How the Drug War killed Leah Betts

Homepage of the Drug War Philosopher, Brian Quass

back navigation arrow

forward navigation arrow

How the Drug War killed Leah Betts

and ended the peaceful rave scene

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

July 26, 2020

2025 update

Editor's note: Ecstasy is a street version of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, aka MDMA. This means, sadly enough, that the Ecstasy that users purchase may be adulterated -- for the simple reason that the product is unregulated thanks to inhumane drug policy. ¹

In the late 20th century, young Brits of every race and social class came together on the dance floor to party, not like it was 1999, but like it was 2099 instead, a time in the distant future when guns and anger had been put aside and people of the world had finally decided to unite. It was the so-called rave scene and America's cousins were resurrecting the ethos of peace, love and understanding from the ashes of '60s idealism in the States, complete with a uniquely British 'summer of Love' in 1988.

The mood of the time is nicely captured by a handful of quotes from the documentary "United Nation" by promoter Terry Stone:

"It was the first time that black-and-white people had integrated on a level... and everybody was one." -- DJ Ray Keith.

"It was black and white, Asian, Chinese, all up in one building," -- MC GQ.

"Everyone's loving each other, man, they're not hating." - DJ Mampi Swift.

In short, everybody just wanted to "cuddle," according to event security expert Adrian Saint.

What's not to like, right? Nonviolent concerts in which Brits come together in colorblind celebration of the drum-and-bass music genre.

You'd think that government would have been delighted to see the emergence of such a non-violent dance genre in our troubled world.

But to the contrary, they were appalled.

Why?

Because much of the camaraderie of the scene had been chemically encouraged with a little help of an illegal drug known as Ecstasy, E, or MDMA, which young people were "popping" at the scene. And this was a complete "non-starter" as far as government was concerned. Why? Because in the age of the Drug War, we do not judge people by how they behave (be they never so law-abiding) but rather by what chemical substances they happen to have in their digestive systems.

Thus Drug War ideology persuaded British parliamentarians to not simply take this new Camelot for granted, but to actively seek to shut it down, a goal that they nearly accomplished in 1994 with the passage of the so-called Criminal Justice Bill, which outlawed all non-licensed parties that featured repetitive dance music.

So far, so bad.

But the coup de grace to the peaceful rave scene was to come one year later, when, in 1995, teenage raver Leah Betts died after taking an E tablet at a rave party.

Of course, everyone immediately placed the blame for this death on E, since Drug War superstition holds that substances are responsible for evil, not government policies that lead to their misuse.

The fact is that Leah's death could have been easily avoided had Drug Warriors legalized E and allowed it to be objectively studied by researchers (only imagine: freeing up scientists to actually do their job!). In that case, Leah could have been told how to avoid the rare side effects of ecstasy by maintaining proper hydration during use (especially when, like Leah, you weigh a mere 100 pounds!). But no. Drug warrior society is so obsessed with demonizing this thing called "drugs," that they do everything they can to make informed use impossible when it comes to criminalized substances, either by banning research on this topic entirely or by tarnishing the reputations of scientists who dare to pursue such information, thereby also ensuring that would-be funders think twice before throwing any money behind such research goals.

And so stark billboards with a black background appeared across Britain, featuring the huge word "Sorted" to the left of a large black-and-white head shot of a smiling Leah Betts, with the caption: "Just one Ecstasy tablet took Leah Betts."

Whoever created the Leah Betts billboard must have failed Logic 101. To say that Ecstasy killed Leah is like saying that a car killed the victim of a traffic accident. That does not happen, except in a Stephen King story. The death happened because the Drug War promotes ignorance about psychoactive substances, meanwhile refusing to regulate product as to quality and dosage.

What a joke. It would be funny except for the fact that the otherwise laughable Drug War has been amassing a body count ever since the first outlawing of a plant medicine in 1914. The Drug War has not just killed one single British teenager, either, but kills hundreds around the world every single day through inner city gang violence and civil wars around the globe that have been created out of whole cloth by substance prohibition in previously peaceful countries. Britain would soon run out of billboards if it tried to put a face on all of these victims with roadside signage.

Unfortunately, Leah Betts was not the only victim of the UK's demonization of Ecstasy. The entire peace-and-love ethos of the rave culture disappeared shortly after her death, to be replaced with the violent gangster ethos, as dutifully propagandized Brits renounced Ecstasy in favor of anger-facilitating drugs like alcohol.

Needless to say, violence now spiked at rave parties, forcing promoters like Terry Stone of United Nation to hire whole teams of ex-special forces soldiers to keep the peace at concerts. But the government could apparently live with this new status quo, since the drugs being used now were far less objectionable to government than the hapless E tablet, whose main effect when used wisely was to bring about peace and understanding and make people want to cuddle in colorblind harmony with their music-loving fellows.

