines were prescribed.

There is concern particularly that Prozac (fluoxetine), the only SSRI that appears to be more effective than a placebo in children, will become the new Ritalin, the drug of choice for a spate of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnoses in the 1990s.

Melbourne psychiatrist George Halasz sees the increasing use of antidepressants as further evidence of what he calls "diagnostic creep". Not that long ago, he says, sadness was simply sadness and shyness was shyness. Today, along with myriad conditions once regarded as normal, sadness and shyness can be diagnosed respectively as depression and social phobia and treated with a pill.

"There is a problem in our culture where we're finding it a lot more difficult to cope with … events which have always been part of life — births, deaths, accidents, illnesses," Dr Halasz says. "As we have less time to attend to these natural transitions and natural stresses, there is very strong demand on the medical profession to alleviate suffering."

But psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg says SSRIs can be an essential adjunct to cognitive behaviour therapy. "There are kids on this planet today who I've treated who simply wouldn't be here if it wasn't for antidepressants," he says.

There is recent evidence that doctors are responding to concern about antidepressants for young people — Medicare Australia's figures reveal a decline in the past three financial years. In 2005-2006 there were 27,300 fewer scripts written for those younger than 15 than two years earlier. The number of prescriptions for those aged 15 to 20 in 2003-04 was 315,227; in 2005-06 the figure had fallen to 261,999.

Prescriptions for those younger than 18 are written off-label: that is, the decision is made by an individual clinician despite the lack of clinical testing and accurate dosage information.

Dr Daryl Efron, a consultant pediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital, believes the prescription of SSRIs for children is declining with the realisation that they are not as effective as counselling and because of concerns about side-effects such as suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

Despite this, 337,553 scripts were filled out in the past year for children and adolescents, raising questions about whether antidepressants are being used as a quick fix.

SSRIs have revolutionised the treatment of depression. The drugs inhibit the absorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. They are less toxic, safer and have fewer side effects than tricyclic antidepressants.

The European Medicines Agency recently approved the use of Prozac for children from the age of eight, and the US Food and Drug Administration has approved it for children with major depressive disorder.

In Australia youth depression is often not recognised or acted on. A national survey found that of depressed adolescents, only 11 per cent had sought help from a GP and 17 per cent used mental health services.

It was not possible from the Medicare date to say how many children and adolescents are on antidepressants.

The Age

 

[hoptis]

EDITORIAL

Our pill-popping society needs a healthy alternative
January 7, 2007

What is it about society that we can't allow young people to simply be sad any more? The medicalisation of everything has seen children's normal precociousness turned into a disease, kids can no longer be — as they were a generation or two ago — just full of beans and the joy of life or maybe just a bit down. Now they open themselves up to be diagnosed as suffering from ADHD or hyperactivity or depression.

We have changed from a child-filled society that didn't seem to care about children to one that pertains to care but often treats children as a cost centre, marketing opportunity or inconvenience.

Children cry, we give them a pill; they are sad, we give them a pill; they don't do well in school because their parents work too long and too hard and have no time for them, we take them to the doctor, who is often so overworked he or she reaches for the pad of prescriptions.

If Huckleberry Finn was a real child of the 21st century, we would medicate him out of his skull. And he would, as so many young people do today, turn to illegal drugs to give him the energy and the vibe to party.

We have come to live in a society where we expect a pill to cure every ill. It is an age where results are expected without effort.

The whole of the West suffers an obesity crisis, scientists get to work on a slimming pill. Got a headache? Take a pill (even though the 500 millilitres of water you downed the paracetamol with is likely to be what takes away the pain).

Many of our medicinal drugs are wonderful, they have saved lives or improved the quality of life for those suffering from disease or infirmity. But there are many proved dangers in our over-reliance on drugs and even the philosophy behind the creation of many medicines. Take anti-malarials, for instance. Until recently, scientists didn't believe that a traditional Chinese remedy had been effective against malaria for centuries. Now, as the malaria parasite becomes increasingly resistant to Western drugs, not only do scientists believe, they are urgently hunting the "one" effective active ingredient, one chemical among hundreds that the bug has to deal with in the Chinese remedy.

Traditional Chinese doctors are appalled by the hunt for the active ingredient, arguing that when it is discovered, patented, refined and distributed, the malaria parasite will become resistant to that ingredient as it has to other "single-shot" drugs. They fear their remedy will be rendered ineffective too, and want a rethink on the West's approach, a broader philosophy.

In a week that has seen the seizure of enough chemicals to make more than $500 million worth of ecstasy, that philosophical change needs to be broader and more fundamental.

