People now literally getting high off Bitcoin

Bitcoin enthusiasts are getting sweaty—and this time, not just because of frantic price fluctuations or the exchange service Mt. Gox finding and losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Europeans are trying a hot new variant of the drug MDMA—better known as ecstasy—that adopts the name and logo of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, though there doesn’t seem to be any other connection.

Redditor and Bitcoin user omnibrain said he overheard a guy in the restroom of a Swiss club talking about “bitcoins.” That prompted an “extremely confusing conversation,” he wrote, that led to a funny photo, though not a sale.

Photo by omnibrain

Some people sure buy them, however.

Since late November 2013, multiple users have reviewed Bitcoin the MDMA on the website pillreports.com, which encourages users post and review ecstasy variants around the world. Bitcoin the drug seems to be a European phenomenon, with reviewers referring to trying it in the Netherlands and U.K.

“Lovely waves of rushes, eye wobbles and some serious gurning (went through 2 packs of spoggy)!” wrote one U.K. reviewer, confirming that Cockney ravers and I speak a completely different language.

“my pupils were dilated as hell, i was cross-eyed for some time,” wrote another, “but, these bitcoins are the shit!” A third experienced “teeth clenching and eye wobbles,” and “was sick” after taking two, but still gave the drug his recommendation.

Photo via pillreports.com

Another thread indicates that there are at least four different kinds of ecstasy that use the name Bitcoin; indeed, photos of the drug often vary by submitter.

Photo via pillreports.com

Ironically, some of Bitcoin’s earliest mainstream press came from reports that people could use it to order drugs through the late online black market Silk Road, and ecstasy was the most popular of those drugs. But none of the reviewers mentioned anything about the original Bitcoin; they seem to just take the name.

“Honestly I think the guy selling them had no idea what bitcoin even is,” omnibrain wrote. “I didn’t buy any. I might have if he accepted bitcoins.”

Photo via pillreports.com