I honestly, genuinely, feel sorry for anyone that never experienced E back in the late 80s or early 90s. It was the most social drug there ever was. You wouldn't sit in a room by yourself or cower over a toilet seat fumbling about with it. You'd be in a room of like minded people, doing it together.
I took it regularly (once a week), but not in any great quantities (one usually did the trick) and I have taken it fairly recently (couple months ago maybe?) just for old time sake.
God knows what is in them nowadays, granted you could always say that about them, but at least back then they were MDMA based. Now with all these synthesised 'plant foods' it could be anything.
Once the governments started making it harder for people to aquire the ingredients (companies had to have a licence to buy the chemicals) then that's when the real danger started. That's when the home chemists started mixing anything for that hit. If you was lucky it was caffeine, chances are it wasn't. But then again, who knows? Part of the beauty of E was that it didn't diminish as it got passed from person to person like powders did. If it was cut with anything then it was done during manufacture and as they were all branded with little symbols, you soon got wind of which were the 'sweeties' and which were 'duds'.
That all said, I never recommended the drug to anyone, quite the opposite but if any mates were convinced they wanted a pop then it was a great experience to share. Half my mates did it, half didn't, but the half that did felt like a little secret club that bonded way more that my drinking buddies ever did.
It was the love drug after all.