And the production of these drugs is still illegal, which has led to a big increase in (the wealth of) organised crime, similar to how the Maffia was spawned during the prohibition.
I am not joking. In the Netherlands a druglord has ordered the assassination of one of its most famous journalists, and has blackmailed one of the most renowned lawyers to break the law. The netherlands exports $20bn (!!!) worth of MDMA and XTC per year. Where do you think these criminal instutions come from?
In high school (as a bad kid) we used to get all sorts of different "ecstasy" pills with nicknames like "blue ladies" or "bugs bunnies" or whatever. You never quite knew what it was going to be like, or whether even the blue lady you had this time was even the same as the one you had last time. Looking back, the spectrum of effects we would get were definitely due to whether they were cut with uppers or downers. It ranged from more typical emotional experiences you attribute to ecstasy (cocaine/meth), to more "body high" ones which were probably opiates of some sort.
Am very happy to hear this kind of thing is more rare. Not that street users have too much more assurance either way the MDMA they are getting is in fact MDMA, but hopefully thar whatever analogues there are now are a little better than meth or heroin.
> Am very happy to hear this kind of thing is more rare. Not that street users have too much more assurance either way the MDMA they are getting is in fact MDMA, but hopefully thar whatever analogues there are now are a little better than meth or heroin.
Almost all Ecstasy/MDMA outside a pharmaceutical setting is adulterated, usually with other amphetamines. The degree of adulteration varies, and in some cases it may not be very noticeable by the user, but it's incredibly rare to find pure MDMA outside of a pharmaceutical setting.
Methamphetamine is one of the most common adulterants. (This is a bit of a misnomer, because MDMA is itself actually a methamphetamine, but it's not the one most people are referring to when they say "meth").
> XTC usually refers to MDMA in pill form, used to be contaminated/mixed with some other additives but it's largely MDMA these days.
Ecstasy is almost never pure. While the degree of contamination varies and may not be subjectively noticeable by the user, the vast majority of ecstasy has some degree of adulterants in it, often other amphetamines, and sometimes other substances altogether.
In my party days,I always understood MDMAas being pure MDMA while X was MDMA mixed with coke, meth, or heroin to make the drug effects last longer, as the half life of MDMA is smaller than those other three.
> In my party days,I always understood MDMAas being pure MDMA while X was MDMA mixed with coke, meth, or heroin to make the drug effects last longer, as the half life of MDMA is smaller than those other three.
This is a common misconception. MDMA is often presented as "pure" (often by the people selling it), but in reality, almost all MDMA outside of a pharmaceutical setting is impure. Most MDMA contains some amount of methamphetamine[0], but not necessarily enough to be subjectively identifiable by a user as "meth".
Also, the half-life of MDMA is longer than cocaine, but shorter than methamphetamine.
[0] MDMA is actually a methamphetamine, but it's not the one that people are referring to when they say "meth" colloquially.
> Europe is well-known for its intense organized crime.
Lol, like it weren't the case pretty much everywhere else... Anywhere there is a significant amount of humans, there is "intense organized crime" too; any difference in outcomes is largely due to how authorities decide to address it.
The drug trade in the US is one of the most profitable in the world. Organised crime is behind it, there's no way that organised crime in the US has been destroyed at higher-levels, crime organisations still bring all the cocaine, MDMA, heroin and so on into the country, it's not small scale operations doing that.
Yeah, after all everyone knows that prostitution rings, human trafficking, arm dealing, illegal lending, etc etc, they all run themselves. Time to disband all the dedicated police units then.
Most things aren't decriminalized, just psychedelic truffles (which are legal) and cannabis. Official policy is to tolerate everything, unless someone is being a nuisance.
The Netherlands is an interesting case. Despite amphetamine, MDMA, etc. being illegal, The Hague has turned a blind eye to massive industrial production farms in the south. At one point, the Netherlands almost held a monopoly on the world's MDMA production. Rumors of conspiracy suggest it's intentional, but the end result is the same. Many of these drugs are de facto legal, if not de jure. Of course, this was the landscape some decades ago. It's been changing. Mexican cartels are starting to elbow in, and it's been causing "problems". Watching how the government reacts to the evolving ecosystem is going to be intriguing.
As I understand it they had fantastic results for the health and life outcomes for addicts. Never heard anything about it bringing change to the actual drug market and criminal groups.
I'd be curious to hear about Portugal's experience since it's been 20+ years since mass decriminalization. Whatever novelty effect is long past, and we now have a generation that grew up with the liberal policies. My quick search found articles written right after saying everything was going great, and obvious propaganda say that Portugal was nothing but a heroin den with everyone strung out everywhere.
I am not joking. In the Netherlands a druglord has ordered the assassination of one of its most famous journalists, and has blackmailed one of the most renowned lawyers to break the law. The netherlands exports $20bn (!!!) worth of MDMA and XTC per year. Where do you think these criminal instutions come from?