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Ecstasy is a powerful stimulant and mood changer that speeds up your body system and alters your perception of the world.
It can make you feel both uplifted and relaxed and feeling very happy, usually with an overwhelming urge to dance. The effects of E vary considerably from one person to the next, depending on who you're with, where you are and how you're feeling at the time.
Usually coming in the form of small pills or more rarely as MDMA powder, the effects of E can be felt for anything up to 8 hours, although this time reduces considerably for regular users.
Within 20 minutes to an hour after taking ecstasy, your heart may go into bangin' gabba overdrive and you might feel a bit hot and sticky while your mouth goes dry. Sometimes, you'll come up with a huge exhilarating rush and possibly experience hallucinations.
During the two hours when the effects are their strongest, even the sound of a cutlery tray being dropped will sound unbearably danceable, you'll be walking around with a ludicrous grin on your face and even a set of Millwall fans will appear hugely huggable.
Lights will seem brighter and colours more intense. You'll feel firmly locked into the groove on the dancefloor and feel happy and confident. These feelings will slowly diminish as the drugs wear down.
Because E removes all feelings of tiredness and thirst it is vital that you keep yourself hydrated if you're dancing non-stop. Try to drink around a pint of fluid an hour (not alcohol) to replace fluids lost by dancing - isotonic drinks are particularly good. If you're not dancing then you don't need to drink so much as it can be harmful - as in the tragic case of Leah Betts.
Side Effects: Like most strong drugs, expect to appear very strange when encountering straight friends. E can make you strut wildly and enthusiastically to some of the worst tunes in the world while hugging very unsavoury characters. You will also quite probably talk a whole load of bullshit and any photographs taken of you in this state will prove wildly amusing to your friends afterwards.
Avoid taking ecstasy if you're on anti-depressants, and try to avoid wolfing down cans of Super Tennents as the alcohol will dehydrate you - as well as weaken the effects of the E. Ecstasy puts a tremendous strain on your heart, liver and kidneys, and it's important to take time out in a chill-out area during the night.
Most of the dangers come from people overheating and not replacing enough fluids while dancing, so it is essential to keep drinking water if you're dancing. We can't stress this fact enough. But also be careful not to drink too much - about about a pint an hour is right if you're on the dancefloor.
Remember that water is not an antidote to E, it just helps combat the dehydrating qualities of the drug.
Always make sure that you can get home safely before taking E, and don't try to drive.
Because E is a stimulant, the comedown is much like that from speed. Once you've come down you might feel a bit depressed, anxious, hungry and tired with some people getting it worse than others. You might also notice a laxative effect. Long-term frequent users often get run-down from exhaustion and suffer colds, sore throats and flu. Women can be susceptible to cystitis and thrush.