TAKING A GAMBLE, NOT JUST A PILL

When a person takes ecstasy, the body is simulated: the heart speeds
up, blood pressure rises.

As part of its stimulating effect, it can make you excited about
exercise. This is why it is so commonly taken at dance parties. If
dancers keep dancing for long periods of time, they will get hot,
sweat, and, if they don't replace those fluids, become dehydrated.

Ecstasy can also block the body's anti-diuretic hormone, causing the
body to urinate more than usual and so cause further
dehydration.

The body will send out warning signals - thirst, headaches and
feelings of being hot - but if people have taken enough ecstasy or
other drugs, they may not respond to those signals.

If rehydration does not happen, the body gradually shuts down its
internal organs, the brain last of all.

According to the 1998 National Drug Strategy household survey, just
under 5per cent of Australians have tried ecstasy and half of those
have used it in the past 12 months.

Taking ecstasy has always been a gamble. People pay - and hope - to
swallow methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Yet often what they end
up with is a mixture of other psychoactive substances, sometimes
speed, LSD (acid), even caffeine.

"They can end up with a whole pile of different substances," said Paul
Dillon from the National Drug and Alcohol Centre.

"It's rare that you get a truly poisonous substance. Most of the time
it's just a filler, binding agents that hold it together, like glucose
or caffeine.

"But more recently we've been finding other substances, such as
LSD."

"There's always been that element of risk because you have backyard
chemists manufacturing it," he said.

In January, an Australian-made version hit the streets. It has been
linked to deaths in Western Australia. Before that there was a
South-East Asian ecstasy that contained LSD.

Last week police issued a warning to people about "fake ecstasy",
which contains a combination of contaminated methylampehtamine and
LSD.