Is Ecstasy that Bad? 

A fascinating programme on Channel Four gave some further insight into why many of our problems stem directly from the collective arrogance and stupidity of the mainstream media.

Many of you will remember the outcry that the media manufactured over the death of Leah Betts, the teenager who had died after taking Ecstasy at a night club in November 1995. Leah’s parents were shuffled around to almost every major TV and Radio station, and their faces appeared in all the newspapers in their personal campaign to warn our youngsters about the dangers of taking Ecstasy. 

The story ran FOR WEEKS as our media people fell over themselves to create hysterical headlines about the drug. Many of them purposely tugged at our heart strings and beat their own breasts in order to gain brownie points from us and to make us think what jolly good folk they all were to be raising the issue in order to protect our youngsters. 

And some of the media even ran their own campaigns to help ward teenagers off the evil drug. 

What the media didn’t tell you was that by doing what they do best - scaring the pants off everyone and becoming hysterical without sight or insight - they were actually harming thousands of people.

Professor John Henry is a poisons expert, a consultant who works at St Mary’s Hospital, London. He correctly diagnosed at the time that Leah had, in fact, died from a massive overdose of water. Here is what he said on the programme.

"I’ve done more interviews than I can care to remember about Ecstasy. What the media always wants me to do is to say that Ecstasy is nasty and that it kills. The other side of the story is usually a group of young people who say, "It’s lovely. No problems at all." The news coverage was so massive and so widespread, and I could see that it was shifting public perception and frightening people about Ecstasy.

"Leah Betts dies and its headline news for days. Mark dies [a young man who died from the overuse of alcohol] and it is not until the inquest that we get even just one article in one national newspaper.

"Ecstasy kills, perhaps, one person per month. Alcohol is a massive problem. It kills 100 people every day. 

So, here is yet another example of the media misleading the nation simply in order to make money. Hysterical headlines and exaggerated accounts of dangers and harm are all designed to bring in money as people rush to find out what they think is a danger to them and to their children.

It is the same story with regard to exaggerated claims concerning child abuse, domestic violence and rape.

The misleading information and the hysteria are simply created to satisfy the media’s thirst for money.

And the result for the nation is an increased incidence in the very same problems that the media claim that they are trying to solve.

In this particular case regarding drugs, one only has to ask some very simple questions in order to see just how much harm the media actually inflicts on our people by exaggeration and misrepresentation. 

Here are some of these questions.

How many teenagers were put off taking Ecstasy for recreational purposes and, instead, opted to enjoy their evenings by taking large quantities of alcohol instead?

How many teenagers simply reduced the number of times that they took Ecstasy (in order to be safer) and compensated for this by increasing the number of times that they took alcohol?

How many parents drummed into their children’s heads that they must not take Ecstasy when going out for the evening though they would not mind if they drank alcohol?

How many teenagers noted from the evidence of their own eyes that Ecstasy did not seem to harm their friends or thousands of other nightclub goers? And how many of these, therefore, concluded that the media and their parents were making a fuss about nothing? 

Given this, how many of these teenagers, therefore, erroneously concluded that alcohol must actually be exceedingly harmless since their parents were hardly worried about it?

How many adults must have come to the same conclusions and modified their behaviour accordingly?

As a result of the hysteria and the false representations of the media, how many more people in our country were killed or damaged

As a result of the hysteria and the false representations of the media, how many more people in our country were killed or damaged in car accidents through the increased use of alcohol for recreational purposes?

How many more acts of violence were committed inside and outside the home as a greater use of alcohol increased aggression levels?

How many more acts of vandalism and theft were committed?

How many more people were hurt through other accidental injuries and drunkenness?

How many more were admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning?

Come round to this hospital any evening and just look around," said the Professor.

"It’s an absolute national scandal."

Ecstasy Safer Than Aspirin A police chief came under fresh criticism last night after suggesting that the drug ecstasy is less dangerous than aspirin.

Richard Brunstrom, the chief constable of North Wales, made the claim as he repeated his call for drugs to be decriminalised.

"The prohibition regime does not work. It transfers billions of pounds of our money into the hands of organised criminals," he said.

Finally, does anyone here seriously believe that this ludicrous war on drugs would still be going on if it was women, rather than men, who were mostly being prosecuted for 'drug abuse'?

Also see, ...

The Evils of Cannabis?