And so government drug policy not only killed Leah Betts, but it shut down the new British Camelot as well, replacing it with a new Wild West in which machine guns and AK-47's took the place of six-shooters and Winchester rifles. Worse yet, British politicians soon began pointing to this violence that they themselves had created as "proof" that the Drug War needs to continue.

If the British government wants to save the Leah Betts of the future, they will start "saying yes" to peace, love and understanding and applaud cultural phenomena such as the rave scene for facilitating that goal.

Until then, we have a new answer to the question posed by Rodney King, in the wake of the violent response to the mauling that he received from racist police officers in Los Angeles in 1991:

Q: Why can't we all just get along?

A: Because Drug Warriors won't allow us to.

AFTERTHOUGHTS: Growing up stateside, my school teachers would often favorably compare the education of British kids to that received by their American counterparts, and I was always tempted to believe them -- until, that is, the Drug War came along and showed me that the Brits will lap up Drug War propaganda just as eagerly as everyone else in the world. Just imagine: the British people can demonize a love-promoting chemical substance because it "caused" one death -- one death -- meanwhile considering the violence-provoking alcohol to be a bargain when it only causes thousands of deaths each year. Use of Ecstasy also naturally cuts down on use of alcohol.

What's more, the Ecstasy that they demonize would not have even caused the death in question had the Drug War not made it impossible to learn and spread accurate information about its use. The Drug War thus ensures that criminalized substances will be given damning PR, thereby seeming to "prove" that the Drug Warrior's fetishization of chemical substances actually makes sense, when in reality it represents the triumph of a new modern superstition, a superstition which holds that substances can be sufficiently characterized without regard for the context and social environment that surrounds their use.

the church of Ecstasy, in which love for others is experienced, not simply talked about

the church of Ecstasy, in which love for others is experienced, not simply talked about

May 9, 2022

The world has drugs exactly backward. The species Homo sapiens NEEDS mood medicine if the very world is to survive. It's hip these days to mock the "Flower Children" of yore, but they were "onto" something in spite of themselves: namely, the fact that we human beings belong to a flawed species. Our distrust for "the other" has led us into a dark corner from which there is now no escape except Armageddon -- nuclear, biological or otherwise -- unless... we stop ignoring the need for "peace, love and understanding" (as British politicians so glaringly did viz. the 1990s rave scene) and start doing everything we can to foster those emotions through god-sent pharmacology: medicines like E which can turn haters into friends of humanity.

Do you Drug Warriors hate the boogieman of "drugs" so much that you would turn down the one and only way to end school shootings and prevent nuclear war ² ? So far, astonishingly, the answer seems to be yes, just as you'll gladly tolerate Alzheimer's ³ disease in your parents (or autism in your kids) rather than legalize the research and use of substances that show tantalizing promise for treating such conditions.

If anyone thinks I'm sappy or out of line here, fine: but I'll bet they don't have a better idea for avoiding Armageddon. My argument is just too true to be believed. Read "nuclear war : A Scenario," by Anne Jacobsen. That will show you what we REALLY should be fearing -- namely, the nuclear arsenals the world has amassed because of the hatred that Drug Warriors refuse to treat with godsend medicines.

We need a new worldwide politics, made up of one simple proposition: namely, that all Homo sapiens must be taught to love their fellows on principle -- and that the guided use of empathogens like Ecstasy and psilocybin must be mandatory in cases where any human being remains negatively disposed toward "the other" (the other color, the other religion, the other ethnicity, the other political party, etc.).

This goes double for politicians, who, like Polynesian tribal leaders and their kava, should be required to hold meetings with their foreign counterparts while under the influence of friend-making drugs like Ecstasy.

It's our last best hope as a species, reader.

Please don't wait until you're reading this post in a fall-out shelter to recognize this fact!

Author's Follow-up: January 21, 2025

picture of clock metaphorically suggesting a follow-up

The Brits don't have the monopoly on ignorance when it comes to MDMA. The American FDA considers it too dangerous as well. It's been criminalized in the states since 1985, forcing thousands of soldiers to go without godsend help for PTSD. This is the same FDA which approves Big Pharma meds whose advertised side effects include death itself ⁴ . This is the same FDA which thinks that damaging the brain with shock therapy is a reasonable protocol. This is the same FDA that signs off on the greatest mass dependency of all time: the psychiatric pill mill ⁵ , thanks to which 1 in 4 American women are dependent on Big Pharma drugs for life.

In a sane world, the powers of MDMA to bring peace, love and understanding would have been greatly appreciated, even by the FDA. There would have been headlines in all the national newspapers screaming...

EXTRA! EXTRA! DRUG FOUND THAT COULD HELP BRING ABOUT WORLD PEACE!
MDMA called 'godsend'!

Dateline Washington, D.C.

