Religious bigwigs take pills and ecstasy tabs (5)
I believe the answer is:
popes
'religious bigwigs' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'take pills and ecstasy tabs' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ecstasy' could be 'e' (informal term for the drug) and 'e' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pops' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for popes that I've seen before include "Heads of the Roman Catholic church" , "Pontiffs" .)