mj

can you provide a contact information (contact form/email add) posted on your site please?

thank you,
mj

Thank you for reiterating the point of this post – that street ecstasy may not contain MDMA and that without information, taking street ecstasy can be dangerous. I wish you had cited your sources for the information, that always makes it more useful.

The problem with sites such as ecstasydata.org is that testing of pills and the publication of their content mostly happens ‘after the fact’ – by the time the information is published the pills are usually well distributed and the information is of no use to anyone trying to find information about the pill they may be about to buy or take.

I would like to see pill testing made accessible in a timely manner, to avoid this issue. It would be easy to say ‘don’t take pills’ but the fact is, people do, they are willing to take that risk, and if the government is serious about minimising harm then giving users accurate information about the content of pills in a timely manner is a good way to do this.

I agree that MDMA is not ‘safe’ (all drugs have risks), but your last statement unfortunately detracts from your comment overall by making unsubstantiated value judgements about joy and what is meaningful. Who decides what is meaningful? Who decides what kinds of joy are ‘right’ and ‘wrong’? What data backs up your statement? Did you know that MDMA is being researched as a potential aid in PTSD therapy? I wonder if those people would agree that it grossly distracts them from achieving joy by doing meaningful things.

Given that I’ve occasionally indulged in said substance – and yet I’ve completed a PhD, DJed at festivals around the world, and am now creating an internet startup, I think you can go revise your expectations about drug users not doing meaningful stuff in their lives. I know many people like me too but everyone’s too damn afraid to admit as such because of the social stigma and risk’s to employment (which are mostly because the media continues propagating fallacies about drugs).

Personally, MDMA got me out of a depressive rut in my life and now my life is more joyful than it’s ever been. Please stop making assumptions.

These substances are usually stronger or their effects have later onset, resulting in frequent overdosing. Main dangers are hyperthermia, arrhythmia, heart attack..

Detailed and fresh (2009/10) testing data are published on ecstasydata.org

I don’t think pure MDMA is “safe”. It grossly distract users from learning how to achieve joy by doing something meaningful in life.

Jan

The report makes a lot of NZ being bound by immutable international conventions, noting that while countries such as Switzerland which have written constitutions are able to adjust their drug laws to match their constitutions, NZ cannot. Well, we have one very firm constitutional rule, which is that a parliament cannot bind its successors. So even though a past NZ parliament might have agreed to the convention, that doesn’t mean that a future one is bound by that.

There’s also a whole lot about ERMA that’s based on a false premise that because a substance is psychoactive, it’s automatically “toxic” as defined under hazardous substances law. That isn’t the case: ERMA has clear criteria based around measured lethal doses and the like as to what is toxic. It also works on the basis that substances are not intended for ingestion. I’m sure someone hasn’t discussed this properly or didn’t understand what they were being told.

(Interestingly, one moral thing this raises is that most of what is known about drugs is from tests on Cute Fluffy Animals. Would you (esp. if vegan or whatever) take drugs if you knew that such tests had been performed?)

If you could ask 1 million people to all do 1 thing to advance your cause or causes, what would it be?

Come out of the closet about your drug use. Drug war propaganda demonizes and dehumanizes people who use drugs. Let your fellow citizens – your colleagues, your friends, and your family – know the real face of the American drug user.
We need credible people, especially public figures, to stand up and say, “I contribute to society, I work hard, I love my family, and I am an otherwise law-abiding citizen – but I do not believe that people should be treated as criminals simply because of what they put into their bodies. This law is wrong.”
The war on drugs is really a war on people. Roughly half of all Americans have used an illegal drug, and the last three U.S. presidents have all used illegal drugs – in fact President Obama was quite candid about his marijuana and cocaine use. Would Obama, and our country, be better off if he had been arrested?
Think about someone you know who has used an illegal drug. Then ask yourself: would that person be better off in prison? Would that person be more likely to have become a productive member of society if they were stripped of their freedom, their property, their children, and their job?
Once the silent majority of illegal drug users begin to speak out, the stereotypes that drive the drug war will be impossible to sustain. The vast majority of Americans who use drugs illegally are doing no harm to anyone else, and in most cases are doing no harm to themselves. None of us deserve to be treated as criminals or locked up in a cage.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/01/16/best-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-week/