Last month, two “molly”-related deaths at New York’s Electric Zoo dance festival sprung open the floodgates of hypocrisy and misinformation. Certain mindless, sloppy journalists and news outlets have convinced the nation of an apparent “molly epidemic,” pushing MDMA to the forefront of the oh-so-successful war on drugs.
Journalists such as these have conveniently chosen to overlook the facts and mortality rates of MDMA as they compare with other, legal drugs, such as alcohol, tobacco, and various prescription medications. Last year, alcohol was responsible for 26,000 deaths. Similarly, 440,000 people die annually from smoking, and a further 27,000 deaths occur each year as a result of accidental prescription drug overdoses — that’s one death every 19 minutes.