Ecstasy – A Serious Drug With Serious Consequences

Recently, a man was sentenced for ten years in a United States prison for smuggling a large quantity of Ecstasy, also known known as MDMA, in a hidden compartment in his pick-up truck. The man pleaded guilty back in January to conspiracy to distribute the drug. The man was carrying 200,000 ecstasy pills, weighing 51.5 kilograms, when he was captured last October by undercover agents working in association with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement division. After his initial sentence is served, the man will serve an additional three years of supervised release.

Ecstasy is an unusual and very powerful psychoactive drug named such because of the strong feelings of intimacy, reduced feelings of fear or depression, and increased feelings of mental and physical euphoria that it elicits from its users.  Ecstacy induces a mild psychedelic state, a heightened sense of tactile sensation, and a pronounced period of introspection. However, the “comedown” from ecstacy is significant, often leading to periods of depression.

Ecstacy is also highly illegal in the current legal and political climate. Under the 2003 RAVE Act (Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability To Ecstacy) sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden, now the Vice-President of the United States, it is illegal to distribute, promote, or profit from ecstacy in any way, shape or form. Although ecstacy is believed to have some usefulness in psychotherapy, it has been otherwise illegal since 1985. Currently, Federal charges for ecstacy possession are equivalent to the charges for heroin or marijuana. (Possession of one gram of ecstacy carries the same sentence of possession of one gram of heroin, or 2.2. pounds of marijuana.)

Ecstacy is a synthetic drug that is taken orally. It is considered to be potentially addictive, although the statistics for dependence on ecstacy are not as severe as those concerning alcohol or cocaine. It can cause increased heart rate and blood pressure, which is particularly dangerous for those who are already at-risk in those areas. Ecstasy can be dehydrating, which combined with the similarly dehydrating effects of alcohol and the fact that both are often consumed at dance clubs, means that dehydration can be a real and serious issue – especially because the user is in an altered state and might not even be aware of this risk.

Some of the biggest dangers of ecstacy are related to its social implications. Toxicity is a serious danger, as ecstacy is often “impure” and can be sold with additional ingredients not known to the user. A tablet of ecstacy could easily contain other drugs such as amphetamines, or other substances such as ibuprofen or talcum powder. Also, ecstasy users usually do so in conjunction with other drugs, most frequently alcohol but potentially any other drug that is used recreationally and can have addictive side effects. Perhaps the greatest danger inherent in the use of ecstacy is the psychedelic state that it causes, because that leads its users to put themselves in dangerous situations that they otherwise might not have entered. This can be anything from engaging in unprotected sex to climbing up on rooftops. To be sure, the statistics of ecstacy-related accidents, injuries, and fatalities are often exaggerated by critics and hysterics, but the numbers do exist in noticeable amounts, and more importantly, those statistics are on the rise.

Ecstacy is not the most addictive drug on the market, but it is potentially addictive. It is not the most physically ruinous drug that one could ingest, but ingesting it leads to the promise of ingesting other drugs that are immediately ruinous. There is no guarantee that one will get attacked or injured while using ecstasy, and the chances of death are relatively low. However, all of those likelihoods are more likely than they would be under the direction of a sober mind. And most emphatically, at this point in time it is illegal to possess ecstacy, and it is even more prosecutable to its sellers. That means that one should be wary of ecstacy at the very least, if not to avoid it entirely.

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