This is precisely what I saw happening 10 years ago in Eastern England when (prior to darknet markets even existing) the area was awash with high quality MDMA in both crystal and pill forms.
Another factor IMO is this drug is different in usage patterns and target markets to many others – it really isn’t as much fun to do alone or sat in front of a computer (even in comparison to functional stimulants) and is popular with intelligent, middle class young people who attend music events.
The cops worldwide (with the help of healthcare professionals who work closely with them) have wised up in the last decade and many do realise there is little gain in handing down heavy penalties to users and low level dealers who are more than likely to grow out of it, provided they don’t have their employment and education chances permanently disrupted by major criminal penalties and prison sentences (most jails are to a great extent “University for criminals”).
Even “harsh” countries like USA and the Asian and Middle East nations now have to prioritise their law enforcement in the wake of genuine threats from extremism and terrorism.
However excessive use of MDMA does cause social problems that impact others (pill heads can become near psychotic on comedowns and/or when they combine MDMA with alcohol and other substances) – this usually leads to the EDM events associated with MDMA use being restricted – across UK, FR, NL and DE it is now harder to get licenses for larger music events and in UK many town nightclubs will no longer allow promoters to host such events or the Police charge them extra for late licenses.
That said I strongly feel the best way to encourage younger people to moderate their drug use is to ensure they also have other things to live for than drugs; such as fulfilling careers, family lives and other hobbies, and if they do take them to learn safe usage patterns. I was indeed shocked by usage patterns of younger friends 10 years ago as they were near enough “parasuicide” (a form of extreme risk taking which isn’t obvious self harm but a “don’t give a fuck if I live or die” attitude) and when that translated to anti social behaviour on comedowns, rampant DUI etc its clear how that would spark a clampdown.
There are very slightly less obvious social problems caused by MDMA use in mainland Northern Europe particularly amongst well educated users in NL and DE – many of them will buy 100 pills and literally hoard them so they last half a year of partying even if some are shared with friends, and those with better life prospects are careful to avoid the comedown/dip affecting other aspects of their lives. The same happens in the Asian countries (that went from using the death penalty to “European” style drugs treatment régimes) such as Singapore and Malaysia.
Harm reduction isn’t cheap/free and it does mean that the rest of society must accept paying taxes towards it (although it pays back in the long term), there are still social problems in lower income areas and/or amongst those who ignore the harm reduction info but they do seem to be less compared to what happens in England and USA at the moment.
