Heavy drug user hit his limit

[Euphoric]

Okay, this is SWIM's first time sharing a news article, so corrections and criticism are welcome.

The following article was taken from the Toronto Star. SWIM clipped it from the paper, but he is unsure of when exactly he did that. 5-12 months ago he estimates. SWIM realizes that this may not qualify as news, and apologizes if others feel it should be moved to perhaps the XTC forum?

Heavy drug user hit his limit
British man suffers brain damage
Took estimated 40,000 hits of ecstasy

Robin Harvey
Life Writer

When the folks in the 12-step movement speak of addiction as being "cunning, baffling and powerful" they know what they're talking about.
Take the case of an unfortunate 37-year-old British man, who took an estimated 40,000 tablets of ecstasy, according to a report described in the peer-reviewed journal Psychosomatics.
The man, who had been taking the drug -- plus many others -- for more than a decade, suffered extreme memory and concentration problems, some of them permanent. He was totally unaware of his short-term memory troubles.
After collapsing three times at parties, "Mr. A" decided to stop using ecstasy and sought help. Even so, for a few months he felt he was stoned on the drug, had "tunnel vision" and developed panic attacks, anxiety, depression, muscle rigidity, hallucinations and paranoia.
The report says before his drug use neither he nor anyone in his family had any psychiatric problems.
"His long-term memory was fine but he could not remember day-today things -- the time, the day, what was in his supermarket trolley," Dr. Christos Kouimtsidis, one of the psychiatrists who treated him, told The Guardian in London.
Mr. A used ecstasy between the ages of 21 and 30. For the first two years he took five tablets every weekend.
This increased to 3.5 a day on average for the next three years and then hit 25 tablets a day for the next four years. He also used cannabis, solvents, tranquilizers, amphetamines, LSD, Cocaine and heroin.
The doctors agreed his self-reporting on his total drug use could be suspect, but they did their best to rely on medical reports when he first sought help.
Eventually the man began using some street drugs and lost contact with the doctors who treated him.



The article has a picture of bags full of E, with the caption "A British man who took an estimated 40,000 tablets of ecstasy, plus numerous other drugs, suffered long-term side effects." SWIM would like to read this man's (probably greatly exaggerated) autobiography.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

Holy shit that man is one hard core junkie.

[ryanstein]

thats hard to believe.

how did he not die?

[Nagognog2]

1. It MIGHT show that MDMA is not poisonous enough to kill most people - even if it should <Koff!>.

2. The government will likely use this idiot as a "Typical MDMA User" in examples of why this drug should remain utterly illegal forever.

[radiometer]

I think this article is new, but more discussion on this story can also be found here.

[Nagognog2]

Yep. That's why I let it stand. New slant on the same moron.

[mordecai8614]

nice,

SWIM has no intention on taking 40,000 hits of x.... Hell SWIM probably wont even take 50 in my lifetime. So an article like this gives reassurance to a moderate drug user (thanks mass media )

[zera]

People need to realize that this type of behaviour is very atypical and ancedotal. In Switzerland's experiment with providing heroin to addicts they allow them to have huge amounts (300 mg a day/3 times a day). Even with a drug like heroin which produces rapid tolerance and is highly addictive virtually everyone in the experiment (of whom all are considered hard-core junkies for which other treatment failed) self-regulated their use at a set level, well below the maximum allowed.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/library%5Ctlcnr.cfm

[Lehendakari]

Originally Posted by mordecai8614

nice,

I have no intention on taking 40,000 hits of x.... Hell I probably wont even take 50 in my lifetime. So an article like this gives reassurance to a moderate drug user (thanks mass media )

Maybe 40000 tablets it's too many, but Swim knows several people whose life and personality changed a lot in a bad way after they started using X on moderate basis.

They definitely became different people when they started rolling every other weekend, more agressive, careless and dumber. Most of them developed a destructive behavior and some of them ended up very bad. It was almost scary to see their faces when they were rolling. Their faces changed to a point that they looked like the evil side of themselves

That's the reason why Swim stopped hanging out with them and that prevented him to try X. He tried X a couple of years later. He enjoyed the experience but the comedown was horrible.

[thadj]

I cannot imagine MDMA giving any reward anymore with daily use. But hey, 25 pills is another story perhaps.

[KomodoMK]

Originally Posted by Zamu69

Maybe 40000 tablets it's too many, but Swim knows several people whose life and personality changed a lot in a bad way after they started using X on moderate basis.

They definitely became different people when they started rolling every other weekend, more agressive, careless and dumber. Most of them developed a destructive behavior and some of them ended up very bad. It was almost scary to see their faces when they were rolling. Their faces changed to a point that they looked like the evil side of themselves

That's the reason why Swim stopped hanging out with them and that prevented him to try X. He tried X a couple of years later. He enjoyed the experience but the comedown was horrible.

Are you sure they was only using X? I have seen people use once a week for over a year but with better changes rather than worse ones. Once again, this all depends on the individual in question, so you really can't draw a conclusion from it.

[Lehendakari]

Originally Posted by KomodoMK

Are you sure they was only using X? I have seen people use once a week for over a year but with better changes rather than worse ones. Once again, this all depends on the individual in question, so you really can't draw a conclusion from it.

I should have mention that SWIM knows other people whose life wasn't so badly affected by MDMA use, so I understand it sounds weird, and of course I didn't mean to make it a general statement. I meant that it happened to swim's friends so there is a possibility that it can happen to you.

