Happiness Is...A Pill?: The Science: The Lure Of Ecstasy

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Ecstasy can occasionally enslave and occasionally offer transcendence. Usually, it does neither. For Adrienne, the Midwestern woman who has been a frequent user for the past five years, ecstasy is a key part of life. "E makes shirtless, disgusting men, a club with broken bathrooms, a deejay that plays crap and vomiting into a trash can the best night of your life," she says with a laugh. "It has done two things in my life," she reflects. "I had always been aloof or insecure or snobby, however you want to put it. And I took it and realized, you know what, we're all here; we're all dancing; we're not so different. I allowed myself to get closer to people. Everything was more positive. But my life also became, quickly, all about the next time I would do it... You feel at ease with yourself and right with the world, and that's a feeling you want to duplicate--every single week."

--With reporting by Carole Buia/Miami, Greg Fulton/Atlanta, Alice Park/New York, Elaine Shannon and Dick Thompson/Washington