40,000 Ecstasy Pills in Nine Years
“Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George’s Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills. Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent. The man, known as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills per weekend. Gradually this escalated until he was taking around three and a half pills a day. At the peak, the man was taking an estimated 25 pills every day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties, Mr A decided to stop taking ecstasy. For several months, he still felt he was under the influence of the drug, despite being bedridden.” — Guardian (UK)
Jesus Fuck! 25 pills a day for four years! That’s more than one pill per hour per day, presuming the guy stayed up 24/7. If he ever slept — which may be doubtful, given the intake — then he took even more per hour.
You can read the actual case report from Psychosomatics online. It doesn’t add that much more information to the newspaper article, though once you consider the matter a few further tidbits leap out at you. For example, the guy smoked a lot of pot and also had a “previous history of polydrug misuse (i.e., solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, heroin).” Solvents? Maybe he screwed up his brain with one whacked dose of nail polish remover.
The guy also had severe memory issues. In the newspaper article, Dr Kouimtsidis says, “More worryingly, he did not seem aware himself that he had these memory problems.” But if the guy can’t remember and doesn’t know that he can’t remember, then how trustworthy is his claim that he took so many pills? Rather than the drug causing memory loss, maybe a bad memory caused him to take so many drugs: “Let’s see, I don’t think I had my Ecstasy today, maybe I better take a pill just to be sure…” And then that would compound the problem: the drugs lead to memory loss; the memory loss pushes him to take more drugs; the drugs lead to memory loss; etc…
At any rate, it all leaves you wondering about how far one man can go in pursuit of bliss. Can the subjective effect really be “ecstasy” if it’s constant?
Sound like it follows human nature, human nature as it skips down the primrose path of hedonism. I water those flowers on a semi-regular basis, so please keep to the path, don’t go wandering off. We all know that too much of a good thing becomes the norm, and then you want bigger and better drugs to bring you ecstasy. So no, IMHO, if it is constant, it is no longer fun, just the same old same old. I think there are other questions to ponder: How much did this habit cost, when did he find time to work so that he could pay the piper/pusher, and what the hell was going on in his life to drive him to do it, I mean if you smoke pot, geeze, what else would you need?? Ya gotta pace yourself, people. Hard drugs are bad, m’kay? He needs to see a bone cracker, a chiropractor would help his neck. I’m just fulla good advise today!
Good point LuciousGoddess…Simply said is the fact that for all the pleasure you get from drugs, the proportion for pain (coming down, muscle aches, diahreah, diseases etc.)is unwelcome and not worth the effort. “you’re gonna pay sucker” for those feel-good trips in the end. It’s best to maintain a regime of healthy living, feeling high without the benefit of chemicals.
To all you dopers out there “try it, you might like it”.
Me and an old friend of mine both started takeing E when we were 23, what started as a one or two on a saturday night thing soon turned into a 2-3 a night 3 times a week. (Monday as it was cheap night, Thursday as it was student night and Saturday night as it was the main night out of the week)..
It was initally not a problem, i held a full time job and went and got a mortgage on a house.. Thats when it went tits up :o(
Once i had my own place i could have as many parties as i wanted, i was taking about 3 E’s a night, sometimes as many as 5 in an evening. I’d often stay up all night and go straight to work.
Thing is once you’ve had 2 or more E’s your short term memory gets shot to fuck. You forget you already took 1 or 2 so judge your not that wrecked and take more to ‘maintaine’ the high. It’s not till you check your personal supply the next day you realise you took so many.
After a few months of this I noticed i was never really happy anymore with anything, nothing intrested me, work was just something i went and did, normally drunk or still buzzing. I used to like reading, playing PC games and watching films and stuff. All those things became pointless. I could’nt even seem to score with lasses anymore unless i was on E, and when i did, i was too wrecked to have sex.
Towards the time a was trying to stopped taking it I had stopped sleeping normally, getting only 1-2 fitful hours a night, even when i was really tired.
I was having a lot of hallucinations at the time aswell, nothing like the stuff you hear about, you know, no big pink elephants on parade or anything. Just things lurking on the sides of my vision. I’d sometimes be watching TV and swear i could see something small moving on the carpet, i’d think it was an insect or mouse or something and go look for it. There was never anything there.
I’d always be hearing my mother call my name (even though she lives miles away from me) and could hear someone other then me breathing in my bedroom when i was the only one there.
Sometimes i’d be in bed and have nightmares about seeing people crouching in my wardrobe, only to realise i was not a sleep, sometimes i was so scared i’d have to run out the house. It got to the point that i went and bought a hunting knife to keep under my pillow.
Patterns would always seem to move, like wallpaper and carpet. I knew they weren’t really moving but it looked strange no the less.
All these things got gradually worse until i was so far gone i was for example seeing grasshoppers (not scarey though)everywhere, it lead to me going a bit nuts. I ended up on medication from the doctors, and strong sleeping tablets, it took a several months to get better. Not that you wake up one morning and think ‘hey i’m better’, it’s more like it gradually wears off. But even now i have to use sleeping tablets regularly, and sometimes if i’m tierd i get some mild hallucinations back. And also if i drink too much.
When E came out (many years ago now) most of the ‘in crowd’ and even the dance magazines, aswell as some people on TV were really ‘bigging it up’ saying it was not addictive and was harmless. They used statistics like the number of deaths related to E as an example, ie, you had more chance from eating a peanut and dieing of peanut allergy then you did of takeing E.
Well time has showen us all that its a nasty drug that effects you brain in ways that can only at best be guessed at. The money needed to research the short and long term effects does not exist, and the government can only afford a little bit of specific research now and again.
So take it from me, I will not lie;- in the begining it was amazing, I honestly had some of the best nights of my life. The ‘loved up’ felling I got was so intense, i felt so in love with everything that i thought i might die from it.
The down side was horrific, trully terrifying. I now believe that for every action there is a reaction, ying-yang, what goes around comes around etc.. All that intense happiness had to balance it’s self out. and it did so in a nasty nasty way.
I’m 32 now, and have a much more ‘normal’ life, i dont take drugs (apart from sleeping tablets), i still drink a bit too much for my own good now and again though. I’m seeing a lass that i think i love and hope she loves me. I can enjoy reading a good book again, aswell as watching a film and playing stupid computer games :o)
I’ve been asked, if i could go back in time would i change anything…… Truthfull answer is probably…. ‘dont know, ask me again after a few beers’.
Thank you for reading my rant.
Simon from Newcastle in the UK.
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