They were taking MDMA but they once in a while did speed or coke but the evil faces only happened when they took X. Maybe their source was bad and they were taking another thing, but the pills looked like the ones everybody else was taken back then. BTW they were taking 5, 6 pills a night some of them crushed and snorted, some of the chewed. One of them had a violent allergic reaction when he chew one of them, went to the hospital with vomit and a swelled face, specially the jaw.

They were good boys prior they started MDMA use. They often critize swim for smoking cannabis!!! After that they became multi-drug abusers and some of them agressive drug-dealers. I know that MDMA use may not be the cause of their radical change, but i posted it as swim told me.

[Euphoric]

SWIZamu69 would be doing his friends a favour if he directed them to some good info about x, and informed them on how to maximize the pleasure derived from it. SWIM thinks that more than 2 pills per experience seems to be a waste according to most users. And the use should be spaced out much more.

[Lehendakari]

Originally Posted by Euphoric

SWIZamu69 would be doing his friends a favour if he directed them to some good info about x, and informed them on how to maximize the pleasure derived from it. SWIM thinks that more than 2 pills per experience seems to be a waste according to most users. And the use should be spaced out much more.

Swim lost contact with those friends long ago, but anyway he did try to make them realize what they were doing. He had a long conversation with one of swim's friend mother as she came to swim's home desperate about her kid ruining his life. Nothing could be done. Last thing swim knows: he is in the army. So I guess things turned out ok after all

[stoneinfocus]

It´s merely the drug it´s the sourrounding that´s working aut all the bad sides of person when he´s doing something that´s not pc for the normal public mind, so they shit on those doing better with drugs, until _every_ normal and even drug using person would run amok and then they tell it were the drug´s fault and cause.


there was a test on aggressive behaviour on anabolics and it showed that animals only reacted aggressive to the threats they´re normally reacting aggressive to, only slightly enhanced under the influence of androgen anabolic steroids, which holds true in humans imho.


And concerning the moron, he inhaled solvents?! uh oh, that sound a lot like the symptoms of inhaling solvent rather than those of using ecstasy.

[Beeker]

Damnit these drugs are to fucking safe! Can we add 650mg acetaminophen to every pill already? -.-;

[KomodoMK]

Back on the point of the article. Doesn't anyone find it a bit biased in the sense it talks about brain damage and ecstasy a fair bit but only only address' the other drugs he abused in once sentence?

"He also used cannabis, solvents, tranquilizers, amphetamines, LSD, Cocaine and heroin."

From the quantity of pills taken it could be asked how much of the other substances he was abusing and what combonations he was doing over those years. It seems to lean a little more towards the 'ecstasy caused this brain damage' rather than years of multi drug abuse caused the damage if you ask me.

[radiometer]

^ It seems to me that the dangers of long-term use of those substances are pretty well-known compared to those from MDMA. Perhaps that explains the focus.

You bring up an excellent point which makes risk-analysis difficult for MDMA use - a majority of MDMA users are poly-drug users.

[BUZZFACTOR]

This guy is a complete fraud. Swim believes this is anti drug propaganda used by the anti drug zealots to brainwash the niave people into supporting their programs, simple as that. Swim's been in rehab five times, a common theme to "war stories" is to exaggarate their experiences.
" ui

Reputation Comments on this post:

aggree

[Paracelsus]

If this shithead used 25 hits of Ecstasy every day, four years, that means he was high on a hardcore level 24/7 four years of his life.
Anyways, even if this is a frickin lie (i'm sure it is), just imagine how it would be to stay high around the clock on XTC for four years and still have time to use weed, solvents, tranqs, amps, LSD, coke and heroin.
RAAAAHAAHAHAAAAAAAA!

.

[KomodoMK]

Originally Posted by Paracelsus

If this shithead used 25 hits of Ecstasy every day, four years, that means he was high on a hardcore level 24/7 four years of his life.
Anyways, even if this is a frickin lie (i'm sure it is), just imagine how it would be to stay high around the clock on XTC for four years and still have time to use weed, solvents, tranqs, amps, LSD, coke and heroin.
RAAAAHAAHAHAAAAAAAA!

.

I don't think you would be able to stay high on it for that time, serotonin depletion would prevent that. SWIMs friend did them for 3-4 days before and she could not feel any effects from them no matter how many she took. This ties in with most other reports of people who have done them for a period of time.

[SPWIM]

Wouldn't you need to already have brain damage to take 40,000 hits of E in the first place?

[SPWIM]

Originally Posted by KomodoMK

Back on the point of the article. Doesn't anyone find it a bit biased in the sense it talks about brain damage and ecstasy a fair bit but only only address' the other drugs he abused in once sentence?

"He also used cannabis, solvents, tranquilizers, amphetamines, LSD, Cocaine and heroin."

From the quantity of pills taken it could be asked how much of the other substances he was abusing and what combonations he was doing over those years. It seems to lean a little more towards the 'ecstasy caused this brain damage' rather than years of multi drug abuse caused the damage if you ask me.

Any excuse to namedrop a load of illegal drugs. It's a sentence that pretends to make a point but in actual fact makes none at all. Unfortunately, the already conditioned, drug-hating masses will probably use it to reaffirm that all these drugs are "bad".

Reputation Comments on this post:

yr right. fuckin media indoctrination.

[psyki]

Originally Posted by co-incidence

And concerning the moron, he inhaled solvents?! uh oh, that sound a lot like the symptoms of inhaling solvent rather than those of using ecstasy.

Chances are these "solvents" are just GBL, or 14b, or even GHB.

[Paracelsus]

Originally Posted by psyki

Chances are these "solvents" are just GBL, or 14b, or even GHB.

There is a possibility, but I don't think that the "solvents" were GBL and related. If they were, the press would have surely used the common term "date-rape-drug".

.