Can it be a surprise that children whose very existence has been medicalised even before birth turn to pills when they want a good time? It is wrong. It is illegal. It is dangerous. It can be deadly. But the example from wider society is pervasive, powerful and convincing.

Maybe we need to kick most of our legal pill habit. Maybe society would be healthier as a result.

The Age

 

[johnboy]

The first article is just selected quotes from the AOSD inquiry meeting in Melbourne. You can read the whole thing here:

http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/joint/commttee/J9683.pdf

I'll have to double check which figures they are referring to but I am fairly sure that the increase in ecstasy use between 93 and 04 was from 1.1% of the general population to 3.3%. That is not a 30% increase is it? It has tripled, which is either a 300% or 400% increase (I can never remember which).

Regardless of how bad my math is, their's seems out be out by an order of magnitude.

 

[melburn_madnesss]

Questioned on the use of undercover officers at rave parties and nightclubs, Mr Overland said police no longer went into these premises to make drug arrests. "We have found from past experience they can be quite volatile and doing that can actually cause more problems than it solves."

hahahha never thought id hear such words come out of overlands mouth, he aways has come accross as having very non harm pervention attitude.

thats good news.

 

[sux2]

If 3.3% of the general population use ecstasy, please show us (mr policeman) all the deaths and problems caused by it's consumption if it is such a problem? 8)

 

[Splatt]

More people use methamphetamine.

 

[lurkerguy]

Just the fact that even one person got away with domestic MDMA production after they ordered their equipment and suspect chemicals over the Internet shows how insanely inept the authorities must be when it comes to clandestine chemistry.

 

[phase_dancer]

At present, 500 to 1000 people in Australia had the ability to make the drug.

I'd like to highlight that having the ability to make drugs and having the desire/intention are often very different things. I believe it's important to accept that knowledge alone does not automatically make one a drug producer. It's like saying all those who know electronics make bomb timers or that those who specialize in security are thieves. This sort of crap is again pure hype.

I'd really like to know how the above "guesstimate" was arrived at. Was Mr Overland somehow able to count every Aussie with a copy of PiHKAL and an organic chemistry text? Did he have ISPs recorded from traffic to Erowid and other sources of online drug chemistry info/discussions? Was he able to monitor every festival, phone line and group gathering where such things are discussed?

Perhaps he’s simply counting the 2nd year up chemistry student and graduates living in Australia. Either way, I’d say at best it’s an unreliable, media attracting figure, plucked out of obscurity. MDMA can be made from completely over the counter chemicals, the procedures aren’t that hard, and word seems to be spreading at a phenomenal rate.


So, Mr Overland, I believe it's absolutely wrong to assume that those educated in chemistry are the only ones making MDMA. Among the many stories I’ve heard and read over the years, one such tale really brought this to my attention. During early 2000 at a festival, I was relayed a story of a guy who, with no previous knowledge in chemistry or science (iirc he was a welder) spent 2 weeks studying on the net before modifying commercial stainless steel cookware and boldly ordering every chem he needed from a then major chem supplier. From the same report he was successful and was never caught, yet he apparently knew nothing of the chemistry involved, just what the expected outcomes should be. Just how clean/safe such a product would be is anyone’s guess.


Nothing makes me angrier than to witness the presumptive smirks and jeers from idiots when hearing of my background in chemistry and harm reduction. Apart from the obvious legal and social problems associated with drugs, it’s drug manufacture more than anything else that has fucked the world of the amateur experimenter. So, drug cooks will never get any respect from me.

 

[hoptis]

Ecstasy can be agony and soft message is no help
January 8, 2007

It is time to send a stronger line on substances that are legitimised by the label 'party drugs', Caroline Marcus writes.

It was one of Sydney's biggest New Year's Eve parties and the drinks queue was frustratingly long.

Two of the best-known dance acts in the world had descended on Bondi Beach for Shore Thing and the 15,000-strong crowd, mostly aged in their 20s, were winding up for a huge night.

But it wasn't alcohol they were willing to queue for.

Only two things were being sold at this stand - water and lollipops.

In a sign of the times, drugs such as ecstasy have replaced booze as the favoured stimulant for young people intent on having a "big night" - and water and lollies are being employed to guard against side effects such as dehydration.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre spokesman Paul Dillon believes party organisers are trapped in a catch-22 situation. "Crucified" on public health grounds if they don't supply water, they leave themselves open to criticism for appearing to condone ecstasy use if they do.

A day after Shore Thing, the hugely popular Field Day was held in The Domain, where a young dentist boasted to a friend that he had taken six ecstasy tablets and was heading to the toilets to insert another into his rectum so that it would be absorbed faster.

The conversation was shocking to some who overheard it, but "shafting", as it is known, has emerged as an alternative for those who do not wish to take their ecstasy orally.

Dillon says ecstasy use has quadrupled in Australia in the past decade.

Last week, in the nation's biggest seizure of illegal drugs, 1900 litres of liquid ecstasy was seized from an industrial site in Castle Hill in Sydney's north-west - enough to create millions of ecstasy tablets with a street value of $540 million.

One in four 18- to 29-year-olds reports having tried ecstasy.

And while it was once the preserve of those who frequent nightclubs, dance parties and music festival parties, it has become more mainstream, with 8 per cent of the wider population identifying themselves as users.

At the heart of the problem, Dillon says, is that young people see ecstasy as a "soft" drug, neither as lethal nor as dirty as drugs such as heroin.

But ecstasy can be fatal, as the family of Perth woman Michelle Poore can attest.

The 21-year-old died of a suspected overdose on New Year's Eve, and her boyfriend, 23, has been charged with supplying the drug to her.

Dillon says the most disturbing thing about ecstasy - and what must be impressed on young people if its rise is to be curbed - is the psychological damage it can do. Users can feel paranoid, anxious and depressed, not just during the period of intoxication but in the weeks and months following. Some have been known to sink into deep depression, suffer panic attacks, feel suicidal or attempt suicide.

Users who mix ecstasy with alcohol put themselves at risk of hypothermia. Taking it as part of a cocktail of drugs can cause psychotic reactions and intense hallucinations.

Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison says one key to the fight against ecstasy is the elimination of terms such as "party drugs" and "recreational drugs" from common usage as they send a dangerous message to young Australians: that some drugs are acceptable and less dangerous in certain social settings.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty warns that the current hype surrounding the drug known as ice - methamphetamine - threatens to overshadow the much greater problem of ecstasy.

Federal police are seeing a growth in the number of criminal syndicates trying to import ecstasy in new forms, so policing has taken a different focus.

AFP early detection operations are being beefed up in China and The Hague, in the Netherlands, which is widely regarded as the centre of ecstasy production. Ellison says the creation of a database of secret drug labs will assist police in their work.

While the AFP is responsible for large-scale national and international interception and seizure operations, NSW Police officers work at the coalface, dealing with the fallout of drug use - street crime, burglary, domestic violence and the like. But it's proving a difficult fight to win.

Despite the obvious prevalence of drugs at Shore Thing, only seven people were arrested during a sniffer dog operation - three were charged with supply and four with possession. A quantity of pills, believed to be ecstasy, as well as cannabis were seized.

NSW Police says it will continue to target all types of illicit drugs, including ecstasy, this year, but will not reveal strategies.

It is perhaps indicative of how widespread ecstasy use has become that on its own website, the organisation offers advice on how to reduce risks - only take one tablet at a time, don't mix drugs and drink small amounts of water frequently.

Maybe it is time to send a stronger message.

SMH / Sun Herald

 

[phase_dancer]

Maybe it is time to send a stronger message.

Like stronger pills, all that's likely to do is arouse stronger curiosity.

The terms "party drug" and "recreational drug" will never be removed from user vocab. But by emphasising this as a problem, it is again seen as something to investigate, to be interested in.

Many people have said it, and I tend to agree; that any highlighting of Ecstasy, be it good media coverage or bad, true statements or false, only serves to stimulate and arose curiosity. It can even make ex-users fell like trying the drug again.

From someone who rarely takes the drug and has no real desire to do so, I watched the SBS broadcasted program "Attack of the Happy People" and had goose bumps I was so stimulated. Drug talk = drug awareness and drug awareness in many cases leads to drug experience.

 

[Splatt]

That doesn't sound exactly like something Dilon would say, what he is quoted saying in that article. He normally is seen as having a clue, not spreading the usual shit of ecstasy makes you kill yourself, or makes you paranoid and hallucinate.

 

[Jackal]

In a sign of the times, drugs such as ecstasy have replaced booze as the favoured stimulant for young people intent on having a "big night" - and water and lollies are being employed to guard against side effects such as dehydration.

What, the kids have decided not to kill themselves with booze like most previous generations of Aussie kids have?

