I remember vividly the first time I took MDMA. I was with friends at a club in Brisbane in the early 90s. We danced all night to house music, talked nonsense with strangers, deep and meaningfully with each other. A month or so later we did it again. And again.

As a university student I lived in share houses where the marijuana plants growing in the backyard were better cared for than the rest of us. I went out with a DJ for a few years so clubbing on weekends became standard fare.

"As lawmakers we won’t save lives by sticking our heads in the sand," Cate Faehrmann says.

We knew there were risks but we were prepared to take them because having a good time was our priority. We were curious. We were experimenting. There was no information available on how to take drugs safely except from those around us with more experience. An older friend told me when I took my first ecstasy pill to take half and wait to experience the effects before taking any more. This was good advice.

They were the days before sniffer dogs. I could easily imagine I would have consumed all of my drugs at once before entering a venue if dogs had been around. If pill testing had been available I would have used it. The “Just Say No” message was around then too. We ignored it. Some things never change.