To think my dd took ecstasy?

[Elizab3thh]

Basically, my (just) 16 year old dd went to a concert on Saturday night and stayed over at her friends after which was all fine. However, she came back on Sunday with swollen, chafed lips- she said that she got knocked in the face at the concert but something felt wrong about it. Today, I’ve been thinking about my experiences as a teenager and remembered how ecstasy would make your jaw ‘gurn’ and cause you to bite your lips. Now the only logical explanation I can see for dd’s lips is this but don’t know how to broach the subject as I have no proof whatsoever. Am i jumping to conclusions? How do I ask her without seeming as if I am jumping to conclusions?

I took it every weekend for months, and it made me really depressed, I didn't realise until later that it depletes the brains seratonin levels, which can take a long time to build back up again. Also, I did some really stupid stuff while I was on it, though tbf never anything as stupid or embarrassing as when I was drunk...

Have you looked at the article I mentioned? Martha Fernback was a close friend of my son, and the MDMA which she happened to take was 91% pure, much stronger than it usually is. Maybe your daughter would look at some of the pictures and information about Martha online. Ecstasy may be statistically quite safe, but it sometimes kills people who have just taken a pinch too much.

Your instincts were spot on OP! Well done for broaching it. And sharing your experiences with her. I think that's a very sensible approach even if you are scared. In my experience teenagers try new experiences (including drugs) whether there parents are hardline or open minded. The key thing is she can be honest with you if she's worried about anything she can talk to her. In terms of harm reduction I think that's really important.

MDMA is exceptionally safe, but what's sold as ecstacy these days is exceptionally rarely MDMA. It's usually closer to amphetamines, which aren't very nice.

You can buy pill testing kits for this.

MDMA is exceptionally safe except that sometimes it kills people.

I can't believe people are comparing horse riding to an illegal substance.
I couldn't care less what other adults choose to do in their spare time, if you're silly enough to take drugs that you absolutely have no way of knowing what's in it, then more fool you. But I can't believe the relaxed attitude that some people would have about their children doing it.

Alcohol kills thousands upon thousands of people every year. MDMA kills a handful.

The most dangerous thing in MDMA is the MDMA. It is more dangerous when it is more pure.

"Dr Adam R Winstock on behalf of Global Drug Survey

2016 might be the worst time to start taking MDMA in a generation. MDMA has never been so plentiful and as GDS trend data shows, more and more people are using it. The rising popularity of EDM and dispersion of MDMA from the dance floor to mainstream drug culture has coincided with resurgence of MDMA availability. In many countries high purity MDMA crystal now competes with high dose MDMA pills (in many parts of Europe the average dose of MDMA found in ecstasy pills is now 100-150mg/pill with doses over 300mg having been reported). But odd as it might seem better quality drugs are not necessarily safer for users (especially if you don’t know what you’re taking). With better quality drugs comes the need for better quality drug education (actually rubbish drugs need better quality drug education as well!). As EU governments create new drugs laws to ban new drugs (like the UK Government’s recent Psychoactive Drugs Bill – a ban on everything that gets you high) and evidence mounts that the majority of novel drugs are not very nice and rather risky, one consequence might be that people return to traditional drugs like MDMA. I believe we are missing a huge opportunity and one that is easier to start implementing than changing drugs laws. In fact, the recent failure of UNGASS to significantly shift from zero tolerance to one of adult acceptance that drugs can enhance people lives and that there are other approaches in addition to regulation that might help reduce drug related harm, means we have to change the conversation now.

Let me stay with MDMA as an example. Data from over 50,000 ecstasy users collected as part of GDS2015 and GDS2016 suggest that just under 1% of ecstasy users sought emergency treatment following the use of pills and powders sold as MDMA in the previous 12 months. Young women seem more likely to present than men (unrelated to body size or consumption patterns) with a rate 2-3 times higher than men. At the time of writing in mid-2016, the drug that causes the most issues in things sold as MDMA or ecstasy is still, in most cases, MDMA itself. While drug checking has a role to play, just knowing what’s in your pill or powder does not make it safe. What moderates the risk of harm more than anything else is the way it used. If governments don’t provide people with the right information in a credible and authentic way, then they only have themselves to blame if they use in a reckless and risky fashion.

Less, is often more
Of course giving advice on illicit drug dosing is complicated. And dosing is easier with some drugs (cocaine and cannabis) than others (LSD for example). Currently one of the issues facing users is that higher dose pills and high purity MDMA powers can make safer dosing more difficult and it very easy to inadvertently take too much"

Just in case anyone is actually interested.

claraschu what happened to her was horrific and I hope your son is okay after that. The thing is I don’t know how to stop my dd from taking it again- she had a good experience with it this time and after that there’s no doubt in me she’ll take it again. I’ve told her you never know what can happen and that it is always a gamble but will she listen? I don’t know. And I can’t lock her away either. Ah I wish she was at the age where potty training was the biggest challenge again

I know Elizab3thh, and you have all my sympathy- (I have been through 3 teenagers). Of course you can't forbid things and you can't lock them away.

I just always get upset when people talk about how safe MDMA is, because what happened to Martha was like a bolt of lightening out of a blue sky, and that doesn't happen with alcohol. I think teenagers should confront the fact that they can eat a tiny amount of powder and be dead 20 minutes later. The difference between lethal and totally safe is small enough that it doesn't cover your fingernail.

Martha had taken MDMA a couple of times before, and it was fine. This time she happened to buy very pure powder, and she happened to take a tiny bit too much. I think girls who are not very big are probably particularly vulnerable.

The misery and devastation which ripples out from something like this is impossible to describe.

I tried it as a teenager I regret it and hate that I did it but I used to sort of bite the inside of my mouth if I wasn't chewing gum. So it was the inside of my mouth affected if that helps at all ?

Load of druggies on here

frustrateddp come on, it’s hardly a rarity for people to have tried drugs in their youth and I don’t think everyone in the uk can be branded a druggie

She shared ‘a’ pill with friends and it was enough to make her lips go noticeably chapped and chafed?

Pills are proper banging again and half will put regular users on their arses. The pressings are mental too, none of this crumbly white/brown 007 tablet. Think Rock solid pressed IKEA blue and yellow logo. Fucking IKEA pills ffs.