Mind you, the AIHW seems to be in complete denial about this as we see from the following extract:

Alcohol use is also a major cause of drug- or alcohol-related deaths in Australia. In 1998, around 2,000 deaths among persons aged 0-64 years were attributable to the use of alcohol, accounting for 28% of all drug- or alcohol-related deaths in this age group. The Australian Burden of Disease study estimated that almost 4.9% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 1996 was attributable to alcohol consumption. However, low to moderate alcohol consumption can protect against certain diseases, resulting in approximately 2.8% of the total burden being averted. Hence the net harm associated with alcohol use is estimated at 2.2% of the total burden of disease.

http://www.aihw.gov.au/drugs/population/

Bullshit, The Actual number has to be ten times that when you count things like liver failure, violent crime, kidney failure and so on . . .

But no, the authorities fail to even register the real problem while the media hype use of x, which probably caused maybe 5-10 deaths in a year.

If they want to declare a war on drugs, choose Ice as a target.

 

[ilikeacid]

drugs such as ecstasy have replaced booze as the favoured stimulant for young people

Its a shame that the reporters of this story couldn't even discern the difference between Alcohol which is a depressant and E which is a stimulant! Pretty simple stuff.. 8)

I watched the SBS broadcasted program "Attack of the Happy People" and had goose bumps I was so stimulated

^Agree totally. Whoever said all publicity was good publicity was spot on. The Herald Sun article works completely in the drugs favour - after reading that trash all I want to do is take some pills as a form of civil disobedience

 

[Tronica]

From someone who rarely takes the drug and has no real desire to do so, I watched the SBS broadcasted program "Attack of the Happy People" and had goose bumps I was so stimulated. Drug talk = drug awareness and drug awareness in many cases leads to drug experience.

I know exactly what you mean about that doco!

I guess this idea that drug awareness = drug experience is a reason behind their resolution to remove 'party' and 'recreational' as words describing drugs in public settings. Perhaps they believe that by talking about party drugs, the media is condoning taking drugs at parties?

What I'm more concerned about with government (and govt funded) agencies being asked (read forced) to remove these words, is that it becomes more difficult to talk honestly about drugs and their effects/harms/etc. Already drug users have a healthy distrust for information from government agencies. This is just another move to increase that distrust, which is unfortunate...

Eg. What if you want to write a pamphlet about party drugs?

Call it 'Ecstasy and related drugs' (somewhat meaningless)
Call it 'Drugs often used at dance events and parties' (a bit cumbersome)

 

[phase_dancer]

When you think about it, the name Ecstasy probably has more impact than either of the terms "party" or "recreational".

Like you Tronica I believe the terms should suitably describe the type of drugs in question. If the language has to be changed perhaps it's a good time to restrict language to more scientific terms and abbreviations e.g. MDMA or MDX drugs etc.

Perhaps authorities would be happier with a term like "psychotropics". To those opposed to drug use, emphasis can be made that users might "go psycho", whereas for users it could be shortened to 'tropics or tropos"; sort of like a short holiday in the tropics

 

[Tronica]

When I say 'Ecstasy and related drugs' is a bit meaningless, it's because there are just so many drugs that people can relate to Ecstasy - almost anything really depending on the person, the setting, etc. I guess it really means 'Ecstasy and drugs typically associated with ecstasy'. Just to make it a bit longer!

I love the way Bluelight has made popular the use of MDxx. It's an educational label. Once you understand its meaning, you are reminded everytime you use the term of how we usually don't know for certain that we are talking about MDMA. It also is a symbol of how many 'ecstasy' users are looking for MD 'something' rather than only MDMA. I've noticed people don't tend to think of a pill as adulterated if it contains MDA, yet I read an academic article which suggested that many ecstasy users were actually using MDA (the assumption being that these users were not getting what they expected). This research was set in Toronto so perhaps for them ecstasy really is seen as strictly MDMA.

Perhaps authorities would be happier with a term like "psychotropics". To those opposed to drug use, emphasis can be made that users might "go psycho", whereas for users it could be shortened to 'tropics or tropos"; sort of like a short holiday in the tropics

Hehe, that is gold Shows there is always more than one way to interpret a term, depending on which barrow you are pushing...

 

[phase_dancer]

Regarding the above paper; without at least seeing the whole article, I'm not prepared to accept the findings as stated in the abstract.

My reasons are based on the metabolism of MDMA:

• MDA is a known metabolite of MDMA and possibly produced in differing amounts in different people e.g. isozyme availability.
• Preference for the various metabolic pathways changes with higher dosages (Green et al 2003)
• Other drugs which have a higher binding affinity to these oxidative enzymes (from intentional polydrug use, or MDMA supplements/ additives etc) may also affect pathways.

However, this could well be true. Way bask in the late 70's I met a couple of Canadian travellers who talked of their love for MDA which indicates it's been available for some years. It's feasible a market that existed decades ago could also be a driving force for producing MDA, which is, as mentioned in the article, easier than synthesising MDMA.