I TOOK 40,000 E'S IN 9 YEARS

Memory Ruined By Record Club Drug Use

A BRITISH man is believed to have taken a record 40,000 ecstasy pills
in nine years.

The 37-year-old was downing 25 pills a day for four years after
starting aged 21 with five pills a weekend.

He quit after collapsing several times and suffers from severe memory
problems, paranoia, hallucinations, depression and muscle spasms in
his neck and jaw.

Consultants from an addiction centre at St George's Medical School in
London have published a case history on the man, known as Mr A, in a
scientific journal.

Dr Christos Kouimtsidis, consultant psychiatrist at St George's, said:
"It's an exceptional case. He was having trouble functioning in every
day life.

"His long-term memory was fine but he couldn't remember day to day
things - the time or what was in his shopping trolley."

The man had no history of mental illness leaving doctors to conclude
his problems, like those suffered by alcoholics, were a result of his
drug use.

Mr A, also a heavy cannabis user, did show some improvement after
being admitted to a specialist brain injury unit where he was given
anti-psychotic drugs.

The previous ecstasy record was 2,000 pills taken over a lifetime.