Middle-aged middle class women are taking MDMA wrapped in Brie cheese (Picture: Ella Byworth)

There’s a new trend called ‘brieing’ that involves groups of people – usually women – taking MDMA wrapped in cheese.

Metro.co.uk spoke to a 50-year-old businesswoman who said she regularly hosts MDMA-fuelled dinner parties at her London home.

Explaining why she does it she said: ‘I have a strong circle of female friends and we had tried all the latest fads, food fashions and destination dinner parties but something was missing.

‘We did not seem to have as much of a laugh than as when we were younger, there always seemed to be barriers up between us.


‘So, one of our group suggested we all take MDMA together so we could open up to each other and improve our friendships.’

Drug takers are wrapping MDMA in a cigarette paper, inserting it into Brie before swallowing (Picture: Getty)

She added: ‘Our friend had been given a gram of MDMA by her daughter and we had no idea how to take it, as, though some of us had taken coke before we had not taken MDMA.

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‘I phoned my son who told us not to sniff it but to swallow it, so we wrapped some of the powder in a cigarette paper and put it in Brie and all took some each.



‘Nothing much happened for forty minutes then then the colours in the rug seemed to be a more vivid and before I know it was in an in-depth conversation about my fantasy sex life with an old friend.

‘It was such an intense experience. I am sure most of us at that party have done it with other friends so now wrapping MDMA in Brie seems to be a thing now.

MDMA powder can create ’emotional openness’ and increase bonding (Picture: Getty)

She added: ‘A year later and I have been invited to ‘brieing parties’ and people seem to think it was all grand design but I assure you it was not. It is such a middle class way to take drugs, that is probably why it has taken off.’

MDMA is the main ingredient of ecstasy tablets but in the last decade consumption of MDMA powder has rocketed as more discerning drug users did not want Es as they are invariably cut with a variety of substances.

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Brie might be the latest way of consuming MDMA but dinner parties provide a multitude of ways for diners to consume the drug.

A media executive, who is 42 and married with two children, said her friends get together without their kids once a month for a dinner party where it has become customary to take MDMA which they bury in hoisin duck pancakes.

‘Brie is a new one on me – we always use the duck pancakes from our takeaway,’ she said.

‘When we were younger we would sprinkle hash into them. Now it’s MDMA.

‘Last time all the mums came over a civilised dinner party it ended with one of them wrapped up in the velvet curtains, one hallucinating at the bathroom wall and the others dancing to 90s rave music while playing bongos in the sitting room.

‘It’s all good fun at the time but by Wednesday we wish we’d just watched Netflix and had a nice bottle of wine.’

Recent Global Drugs Surveys, which investigate drug use habits including the 20,000 people who are believed to take ecstasy each weekend in the UK, revealed gender differences in the effects of ecstasy and MDMA.

Between 2013 and 2016 there was a four-fold increase in British female clubbers seeking emergency medical treatment after taking MDMA and women are now two to three times more likely to seek emergency treatment than men.



GDS founder Dr Adam Winstock said: ‘What I would say to female ecstasy users is that you need to more careful than men.

MDMA is primarily taken by clubbers through ecstasy pills but powder form is becoming more popular (Picture: Alamy)

‘Women appear to be more at risk of harm. Everyone has to be careful, but I think women need to pay extra attention to things like how much they are using, how they are mixing, where they are and who they’re with.’

With increased usage of MDMA powder compared to ecstasy tablets consumption the powder is being used by richer drug users as they can believe it is purer and not the poor relation of the recreation drug world.

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University of Oxford research described how MDMA can help people to discuss their feelings.

The Neuroethics team wrote: ‘MDMA promotes increasing sociability and an experience of connection with other people, emotional openness and reduction of anxiety.

‘MDMA does not appear to act as an aphrodisiac, but does appear to promote a desire for emotional closeness.’

The come down from MDMA can be hard to handle for some users (Picture: Getty)

‘This may be due to oxytocin release. There has been therapeutic use of MDMA to develop emotional communications skills, and it is not implausible that it, or similar drugs, could be used to deepen pair bonding.’

However, ‘breeeing’ and taking MDMA in middle-age can result in emotional turmoil and epic mid-week come downs.

A 45-year-old single sales manager from Sutton, Surrey, said she regrets getting involved taking MDMA at dinner parties.

She said: ‘I thought it was funny that we were all taking “E’s n Cheese” together and we did have a real laugh on the night. But the come down I had was absolutely terrible, perhaps because I do not have a partner to go home to and get a big hug from it was worse for me.


‘I still felt incredibly sad on the Tuesday night after taking it at the weekend, I will never be doing it again.’

Do you have a story? Or a strange hobby? Or wacky weekend recreation? Email Adam.Smith@metro.co.uk.

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