Despite the EDM community's best effort to keep it from happening, people keep dying from accidental drug overdoses at shows and festivals.
And without safer, legal alternatives to fan favorites like molly, that problem sadly isn't like to resolve itself on its own.
That's why supplement companies like Limitless Life are taking matters into their own hands. They claim to have developed an all-natural, plant-based, totally legal and risk-free alternative to molly called KATY that they hope will reduce the amount of death and dying in the dance community.
KATY, they claim, is “the world’s most powerful, all natural, plant-based experience enhancing supplement.” Like MDMA, it stimulates the brain's production of dopamine and serotonin, but it does so with no health risk because it's made of 98 percent organic, street-legal plant stuff they sell in vitamin aisles all across the land: kava kava, omniracetam, EGCG, 5-HTP, guarana extract, grape seed extract, theobromine and curcumin.
Many of these are the same ingredients used for nootropics (brain-enhancing supplements), choline donors (used to increase synaptic response), neuro stimulants (used to enhance mental and physical energy) and adaptogens (used to improve nootropic absorption and improve overall wellness).
The makers — a biohacker and a "human potential expert" — claim it'll do everything MDMA does: disinhibit you, increase your sociability, give you energy, compel you to tell all 20,000 people at the festival you love them, and "get you acquainted with your very best self."
When I'm on molly, I really like to sweat while simultaneously touching soft things. Not sure if that's my best self, but … who or whatever I'm petting probably thinks it is.
A four-pack of KATY will run you about $30 including shipping and tax. They also sell it in larger shipments for people planning to attend every festival with a DJ Somebody in the lineup, but I figured four would be more than enough to entertain me.
After a two-week wait (they're apparently backed up thanks to high demand), my KATY arrived. I opened the package and found four capsules filled with multiple layers of miscellaneous, friendly-looking powders inside.
Sigur Rós at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles isn't the kind of event that's intense enough to go to not on drugs, but since I love to torture myself, I decided to go on KATY.
I'm a light-weight, so I popped two out of the four pills.
Speaking of being a lightweight, I was honestly kind of nervous to see how KATY would affect me. I do this thing on all my molly come-ups where I have a small panic attack, can't speak, need to go "outside into Mother Nature and feel the moonlight" and then … I'm fine. It hits me hard and fast, and then I normalize and have a grand old time.
Not so with KATY. The come up was mild; in fact I daresay it snuck up on me. I forgot I'd even taken it until someone asked if I was feeling it. I thought about it for a second, and, you know what? I was.
At the height of the come-up — around the 45-minute mark — I felt mildly energetic and alert, as if I'd done a small, unimposing bump of mid-grade coke or sipped a Red Bull at a normal pace. There was some light euphoria, some warmth and claminess, and I noticed I was slightly more immersed in the music than I would be sober. I didn't experience any of the visual fuzziness that I get on molly, and while I felt kind of devilishly overjoyed in my own head, I don't think KATY made good on her promise to give me the "blissed-out, love-filled experience" I'm used to with illegal narcotics … you know, the one where you see a random stranger and ask "How's mom?" because you're 103 percent certain you were separated at birth.
There were definitely some people in the crowd I didn't want to confess my love to, and while I felt quite loving towards the friends I was with, it was no more overwhelming than the positive feeling of togetherness you get anytime you do anything fun with people you already like. I'd say there was more of an internal expression of love than the external one I'm accustomed to with MDMA things.
I definitely didn't feel fucked up like I do on molly, but being that I love Sigur Rós and I wanted to be present for their set, I appreciated my relative sobriety.
Around two hours in, I noticed that the distant euphoria and warmth began to fade away. Now, I was just really alert. Any "blissed-out" feelings were replaced with "I guess I could do an after-hours thing" as I came down, and I found myself simply more open to partying than I was to exploring the souls of my friends and the textures of their hair and lips and knees. Made sense: KATY is full of way more energy-boosting ingredients than it is "psychoactive" ones."
When I finally got home, I really had trouble sleeping. I was wired. I had to NyQuil myself. I was groggy when I woke up, and I was actually pretty disappointed to find that I felt a little depressed, same as I do after a night of molly. This also made sense: KATY boosts dopamine and serotonin, and when the drug finally leaves your system, you feel depressed as those neurotransmitters struggle back towards homeostasis.
One thing that was on my mind the whole night was whether or not these faint feelings I was having were real or not.
The branding around KATY really intensifies whatever placebo effect you may or may not be getting. The webpage is super-soaked in glowing testimonials that sound as if they were written by people on real molly, and whoever wrote it doesn't miss a chance to tell you how abso-fucking-lutely amazing it'll make you feel. The constant suggestion that these are results you'll experience on KATY makes me real, real suspicious that what I felt was placebo-based. Plus, there's a ton of research that suggests that we act crazy on drugs and alcohol because that's how we think we're supposed to act, not because that's actually how they make us feel. Although, you know what?
It doesn't matter. I don't care if it was or not. I felt the things I felt, regardless of whether they were real effects or me imitating how I thought I was supposed to feel. That's the beauty of placebo.
All in all? I'd give it an 8/10. I docked it two points because I didn't quite feel that universal loving feeling the KATY makers promised I would, and I could definitely tell it was a substitute for the real thing, not the real thing itself. Plus … morning depression sucks dong.
Generally, it was a positive experience to feel energetic, more present and more internally confident while not having to worry that what I took was bath salts and I was one sleeping hobo away from chewing someone's face off. It was also nice to not have to worry about breaking the law, and to know that what I was taking was a bunch of safe, grocery-store shit. It wasn't too intense or too mild, and there were no blind-siding come ups or soul-crushing come downs. It doesn't feel like the real thing, but it doesn't feel bad either.
I'd definitely recommend KATY to people who aren't very experienced with normal MDMA, because they'll notice less of a difference, it's legal and it's healthier.
Good talk.
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