8 ms·
The man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in 9 years
- daeken 16y agoThis is actually quite interesting. I'd love to see some hard data on the actual impact this use had on the serotonergic system; for as large a part as it plays in the brain, and all of the diseases that we believe are related to it (everything from mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia to migraines and cluster headaches), we really know very little about it. Our current drugs acting on serotonin receptors are brute-force hacks -- we need to know a whole, whole lot more.
- chopsueyar 16y agoI always likened SSRIs to a "Game Genie" for your brain. I do concur with the brute-forced nature of it.
- dedward 16y agoSo does the medical establishment at large - it's well acceptd that while SSRI's seem to work, there is no way, other than trying them out, to know which one will work for person X. That said - given the possibility of serotonin syndrom and the mad bender this guy was allegedely on, it's a wonder he's alive.
- subwindow 16y agoPicking a nit, but SSRIs don't actually act on serotonin receptors. Although the action of SSRIs isn't completely understood, they generally work by increasing the level of serotonin in the brain by reducing reuptake.
- keefe 16y agoas do I, SSRIs are terrifying, addictive and something I've avoided completely.
- rjurney 16y agoI knew a guy who took to extreme ecstasy benders. He would take 2-3 or more a day for a week, was probably under the influence half the time or more. This went on for a year, he took hundreds of doses. Then he had a long stint in a mental hospital.
- dreepers10 16y agoThis case report should be summarized and read to high school students as part of their health class.
- yan 16y agoMaybe not the best idea. While the report clearly shows the irreversible damage caused by MDMA (as do many other reports), it does conclude with "Contrary to results of other neuroimaging observations, Mr. A’s brain scan did not show any gross cerebral abnormalities, especially at the hippocampal level," and over eager students might take away the wrong lesson.
- gommm 16y agoNot sure... I think it's too extreme a case to show, most students would rationalize that by thinking 'but I'm only taking one it's not like I'm taking 40 000 pills'
- abstractbill 16y agoDefinitely not. Telling kids about the clearly very extreme cases just gives them an easy reason to dismiss what you're telling them.
- ebiester 16y agoYes. Don't become a pharmacy. That doesn't mean that a pill here or there will have the same effect. Considering how many different drugs he was on, we don't know that it was even the MDMA. Let's keep in mind that this was five times the previous known lifetime dosage of anyone else.
- thunk 16y agoRight, "Let this be a lesson to you, kids: Unless you're Pacman, you're probably cool."
- miguelpais 16y agoReally, an average of 12 pills a day? Wouldn't that make you continuously high?
- raimondious 16y agoAfter a few weeks of this, it was probably only able to make him feel (his version of) normal.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoCan you imagine what life would be like to this guy when he is "feeling his version of normal"?
- mortenjorck 16y agoI would imagine it would be worst to his sense of time: weeks and months blurring together into a jumbled pile of years for the latter of those nine. Terrifying.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoWell you won't know until you try it.
- theycallmemorty 16y agoI imagine that was the goal at the time.
- dedward 16y agoSounds suspicous - unless he's some kind of genetic anomaly, he'd be completely depleted of serotonin and the drug would have nowhere near the effect even a single pill had the first time around, at least as I understand it - all my E-tard friends back in the day used to tell me it was kinda pointless to do E two nights in a row, and definitely pointless ot do it every night - severe diminishing returns (no idea if that's true or not - i like my brain intact)
- cypherdog 16y agoI'm curious if elevated levels of serotonine for extremely long periods of time would cause memory loss alone. It seems to me that memory is very much a "wow that just stood out from the norm." sort of tracking system. Under high levels of serotonine, maybe nothing can stand out from the norm long enough to be remembered?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- dopamine 16y agoMay I take this opportunity to remind that the only drug known to be relatively safe is caffeine.
- thunk 16y agoNot unless you back it up with evidence.
- noonespecial 16y agoPure caffeine powder can be almost instantly fatal if handled without gloves and respiratory protection. There are no safe drugs, only safe quantities.
- gdl 16y agoAnd conversely, cocaine can be made into a healthy tea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_tea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_tea
- rdl 16y agoI believe you mean nicotine...I have observed friends taking 10 kilograms of food grade caffeine microballs and weighing and bagging in 500 mg doses to distribute at a hacker convention, with no adverse effects.
- noonespecial 16y agoFood grade caffeine granules are both diluted and granulated to prevent machine material handling errors from becoming deadly at food packaging plants. The powdered stuff is quite dangerous.
