Ecstasy

Also known as the MDMA or the “love pill/club drug”, ecstasy is a popular but illegal drug classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration and is a dangerous substance with no recognized medical use. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, there are more than 20 million users of ecstasy worldwide as of 2022 amongst whom the vast majority includes teenagers and young adults as it is quite popular in all night rave parties and dance clubs even though, if mixed with alcohol, it can be deadly.

However, what is called ecstasy today can contain a wide mixture of substances ranging from LSD, Cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, rat poison, dog deworming substances  etc  and is available commonly in the form of pills with cute logos while liquid ecstasy is actually GHB, a nervous system depressant often found in drain cleaners, floor strippers and degreasing agents which means that consumption of ecstasy is dangerous since one does not know that they might be taking such a deadly concoction of drugs.

It heightens perceptions of color and sound and further amplifies sensations when one touches or caresses another person particularly during sex as it often contains hallucinogens that act on the mind and cause people to see or feel things that are not really there which also means that one gets stuck in sad or scary past experiences without even realizing it.

Furthermore, after consumption of ecstasy, an individual risks going far beyond one’s physical limitations, for example, a person can faint or even die not realizing that his body has become overheated while the long term effects include sleep and mood disorders, anxiety, tremors and twitches and memory problems as the ability to concentrate drastically reduces.

The most disturbing and damaging impacts of ecstasy consumption is the tendency to use other dangerous drugs such as heroin and cocaine to help cope with the mental and physical pain associated with its withdrawal or “coming down” phases along with increase in tolerance levels after the first dose which means a person has to take more of the drug which increases chances of negative effects on physical health and the psyche such as liver, kidney and irreparable brain damage.