Christiana, a 21-year-old UF junior, said she took one for the first time at a Tiësto concert two years ago.
“I described it to people as literally the best day of my life,” Christiana said.
Molly, a form of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, has become one of the new drugs of choice for people wanting a high.
The drug can cause increased heart rate, increased perspiration and high body temperature, said Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias.
Tobias said the drug has been around for a while, but more people have started using it in the last three years.
GPD has made more than 15 arrests for possession of molly since Jan. 1, 2012, but, with the drug becoming more readily available, it’s starting to stem into a more apparent problem, he said.
“It used to be that MDMA was limited pretty much to young white males and females. Now, it’s branching all races, all ages — people young and old are starting to take the drug,” Tobias said.
He said because it is a powder or a crystalline substance, it makes it easier for people to put anything into a capsule.
Tobias said it becomes more dangerous because it doesn’t require any kind of pill press and essentially anything can be put into the capsules, such as baking soda or other toxic substances.
Users don’t feel the effects immediately after one pill, so they take another one and another and keep on that cycle. When someone takes a drug orally it can take up to an hour for it to go through the bloodstream.
Priscilla, a 20-year-old UF junior, said she didn’t know what to expect when she took the drug. It made her feel tingly and happy.
“You get a lot of energy and all you want to is just dance,“ she said.
