Comment · Sat, November 3, 2012
do you think ecstasy users underestimate the dangers of the drug (particularly hyperthermia-related issues)?
Original post in this thread
pylori · 14 points
if you're aware of the issues it's not too hard to remain safe whilst using it, but the fact that so many people are uninformed about the dangers/risks makes things worse (death from ecstasy is reported to be in the 1 in 2000 range). also the fact that the quality/purity of the drug is so varied probably doesn't help things either (as well as being cut with other substances.
i read one case report of a police confiscated pill containing 270mg! jeez imagine taking that amount for the first time, and one patient presented with a temperature of 43C!
i think there's more rave organisers could do to ensure people remain hydrated, and, more importantly, better drug education in schools worldwide to make people aware of the effects and keep them safe. i've always struggled to understand how we have understood and adopted a safe-sex attitude to sex education instead of abstinence only (well at least in most of europe) but we can't do this with drugs. my school drug education consisted of "don't do it, drugs are bad, mmkay" and the horrible talk to frank scheme. i was left with the impression that all drugs cause krokodil-style effects, luckily i wised up on my own.
What they were answering
pylori · -1 points
Right but the point was the DRUGS were the cause of the high temperature, you get it? If the drugs cause the hyperthermia then it's directly responsible for the death. It makes the body kill itself.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
They were unable to assess if the MDMA was the main cause of the hyperthemia, though. They also only tested for the presence of MDMA in other pills that night, not for the presence of other drugs in the "E" pills. They did note serum levels of MDMA in the blood of those that died, but also did not test for serum levels of much more known toxic substances. They also did note the ones that died were dancing in a crowd at high ambient temperatures, which set off the chain of events.
I am not arguing that drugs were not the cause of the deaths, not by any means. However, the study you provided does not conclusively show MDMA to be the root cause of the deaths. It was also not MDMA neurotoxicity that caused the deaths, but rather renal failure and hyperthermia that caused a hypertensive crisis, seizures, and muti-organ failure.
My point was, attributing those deaths to MDMA alone is irresponsible, given the evidence in the study.