If you enhance your rave experience, do so safely

McNally is a graduating senior, so he probably does not care
what you think. E-mail him anyway at [email protected].

Well kids, April’s here and you know what that means
(along with 10 more weeks of toil and heartache). It’s
springtime again at UCLA ““ gorgeous weather, girls going to
class in liberal modes of dress, and the beginning of the rave
season.

That’s right. For many, spring is a time of celebration,
marked with crazy excursions to remote destinations, all-night
dancing to mind-bending synthetic pulses, and opportunities to meet
other crazy, yet interesting, young people.

Besides being an efficient stress buster and a chance to hear
what is at the forefront of modern music, a good rave can also be
an eye-opening experience. That is, if you’re willing to keep
your eyes open. Many people use raves to help them get more in
touch with their lives, to help them remember the big picture and
that one of the key ingredients to health is happiness.

Unfortunately, many experienced rave-goers eventually come up
with the reflexive equation that drugs equal happiness while at
raves. Some statistical analyses claim that a moderately large
percentage of ravers do not take illegal substances (anywhere from
20 to 40 percent), but this is probably quite far from the truth.
If you were at a rave and high as funk or nervous about something
you were carrying in your shoe, you probably wouldn’t tell
some official-sounding university researcher what you were or
weren’t taking either.

While some claim rave drugs like “E” and LSD are not
addictive, both can have immensely powerful effects on the body and
brain. Some people use these pharmacologic enhancements to boost
the total rave experience, but the changes such psychoactive drugs
have on your brain, no matter how permanent or temporary, are very
real.

So here’s a good tip. If you’re going to do drugs
““ and no one can stop you ““ try and find out about the
effects of the pill before you buy it.

Don’t take anything for granted unless you are 100 percent
confident. Feel free to ask the dealer or somebody else who has
recently taken the drug what it feels like, and if they shy away
from the question then you should probably move on.

And remember, everybody’s body is different, so just
because something is fantastic for your friend doesn’t mean
it will necessarily do jack to you. Or vice versa ““ you might
witness the unraveling of the Matrix because of a pill your friend
dismissed as weak-sauce. Know what your body is capable of.

The most popular illicit drugs to be found at your average rave
are of two types: stimulants (ecstasy, speed and crystal meth),
which are more popular for trance, house and other upbeat dance
genres; and psychedelics (LSD, mushrooms and DXM), more commonly
located in drum ‘n’ bass and techno floors.

As many of you already know, an “E” tablet is rarely
just ecstasy. Chemically known as MDMA, this ingredient is
responsible for effects like euphoria, heightened feelings of
empathy, self-awareness, increased energy and social
uninhibition.

Most run-of-the-mill rave tablets contain only some MDMA ““
the rest of the pill being a possible mixture of amphetamines,
opioids, or whatever substitutes are cheap and locally available.
Sometimes they contain no MDMA at all and are just cheap mixtures
of amphetamines, Ritalin, cough suppressant or who knows what.
Rumors frequently circulate of heroin or mescaline detected in rave
“E” pills; however, this is highly unlikely since these
drugs cost more than MDMA to manufacture.

If you are concerned about the quality of the recreational drugs
you are going to ingest, it would make sense to stick with the
upscale, commercialized downtown or West L.A. raves, which might
cost $35 or more but are at least a bit more clean and a bit less
scary. At these raves you will probably feel more sanitary. At
raves out in the Valley, in Lancaster or closer to the desert, you
are more likely to end up with non-MDMA ingredients in your $20
pill.

To make matters more complicated, eating a tablet of pure
ecstasy, some claim, is sometimes actually worse for you than
eating one with some filler that is less neurotoxic than MDMA. Most
opioids probably cause less mean brain damage than MDMA, and the
cold medication DXM (dextromethorphan, a common East Coast
“E” pill filler) is much less toxic.

A well-established fact most people continue to ignore is that
chronic use of MDMA can indeed burn neurobiological holes in your
brain. Recently a report was published of a male in his early 20s
who had claimed to have done well over 200 “hits” of
ecstasy since age 15. Due to MDMA’s neurodegenerative
capabilities, he became severely stricken with insomnia,
depression, social isolation and had experienced so much jaw
clenching (a common side effect of stimulants) that neurons
projecting to his jawbone became non-functional.

Instead of injecting rats with amphetamines to mimic psychosis
(a practice common in the experimental development of antipsychotic
medications), most behavioral scientists now use MDMA to mimic
psychosis in drug trials. They believe that MDMA-administered rats
behaviorally mimic the psychosis seen in schizophrenia with more
accuracy than with any other agent of the classical stimulant
smorgasbord. If the damage normally caused by MDMA in a rat brain
can be reversed by an experimental medication, it is considered to
be successful ““ at least in rats.

It is true, however, that they give these lab rats enough
“E” to turn them into Richard Simmons, usually way more
than the human equivalent of a normal dose or two. Nobody would
expect you to spell your own name if you did as much
“E” as these rats do. But the fact remains that ecstasy
is indeed capable of causing neuronal cell degeneration, or brain
damage if you prefer.

To avoid closing on a depressing note, here are some health tips
for you who have already made up your mind about your next
“Xperience:”

1) Drink plenty of water. I know you’ve heard it before,
and you might not feel thirsty, but do it! “E” uses up
the moisture in your body quicker than you would think ““ and
you can never drink too much water.

2) Stay cool. Try and break from the heat of the middle of the
dance floor every once and a while, as there is a direct
correlation between body temperature and the neurodegenerative
effects of ecstasy.

3.) Don’t push it too hard. Even though you might feel as
physically dominant as The Rock, take a moment to rest every once
and a while, otherwise you might regret it the next day. Remember,
the next day always comes! Even if you feel on top of the world,
you eventually will have to come back down, and recreational drugs
tend to follow Newton’s law that for every high there is an
equal and opposite low. Also, serotonin-replenishing chemicals such
as 5-HTP and some antidepressants do help quell ecstasy’s
sometimes devastating hangover.

So with these tidbits I send you back out into the real world,
hopefully a bit more confident or at least a bit more informed. Let
the raves begin!