Mr Shertz is an artist in his sixties who first took E in February 92. It
was with his estranged wife, and it was the best experience of his life,
spent in passionate kissing but without an erection. As he has high blood
pressure, a friend monitored him the first time, and subsequently he has
monitored his own blood pressure when using MDMA and found the increase was
not excessive.
Mr Shertz told me he is an established artist with work in 40 museums and
is known for his well-established style. However, after taking Ecstasy he
made a breakthrough - his good, strict realistic style became fluid and
abstract. He has never painted on Ecstasy, and does not directly attribute
the change to its influence, although his artist friend Daniel Kaufman
does. However, he has written poetry which he claims was greatly inspired
by the drug.
