Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh said Ecstasy was the gateway to his success with women.
The Edinburgh-born writer said the Class A drug opened up more opportunities for mingling with women and forming relationships.
Before being exposed to the drug he said life was ālike sexual apartheid.ā
The 61-year-old recently made his comments about the ādisco drugā in a new paperback version of the book Don't Look Back In Anger by Daniel Rachel.
Welsh, who grew up in Leith, said: āWhen Ecstasy came into working class communities, it changed a lot of the narratives.
āBeforehand, men and women didnāt really mix. It was like sexual apartheid.
āWhere I grew up, the girls would be in the lounge bar and the guys would be in the public bar. Youād meet in the disco.
āYouād sit with your mates drinking. And the girls would be with their mates dancing round their handbags. The last dance, everybody would just pile on.
āWhen I started taking Ecstasy, all these women Iād known for ages, but not known at all because they were just the girlfriends or the wife of your mates ā I suddenly realised that they were much more interesting than their partners.
āI got a proper relationship with women for the first time. Everything was breaking down.ā
Welshās Trainspotting became an international best-seller after it was published in 1993.
It made him part of the 'Cool Britannia' scene and was turned into an award-winning film by Danny Boyle starring Scottish born Ewan McGregor.