"It's just insane, like the amount of ecstasy and Molly that's going around. It's insane, like everybody's doing it," said recovering drug addict Louie Sabatasso.
Ecstasy, or MDMA, is a stimulant and psychedelic, a rave drug from the '90s once cut with everything from caffeine to speed. Today's version, Molly, is a powder form that pledges purity and now seeing a resurgence of popularity among a new generation. Molly is also casually mentioned in pop music by singers like Kanye West and rapper Trinidad James. Miley Cyrus sings about dancing with Molly.
But the drug with the approachable name took a deadly turn at this weekend's Electric Zoo Music Festival in New York. Two concert-goers died and at least four others were hospitalized for MDMA-related causes, say police.
"Molly goes to another level as far as potency is concerned, it makes it extremely dangerous to the body, because with MDMA, the body creates heat... this drug creates the body to overheat, and the more the body overheats, especially in these environments that are so hot to begin with, it can create death, heart attack, the body just fries," said Dr. Howard Samuels, CEO, The Hills Treatment Center.
Sabatasso knows that all too well. He estimates he's taken ecstasy and Molly hundreds of times, and has seen friends die from Molly. He says he's been clean for one year. He was once addicted to cocaine, heroin and alcohol, but Molly scares him the most.
"People don't know how they're going to react to Molly. It's the kind of drug that you don't know if you've never taken it how you're going to react to it. You could be one of those people it's going to kill immediately. Absolutely, totally, so in that respect it's far more dangerous than other drugs," Sabatasso said.
