MDMA, aka ecstasy

Supposedly, before Ecstasy became illegal, it was easier to find ecstasy made of the pure compound Methylenedioxym ethamphetamine (MDMA), Ecstasy’s psychoactive ingredient. We learned a great deal about this from Chris, Becca’s friend.

“Hey man, what are you taking,” he asks a fellow raver, who is already “rolling.”

“Half a pink diamond and half a pink heart,” he responds.

Chris explains that now, most ecstasy is laced with other drugs, such as speed, caffeine, Ritalin, and heroin. Often the color and stamp of a pill denotes what it is laced with, but one can never know.

“It’s all the government’s fault,” he says on how pure MDMA isn’t often available, and users have to take their chances with illegal pills. “now the criminals control it, and they can do whatever they want.”

Commonly swallowed in tablet form or insufflated (snorted) for a faster, more intense effect, MDMA produces one of the most vivid and intense experiences that the human brain can endure.

The onset or “coming up” of Ecstasy is often accompanied by anxiety or fear. Depending on the purity and type of pill used, the onset can range anywhere from near instantaneous to almost thirty minutes.

Although MDMA is not physically addictive, there is almost always a strong urge to use it again in an attempt to recreate the feelings achieved on a previous use.

Besides the intense feelings of love and forgiveness, MDMA also unleashes a host of negative effects. Some of these include possible sexual dysfunction and extreme pupil dilation. MDMA also masks the body’s normal thirst and exhaustion responses, which can lead to dehydration. Conversely, it can also cause the user to have the urge to drink huge amounts of water, which can sometimes prove lethal. This is called “water intoxication.” However, by far, the greatest danger comes from the harmful drugs Ecstasy pills are laced with.

One of the most common effects is a tendency of the user or grind his/her teeth and jaws and chew on the inside of the mouth.

“I woke up one morning and was like, ‘Why does my moth hurt so much?” one raver explained. To prevent injury, many ravers suck on “binkies” or pacifiers.

The dangers of MDMA as a drug itself are difficult to assess. Only two in every 100,000 users have the possibility of death from the drug. However, after “coming down” from a night high on Ecstasy, the user almost always experiences a “crash” or hangover, as the body has lost all serotonin, and, consequently, all ability to feel happiness as well.

“Coming down the next day [after rolling] is just crap,” said Mel*, a former Garfield student who attends raves several times a month. “You can’t sleep or eat.”

The “crash” is actually the most dangerous part of the Ecstasy experience, as the utter, hopeless depression it leaves people in has caused thousands to take their own lives.

Long-term effects of the drug are still unknown and highly debated by scientists. The central criticism of MDMA is that it may permanently reduce the body’s natural production of serotonin, leading to acute or chronic depression.

From the Caribbean to Seattle’s i-district

Raves have come a long way to make it to Seattle. In the 1960’s, a “rave” was just another name for a party, used by people of Caribbean descent in London. By the mid to late 1980’s, this term began to be used to describe an entire subculture that grew out of the acid house movement in Chicago and the United Kingdom club scene.

Raves began as rebellion against popular music, nightclub culture, and commercial radio, so they were held in warehouses and other outside locations. Once a wave of psychedelic and other electronic dance music emerged and caught on in clubs, raves began to rise in popularity. These often-illegal parties were broken up by police and were driven into the London countryside.

In America, San Francisco and Los Angeles caught word of the budding rave scene, and soon spread the knowledge to cities such as San Diego and New York City. By the early 1990’s, raves became a global phenomenon.

Coming down

Becca finds Chris again, whose pill is beginning to kick in.

“I’m getting an anxious feeling in my chest,” he says, making a face. “I get that sometimes from pills I don’t like.” His friend, who has just taken “half a pink unicorn and half a green triangle,” walks by. “Oh, man, you have to tell me how the green triangle feels!” says Chris excitedly. We never find out, however, because it is past 3:00 in the morning and time for us tired reporters to go home.

Chris gives each member of our group an ecstatic hug, plants a big kiss on Becca’s and Dean’s cheeks, and heads of towards the dance floor as we make our way toward the door.

Once we are outside in the cold night air, we are able to recover a little from the sensory overload. No more flashing lights, no more Hello Kitty, no more Ecstasy. It’s been a long night.

On the ride home, Molly reports that two of those girls in underwear were 13 and 14. Dean says that the greasy, gray-haired man on the dance floor was 50. Becca found out later that Chris went on to take a total of four pills that night.

We never got a chance to thank The Professor or Ziggy for their insight and help, although we did catch a glimpse of Ziggy immersed in conversation with his fellow ravers as we made our way out the door. We will probably never see them again although we may run into the Professor’s alter-ego at SAAS one of these days.

The colorful fantasyland we leave behind in the darkness of the Industrial District is an interesting one. For some, the rave is just a scene: something to do with friends on a Saturday night, a venue with good music, or an excuse to show off your cute bra in public. But for others, the rave provides a home, a family, and a place to feel loved.

*name has been changed