MDMA — more commonly known as molly or ecstasy — sells for roughly $100 a gram and appeals to a large and diverse demographic. Since the unregulated substance has been banned in the U.S., the market has become crowded with various molly-based drug mixtures featuring other substances like caffeine and ephedrine which can cause nasty effects when combined together.
This is where DanceSafe comes in. The above video from Animal New York follows Kellye Greene, an employee of the drug education nonprofit, as she mans a booth at an underground rave in Brooklyn. Here, she helps partygoers by testing samples of their drugs to see what is real MDMA and what is not.
Spoiler: Most of the drugs they test ended up not being the molly the kids wanted:
“Whatever is being sold in the street often has adulterants that can be more harmful to the user than the actual substances people think they’re taking,” explained Kellye Greene, a director of DanceSafe’s NYC chapter. “I would definitely say a good one third of molly that comes through tends to be not MDMA, or MDMA with something else that’s present in it.”
In the video, Greene does her best to not come in direct contact with any of the drug samples handed her way. She further explains the danger of the drug cocktails DanceSafe comes into contact with regularly:
What we find tends to kill people the most are complications from ingesting an unknown substance of unknown toxicity in higher doses than would be recommended.
While the service DanceSafe provides is an important one, Greene and company continue to have difficulty in assisting the kids who are taking MDMA due to the threat of police intervention:
It’s not common for us to be able to do testing because there is often an undercover police presence, so we’re afforded the opportunity at this event, because it is an underground party.
Many legitimate event promoters are hesitant in bringing DanceSafe’s services to their parties. The harm reduction the company promotes through their on-site drug testing can be misread as promoting drug use, which is illegal.
That being the case, Greene and company are forced to limit their services to underground events such as the one featured in the above video with the number one motivator of reducing drug induced harm while not getting caught in the process.
(Via Animal New York)