Poor Charlie, when he's dropping ecstasy, gets caught (4-8)

I believe the answer is:

cash-strapped

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'poor' is the definition.

'charlie when he's dropping ecstasy gets caught' is the wordplay.
'charlie' becomes 'c' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'when' becomes 'as'.
'dropping' is a deletion indicator.
'ecstasy' becomes 'e' (informal term for the drug).
'gets caught' becomes 'strapped' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'he' with 'e' taken out is 'h'.
'c'+'as'+'h'+'strapped'='CASH-STRAPPED'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for cash-strapped that I've seen before include "Extremely short of money" , "Short of money (informal)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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