Ecstasy is often called “the love pill” because it heightens perceptions of color and sound and supposedly amplifies sensations when one touches or caresses another, particularly during sex.

But Ecstasy is a hallucinogen, a drug that acts on the mind to cause people to see or feel things that are not really there.

Hallucinogens mix up pictures in the mind and can throw a person into a scary or sad experience from the past, where he gets stuck without even realizing it.

The image of Ecstasy as a “love pill” is one of many lies that are spread about the drug.

Ecstasy is emotionally damaging and users often suffer depression, confusion, severe anxiety, paranoia, psychotic episodes and other psychological problems.

(Ecstasy goes by many different street names, including: Cadillac, Adam, Pink pig, Mellow drug, Lollipop, Smile, Love pill, Ecsta, XTC, MDMA, Eve, Snowball, XE, California Sunrise)

E = ENEMY

Ecstasy smothers the natural alarm signals given out by the body. As a result, after taking the drug, an individual risks going beyond his physical limitations and endurance.

For example, a person on Ecstasy may not realize that he has become overheated and can faint or even die of heatstroke. Other effects can include:

• Panic attacks
• Hallucinations
• Cardiovascular collapse
• Schizophrenic symptoms
• Drops in blood pressure
• Psychoses
• Coma
• Insomnia
• Cerebral attack
• Toxic hepatitis
• Convulsions
• Kidney failure
• Hypothermia
• Hypertension
• Phobic, paranoiac reactions
• Hemorrhaging
• Shock
• Death