THE AGONY OF 'SOFT' ECSTASY IS IN THE PRICE THAT OTHERS HAVE TO PAY

Me and Ecstasy had this fling once. What chemical virgins don't realise is
that, for most of us, getting attached to a certain drug is just like any
other relationship. First, you fall in love, and spend a honeymoon period
unable to comprehend how you ever managed without it. ('Where have you been
all my life?') Then you hit a rocky patch, and start slagging it off to your
friends, wondering whether there's any real future for you as a couple.
('It's not the illegal substance I thought it would be.')

Finally, you part company, and, like any disaffected ex, feel slightly
baffled by anybody who continues to succumb to its tired patter and singular
charms.

You know that it's no good for them, but you also know that it's no use
interfering while the 'relationship' is still going strong. People just have
to find out for themselves what a pointless, bogus sonovabitch Ecstasy
really is.

These days, I suppose you could call me a casual non-drug user, which might
not be the oxymoron it first appears.

If you ask me, there are a lot of us around, and we can be identified by our
age (late twenties through to mid forties), our social profile (semi-retired
hellraisers), and our informed acceptance and tolerance of widespread drug
abuse.

While casual non-users personally can't be bothered with drugs such as
Ecstasy anymore, we don't really see the point of trying to stop other
people taking them either.

The Switzerland Supreme Court seems to agree up to a point.

They have recently ruled that dealing in Ecstasy is not a 'serious offence'.
While Ecstasy remains illegal, it will henceforth view it as as 'soft'
rather than 'hard drug', which poses no real threat to physical and mental
health.

Rather amusingly, they add that, so far as they can see, Ecstasy is mainly
used by 'socially integrated people, and does not lead to criminal
behaviour'. Obviously, they've never seen some of the criminally bad
dancing, or heard any of the hanging offence gibberish, Ecstasy users tend
to indulge in when their choice of 'happy pill' kicks in. It's true though
that, unlike junkies, Ecstasy users are unlikely to nick your telly or
video. Even if they did, they'd probably be banging on your door at four the
next morning to return it, full of love and apologies, and eager to
congratulate you on your marvellous taste in consumer durables.

If all this is starting to sound rather trite, I am at pains to point out
that, even in my hedonistic heyday, I wouldn't have considered it a good
idea to give Ecstasy a cuddly, user-friendly image.

This has nothing to do with the supposed added thrill of illegality - I,
personally, never paid much mind to that, just as few underage smokers or
cider drinkers dwell excessively on what the law says after the first few
puffs or glugs.

My argument is with the naive assumption that any chemical could be
categorised as 'soft'. To my mind, they are highly dangerous.

Primarily for the individual taking them (while statistics prove that
drug-related deaths are rare, this does not make them any less tragic or
significant). But also for the rest of us. The fact that the Swiss are ready
to categorise Ecstasy as a 'soft' drug doesn't alter the fact that people
who take it are very hard work for the people around them.

However, the same could be said of any stimulant.

From alcohol and cannabis, right though to the big baddie heroin, there are
always emotional, intellectual and financial kickbacks.

That's why the vast majority of people tend to go through a 'druggy phase'
in their youth, rather than spend their whole lives tripping over their
trainers on dancefloors. When you're young, reality is either 'too much' or
simply 'not enough', but. as you get older, you realise that it's really all
you've got. That's why, like the Swiss, parents or British government
officials shouldn't panic unduly about Ecstasy. While it is true that people
start taking drugs like Ecstasy because they're bored, it is also true that
they stop taking them for exactly the same reason.

However degenerate the young generation might seem to you or themselves, in
fact they are merely the next wave of casual non-drug users waiting to happen.