A trio of Democrats taking ecstasy carried on (5)
I believe the answer is:
added
'carried on' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to change as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'a trio of democrats taking ecstasy' is the wordplay.
'a trio of' becomes 'ad' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'democrats' becomes 'DD' (two abbreviations for Democrat).
'taking' is an insertion indicator.
'ecstasy' becomes 'E' (informal term for the drug).
'dd' going around 'e' is 'ded'.
'ad'+'ded'='ADDED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for added that I've seen before include "Summed up" , "Said" , "Totted" , "Extra" , "Appended; totalled" .)