The Freaky Comeback of MDMA

 

Nelson Moura,

Correspondent (Politics)

 

LONDON — Mixmag has recently released its updated Global Drugs Survey, research conducted by the magazine in partnership with the Guardian and Gay Times about drug consumption.

The research, the biggest so far by GDS, reached a record number of drug users around the world, interviewing around 22.200 of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities from Brasil to Birmingham. From clubbers to casual users, it’s an impressive display of ups and downers. It worryingly shows how users don’t seem to have any problems mixing drugs with alcohol, taking abusive doses and as the survey shows, consume unknown products.

This year’s survey revealed that 68% of UK clubbers had tried crystal MDMA (short for methylenedioxymethamphetamine) at least once in the last 12 months against 50% in the US — numbers larger compared to the consumption of cocaine. Facts revealed that almost 15% of night-goers admitted to have taken a “mystery powder” offered by someone while they were intoxicated and that more people said they prefer to take MDMA than energy drinks and of this group 75% admitted to have also taken alcohol at the same time.

MDMA or Ecstasy has always been a part of the British club scene. After the rave craze of the early 1990’s, levels of consumption went down. In a crime survey in 2001 under 7% of 16 to 24-year-olds reported using ecstasy, especially in pill form. However, recently a survey by Drugscope registered a surge in popularity of high strength ecstasy in powder form.

MDMA can be taken in pill, crystal or powder form and has a stimulating and slightly hallucinogenic effect inducing feelings of euphoria, warmth and diminished anxiety. It makes people feel more empathetic to others and increases the pleasure of touch and sound. Its stimulant properties enable dancing for long periods, especially when used in a club or dance environment.

However, behind this sugar façade there are lots of teeth grinding, anxiety, dehydration, depression and misery to follow in the come down period.

Studies have proven that MDMA is much safer and less addictive than drugs such as cocaine, heroine and even alcohol and tobacco. According to the BBC, 27 deaths were caused in the UK due to ecstasy while 4,00,000 died due to alcohol consumption and 1,14,000 due to tobacco.

However, MDMA has immediate negative side effects that can be dangerous and its long term effects on the human mind is still largely unknown. Since it induces vigorous physical activity for extended periods, it can lead to overheating that leads the user’s temperature to reach dangerous high temperatures, that can lead to hyphotermia or heat strokes. This is the main cause of death for Ecstasy users, since the drug first became known in the 80’s.

Any person that stumbled into one of London’s biggest clubs such as Ministry or Fabric might say these numbers seem flattering, especially when you stumble at least 30 times in an hour with bugged eyed people offering you cocaine or dancing as if they would die in that same instant if their body temperature drops one degree. Many clubbers I’ve talked to declared to prefer MDMA to alcohol since it ended being cheaper without the loss of control associated with binge drinking.

In 2011, two 21 -years-old died after taking “rogue” ecstasy in an event at Alexandra Palace and seven young people died in Scotland in similar circumstances, but regular night-goers continue to ignore the possible dangers of its consumption.

Mixmag posted a video interview with Adam Winstock, Director of Drugs Meter, where the it was pointed out how the powder or crystal form of MDMA makes it hard for clubbers to assess its purity or to distinguish it from crystal meth or plain brown sugar.

This allows dealers to cut down their selling product in order to increase their gains. When seeing that the average price people pay for an MDMA gram can reach £40 respectively and the amounts taken to the clubs, you wonder how can the management ignore this underground business or not profit from it. Seeing how exhausting the door searches are, you also wonder how drugs manage to get inside, where numerous security guards seem to ignore completely drug pushers and users.

It’s the accepted and curious reality of London’s nightlife, the way each club can place in huge letters that the venue is a “Drug Free Zone”, when it seems that it’s his indeed for drug dealers to work inside.

A recent article in by an anonymous bouncer revealed that thousand of pounds worth in drugs pass by club door every night,  “hidden in socks, bras and boxers”. He latter reveals that only a portion of what was confiscated was handed back to police and that bouncers only try to disrupt the consumption enough to pass a message that it’s not legal knowing more control would be bad for business.

Under the UK law, MDMA is considered a class A drug, illegal to possess or supply it, with a possible maximum penalty of seven years in prison. The strategy from the British authorities in tackling Ecstasy  has been on the same wavelength as strategies related to hard drugs such as heroin. A hardline stance that criminalises the possession based on the policy of  taking measures to reduce the supply and demand for drugs, placing causal users in the same bag as drug dealers and ignoring the complexities of the drug issues.

Sending a casual user with half a gram of MDMA to prison without appropriate support can increase the risk to their health and recovery, without referring the social implications. Reports in the UK have shown that 86% of all 229,103 drug offences registered in 2011/2012 were for possession.

In a government published study ‘MDMA: Review’, apart from stating its low propension for dependence and little effect on the mental health of the casual user, it is more importantly admitted that fatalities are relatively low given its “widespread use, and are substantially lower than those due to some other Class A drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine. Although it is no substitute for abstinence, the risks can be minimised by following advice such as drinking appropriate amounts of water”.

Therefore, maybe by reducing its Class A grading the government could remove from the hands of the dealers that move it to the British nightlife, the power to make astronomical amounts of money.

Countries where drug policies have been aimed towards information and recovery instead of criminalization of drug use have been largely successful. In Portugal jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy in 2001, a change in philosophy that faced many criticisms at its beginning but that time has proven to have worked.

With the underlining conviction that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment, the new policy reduced deaths related to heroin and similar drugs by half and allowed money saved on enforcement to be used in funding of drug-free treatment.

The UK authorities should consider what is more important, to continue trying to enforce drug policies in clubs that go around them easily and sending clubbers to prison for a few irresponsible trills.

Or try to view drug use for what it is, a health issue that can only be tackled with information and in a sensitive way.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons