There's validity to that... but if so, what does this imply about the two drugs? Apparently that ecstasy users are far less likely to increase their use to unsafe levels - ie, less addictive. And if not, it's even safer than it appears to be, because I'd imagine most people make the same assumption.

Either way, it falls solidly on the side favoring ecstasy over tobacco.

How would you define a "hit" anyway? Doses don't really compare, and even if it's 1-cigarette/1-pill, it's all societal how much is in each "dose"...

It does seem like a pretty tough problem to define, and the issue of addictiveness really clouds the issue.

If you try to say, what is more dangerous - taking one ecstasy tab or one cigarette - even if the ecstasy is more dangerous in the short term, the possibility of addiction could make the cigarette much worse.

I guess maybe you could work the other way - start with say, 1 cigarette, and then try to calculate what amount of ecstasy is an equivalent dose? However I would guess that it fluctuates largely on how much you have at the same time?

It sounds like you're running with the assumption that there is a consistency in the dosage. I admit there would be for cigarettes. Despite different brands offering different amounts of tar and nicotine most people stick to a particular brand and smoke a particular amount in a day. However for ecstasy the dosages may well fluctuate wildly. Obviously to start with it isn't habitual so frequency isn't usually consistent. Even with a consistent "every Saturday night" (probably the most common dosage) due to the struggles of supply and demand in a black market you will take different quantities of different stock.

I.E. One day you'll have rubbish "Roles Royces" and you'll have 6 of em, another you'll have some nice "Mitsis" and just take 3 and on other days you'll have an insane "Red Tulip" that was incredibly more potent than all the others so you only needed one. Of course the name never really means anything as you can have both good "mitsis" and bad "mitsis".

Then there is also the case where the pill is actually cut with something else (pretty common I believe), perhaps a bit of ketamine or god knows. The issue perhaps is that an "ecstasy" in its black market form may be very different from its medical definition making it very difficult to compare like for like.

It can really vary depending on how far you want to go with it. At the peak of usage in my youth we were all taking in excess of 30 a week, some even 30 in one evening (dropping 4 each time)! Interesting things start to happen when you get that deep, such "mid-week blues". Where you just get really upset half-way through the week (the other side of the weekends), teary and somewhat irrational. Typically this is around the point where people give it up due to the side-effects. We knew we were taking too many when we uttered the words: "its tuesday, so we'll only have 6".

Thankfully it isn't at all addictive so it's not hard to stop. :)