The FDA announced today that MDMA and related compounds could help save the planet by teaching people to love each other.  "This is fantastic," raved researcher Nancy Rimkin of the NIH. "These drugs actually help you feel real love toward your fellow human being.  The strategic use of such medicine could help world leaders understand each other and so pull the world back from the brink of nuclear war 6  7 !"  

Rimkin stresses that MDMA is but one of many similar compounds called phenethylamines that show incredible potential, not just for increasing compassion, but also for ending crippling depression and anxiety and weaning problem drinkers off of alcohol.  FDA head Jim Bowden agrees.  He is demanding the immediate legalization 8  of all such drugs in synch with a national education campaign about safe use.  "This is a game changer," Bowden says. "Everyone talks about the lousy human condition, but now we have a chance to actually do something about it!"

Instead, the FDA did a cost/benefit analysis of the drug in which they ignored all glaringly obvious benefits. Nor did they ever consider the safety consequences of outlawing a popular drug, which leads to drug gangs and violence and torture. Clearly, the FDA is not interested in safety; they are only interested in enforcing the Drug War ideology of substance demonization, and so appeasing Big Pharma ⁹ ¹⁰ and the Drug War demagogues in Congress. These are the same sort of braindead hawks who saddled the world with thermonuclear weapons in the 1950s. They were totally oblivious to the inevitable long-term consequence of that undertaking: namely, the creation of a world in which human beings are forever living under a nuclear sword of Damocles.

But then this is typical of the Drug Warrior. They never take the long-term view of anything. They never think about principles, only expedients.

Drug War Ghouls

MDMA/Ecstasy

Notes for essay entitled How the Drug War killed Leah Betts: and ended the peaceful rave scene:

1: Medical Daily: MDMA Vs. Ecstasy: How They Differ, Risks, And Benefits You Need to Know MAPS (up)
2: 8 Nuclear Close Calls that Nearly Spelled Disaster Davidson, Lucy, History Hit, 2022 (up)
3: What the Honey Trick Tells us about Drug Prohibition DWP (up)
4: RINVOQ RX List (up)
5: Antidepressants and the War on Drugs DWP (up)
6: Global Nuclear Warhead Stockpiles (1945-2024) Voronoi, 2023 (up)
7: Nuclear Near-Misses: The Close Calls That Almost Changed the World Atomic Toasters, 2024 (up)
8: “National Coalition for Drug Legalization.” n.d. National Coalition for Drug Legalization. https://www.nationalcoalitionfordruglegalization.org/. (up)
9: Seife, Charles. 2012. “Is Drug Research Trustworthy?” Scientific American 307 (6): 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1212-56. (up)
10: LaMattina, John. n.d. “Why Is Biopharma Paying 75% of the FDA’s Drug Division Budget?” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2022/09/22/why-is-biopharma-paying-75-of-the-fdas-drug-division-budget/. (up)

read more essays here

Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

Every time I see a psychiatrist, I feel like I'm playing a game of make-believe. We're both pretending that hundreds of demonized medicines do not exist and could be of no use whatsoever.

All drugs have positive uses at some dose, for some reason, at some time -- but prohibitionists have the absurd idea that drugs can be voted up or down. This anti-scientific notion deprives the modern world of countless godsends.

Besides, why should I listen to the views of a microbe?

Outlawing opium was the ultimate government power grab. It put the government in charge of pain relief.

We live in a make-believe world in the US. We created it by outlawing all potentially helpful psychological meds, after which the number-one cause of arrest soon became "drugs." We then made movies to enjoy our crackdown on TV... after a tough day of being drug tested at work.

Being less than a month away from an election that, in my view, could end American democracy, I don't like to credit Musk for much. But I absolutely love it every time he does or says something that pushes back against the drug-war narrative.

We should not be talking about the potential harm of drugs -- we should be talking about the well-established harm of drug PROHIBITION.

Google founders used to enthuse about the power of free speech, but Google is actively shutting down videos that tell us how to grow mushrooms -- MUSHROOMS, for God's sake. End the drug war and this hateful censorship of a free people.

The Drug War is based on two HUGE lies: 1) that prohibition has no downsides, & 2) that drug use has no upsides.

Freud found that cocaine CURED most people's depression and he "got off it" without trouble.

Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us

back navigation arrow

forward navigation arrow

No cookies, no ads paid for by amoral and immoral billionaires (or trillionaires).

Unless otherwise indicated, no AI is used in the creation of site content. These essays represent the original ideas of their author and not the ideas that the author SHOULD have based on an algorithmic parsing of existing data. For more on this subject, consider the AI-related viewpoints to which the author subscribes as delineated in the New York Times opinion piece entitled "What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity" by Rebecca Winthrop of the Brookings Institution.

The Partnership for a Death Free America is a proud sponsor of The Drug War Philosopher website @ abolishthedea.com.

Copyright 2026, Brian Ballard Quass Contact: quass@quass.com

tombstone for American Democracy, 1776-2024, RIP

tombstone for American Democracy, 1776-2024, RIP

(up)