- rdl 16y agoThe info I have is that the granules are mainly to ease mechanical processing. Given that ld50 of anhydrous caffeine USP is above 100mg per kilo of body weight, I do not think a few grams, especially through skin, would be much risk. The msds advises gloves, due to it being a skin irritant, but that is for constant exposure. Fine powders are a fire safety and explosion risk, of course, especially in automated storage and processing environments....flour, non dairy creamer, aluminum powder, etc are great fun. If there is any info to the contrary I would be very interested.
- i386 16y ago"Guy takes cocktail of drugs every day for 10 years and winds up with mental problems - of course! It must be the ecstasy that did it!" I seriously question the scientific method of anyone who draws any conclusions from this account.
- dkarl 16y agoMr. A reported current cannabis consumption, together with a previous history of polydrug misuse (i.e., solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, heroin). Decrease in level of cannabis intake led both to disappearance of his paranoid ideas and hallucinations and reduction of his panic attacks I agree; they have no idea what caused what. Why didn't they at least mention how extensively he used (for example) solvents? Plus, who knows what was actually in the pills? Is ecstasy typically pure? A few times I thought about taking a small dose of ecstasy before a psychotherapy appointment (its original intended use,) but as far as I know, there's no way to reliably get a pure, known dose illegally.
- Alex3917 16y ago"As far as I know, there's no way to reliably get a pure, known dose illegally." http://www.ecstasydata.org/send_sample.php http://www.ecstasydata.org/send_sample.php http://www.dancesafe.org/shop/?page=shop/browse&category_id=34855bad041ac0de73e8658e0aa8a0a5 http://www.dancesafe.org/shop/?page=shop/browse&category... If you don't want to pay $120 for molly or $40 for pills to have your stuff analyzed at the lab using mass spectrometer, then the next best option is the complete kit from DanceSafe for $50. If I ever tried MDMA I would probably just do both, but then again my anxiety is why I don't partake in the first place.
- dkarl 16y agoQuite informative, especially their stats page: http://www.ecstasydata.org/stats.php http://www.ecstasydata.org/stats.php 32% of the street ecstasy tablets they tested were pure MDMA, and 50% contained no MDMA at all. 29% contained stimulants, so you're just as likely to get a dose of unknown stimulants as you are to get pure MDMA. Yeah, drug lottery? No thanks.
- Alex3917 16y agoFor what it's worth, the recommended dosage of pure MDMA is 125mg no more than every three months. Meaning this guy actually managed to take 2,250x the RDI for years without dying. (Not even counting all of the other drugs he was on.)
- jlcgull 16y ago... and had the longest most awesome RAVE evar!!!! </ sarcasm>
- rokhayakebe 16y agoYou would think after a while he couldn't get the same feeling anymore.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- stuaxo 16y agoSaw this years ago... would be nice if they did a follow up; this must be at least 5 years old now ?
- bombarolo 16y agoI guess even reading the internets for 40000 hours in 9 years will cause a similar effect.
- barkingcat 16y agoHow much money was spent on 40,000 pills? It must be at least a down payment on a house. How did he keep a job with the residual mental effects of the drugs? Or maybe it was family money.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- anon114 16y agoIt's probably safe to assume he dealt.
- rjurney 16y agoThe thing about this story at is hard to believe is that the more you use ecstasy, the less it makes you happy. You burn out those neurons. Takes years before it will effect you again. Can't imagine he was getting anything but speediness off most of at stuff, would have been pure dependence, not a high.
- dtf 16y agoIt's worth noting that the term "ecstacy pill" encompasses a huge array of psychoactive and non-psychoactive substances. Go and scare yourself at sites like PillReports: http://www.pillreports.com/ http://www.pillreports.com/ Unless he or one of his friends was an organic chemist, MDMA - a relatively expensive drug to synthesize - is likely to be way down the list on the menu of chemicals that Mr A actually consumed.
- keefe 16y agoor he just had a reputable dealer? x is on my hell-no list, but I've known people that take it and buying from someone with connections is quite different than the randomness you'll get if you try to buy at a rave. There is a whole social hierarchy about manufacture and distribution of pure samples of stuff like that.
- earl 16y agoNot only can you buy from reputable dealers, but there are organizations like dancesafe that will help you test your X.
- steveranger 16y agoEverything in moderation - if you took 40,000 aspirin's in 9 years you'd see some strange effects. And MDMA is absolutely incredible; I recommended everyone tries it just once. Had some of the best nights of my life on it - completely untouchable experiences.