Young people taking ecstasy to lose weight: counsellor
Posted January 5, 2012 8:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Don’t be surprised to see more emergencies linked to ecstasy. The executive director of a local drug prevention organization says the drug is making a comeback.
Tibor Palatinus of Narconon Vancouver says that’s because there’s a popular belief that ecstasy is safe, and promoted that way in movies and websites. And he explains why it’s being used to lose weight.
“Stimulants tend to decrease or depress hunger or reduce the desire to eat because they stimulate the adrenal glands and as a result you get a hyped up individual who doesn’t feel like eating very much or at all.”
But he says the drug user is not losing weight, as much as nutrients and bone mass – a problem that showed up for his friend years after he stopped taking ecstasy.
“He snapped his bone while he was arm wrestling. The reason it snapped was because his bones were so thin because of his drug use.”
He says because the drug prompts the body to go into overdrive, it starts to wear the adrenal glands out, initiating episodes of paranoia and perhaps even severe depression as the drug wears off.
“Ecstasy all by itself overheats the body like crazy and can cook you inside out,” he warns.
Ecstasy has been linked to two deaths in Abbotsford in the last few months.
