pill and tablets in a glass

Some users trip happily with Molly, others roll into dangerous territory with the illegal drug

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EL PASO – During the Labor Day weekend Sun City Music Festival earlier this year, a 17-year-old girl from Houston was taken to a local hospital after an adverse reaction to the synthetic street drug Molly, short for molecule. Fortunately, she survived her encounter with the dangerous designer drug unlike other users across the U.S. over the past decade. On the same Labor Day weekend in New York City two revelers at the Electric Zoo electronic dance festival suffered fatal overdoses caused by Molly. These incidents may have been related to a rash of overdoses in the northeast United States blamed on a bad batch of the designer drug, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Molly also known by the street name Mandy, is the powdered form or crystallized form of methylenedioxy methamphetamine or MDMA.

Danny Avila during his set at SCMF in Ascarate Park during Labor Day weekend. (Valeria Hernández/Borderzine.com)

Electronic music brings me happiness, but it also has a dark side

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EL PASO ­– The beat was big and loud, echoing in my chest, and the flashing lights were like an array of Technicolor feeding the crowd’s hungry eyes. I looked around and I could almost see the pure joy exuding from everyone’s faces. Their ear-to-ear smiles said it all. In that huge sea of people dancing to Tiesto’s “Adagio for Strings,” under the Sun City’s starry sky, I was one with the crowd and it was perfect. Electronic dance music has been around since the mid-1990’s, roughly, but it has been growing in popularity and is perhaps at its peak right now.

“A Molly is pure. It’s a powder." says a local drug dealer.

Molly sings a siren song on the path to perdition

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EL PASO – When musicians such as Kanye West, Juicy J, or Rick Ross rap about Molly, they’re referring to something much different than the beautiful woman or stripper they typically incorporate into their lyrics. Molly, short for molecule, is the slang term for MDMA. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Molly is the powder or crystal form of MDMA, a chemical used in Ecstasy. Although MDMA is considered to be a purer form of Ecstasy, it isn’t uncommon for Molly to be combined with other dangerous chemicals such as methylone, a main ingredient in “bath salts” or a much less harmful chemical such as caffeine, states the DEA. The rising popularity of the drug makes it inevitable that it will be corrupted and laced with other ingredients, which can be fatal.