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History of Ecstasy (MDMA)

Early ecstasy

MDMA was patented in 1913 (patent #274.350) by the German chemical


company Merck supposedly to be sold as a diet pill (the patent does not
mention any intended use), the company decided against marketing the
drug and had nothing more to do with it.

An urban legend has the US army testing MDMA in 1953 as a possible truth
serum, but there is no real evidence supporting this.

The man responsible for the modern research of MDMA is Alexander Shulgin,
who after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a
Ph.D. in Biochemistry landed a job as a research chemist with Dow
Chemicals. Among his many achievements for Dow Chemicals were one
profitable insecticide and several controversial patents for what were to
become popular street drugs. Dow was happy with the insecticide but
Shulgin’s other projects created a parting of the way between the biochemist
and the chemical company. Alexander Shulgin is also the first reported
human to use MDMA.

Shulgin continued his legal research of new compounds after leaving Dow,
specializing in the phenethylamines family of drugs. MDMA is but one of 179
psychoactive drugs which he described in detail, but it is the one which he
felt came closest to fulfilling his ambition of finding the perfect therapeutic
drug.

Since MDMA had already been patented in 1913, it held no profit potential
for a drug company, as a drug cannot be patented twice and before
marketing a new drug, a company has to show that the potential side effects
are justified by the drug’s benefits as a medicine, and this involves long and
expensive trials. The only way of recouping that expense is by obtaining
exclusive rights to sell the drug through holding its patent. Only a few
experimental therapists researched and tested the drug (between 1977 to
1985) for use during psychotherapy sessions.

DEA Bans MDMA/Ecstasy


In 1985, MDMA/Ecstasy received massive media attention when a group of
people sued the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to try to prevent them
from outlawing the drug by placing it on Schedule 1. The US Congress had
passed a new law allowing the DEA to put an emergency ban on any drug
that it thought might be a danger to the public. On July 1st, 1985, this right
was used for the first time to ban MDMA.

A hearing was held to decide what permanent measures should be taken


against the drug. One side argued that MDMA caused brain damage in rats,
the other side claimed this might not be true for humans and that there was
proof of the beneficial use of MDMA as a drug treatment in psychotherapy.
The presiding judge after weighing the evidence recommended that MDMA
be placed on Schedule 3, which would have allowed it to be manufactured,
used on prescription and subject to further research. But the DEA decided to
place MDMA permanently on Schedule I.

Trial research into the effects of MDMA on human volunteers resumed in


1993 with the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the first
psychoactive drug approved for human testing by the FDA.

Trends in Ecstasy / MDMA use


The synthetic drug “ecstasy,” which has been used increasingly among
college students and young adults in recent years, also is being used at
relatively high levels by America’s 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, according to
NIDA’s 1996 Monitoring the Future study. Nearly 5 percent of 10th and 12th
graders and about 2 percent of 8th graders said they had used MDMA in the
past year, the study reported.

Ecstasy, or MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), is structurally


similar to methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. Previous
Monitoring the Future studies asked 12th graders about the use of MDMA by
their friends and about the drug’s availability. The 1996 study was the first to
question 8th, 10th, and 12th graders about their own use of the drug. The
new data on MDMA use among these students will provide baseline
information that will be helpful in tracking trends in MDMA use from a
younger age.

MDMA use rose sharply among college students and young adults during the
1990s, according to the yearly Monitoring the Future study. The 1995 study
included follow-up data on drug use among a representative sample of
college students and young adults who had previously taken part in the
study when they were in high school. College students and young adults in
this sample have been surveyed every two years since the Monitoring the
Future study began in 1976. In recent years there has been a lot of media
attention and concern regarding the dangers of Ecstasy use amongst young
people, particularly those who attend raves and festivals where several
fatalities have occurred related to its use. The DEA reported on emergency
department mentions regarding MDMA with this graph that shows a steady
increase since the year 2000.

https://thedea.org/mdma-risks-science-and-statistics-technical-faq/mdma-
molly-ecstasy-use-and-death-rate-statistics/

Ecstasy Brief Outline


Since Ecstasy is a fairly new drug, it has a short but remarkable history. The
correct name of the drug is ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).
Chemically, it is a stimulant, but in action, it is a hallucinogen.

It was originally developed at Merck in Germany in 1912 but the researchers


did not realize that the drug was psychoactive. They thought the drug might
have applications for reducing bleeding or weight loss so they patented it
and forgot it.

It wasn’t until research chemist Alexander Shulgin synthesized it in 1965 and


documented the method of synthesis that its uses, both illicit and legitimate,
began to develop. Several years later, Merrie Kleinman, a graduate student
who was advised by Shulgin at San Francisco State University, discovered its
psychoactive effects and told Shulgin.

He made a batch and began to test it on himself at a variety of dosages,


taking careful notes of each experience. For example, at 60 milligrams of
MDMA, he reported “At the one hour point, I am quite certain that I could not
drive, time is slowing down a bit, but I am mentally very active. My pupils are
considerably dilated.”

Shulgin had a group of eight friends plus himself and his wife that he tested
his experimental psychoactive drugs on. Over the many years, he was
involved in this research, he estimated that he had tried these drugs on
himself more than 4,000 times.

Ecstasy Use Branches Out


In 1977, Shulgin presented the drug to an associate, Leo Zeff, a Ph.D. who
had a psychotherapy practice. Zeff began to use the drug on his patients as
a therapeutic aid. It was not, at this point, an illegal substance. He passed
the drug on to his colleagues and by 1980, there were more than a thousand
therapists using the drug in their practices.

In 1978, Shulgin published a paper that documented its effects. And in


1991, he and his wife published the book PIHKAL or Phenethylamines I Have
Known And Loved. (MDMA is in a class of drug called phenethylamines.) By
doing so, he cemented his association with this drug. He has since been
called the “father” and “godfather” of Ecstasy.

In the mid-1980s, the media picked up on this drug and began to feature it,
including the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, Newsweek and Harper’s
Bazaar. A Los Angeles distributor who wanted to make the drug more
appealing is said to have given it the name Ecstasy. And the drug hit the
music festival and nightclub scene. It quickly jumped the Atlantic and
became popular in the UK and on the Spanish island of Ibiza.

In the US, the DEA managed to get the drug outlawed by placing it on
Schedule 1, a category of drug that has no valid medical use. Although there
were opponents of this action, largely practitioners who wanted to use the
drug in their psychoanalysis practices, the DEA eventually prevailed.

By 2000, the drug was being manufactured by criminal groups in the


Netherlands and Belgium. US supplies were smuggled from Europe to
Canada and then into the US. It was logical then that manufacturing facilities
would begin to be found in Canada to feed the American demand. In 2000,
US Customs agents seized more than nine million of the pills and in 2005, a
shipment of five million pills was found in Australia.

Problems with Ecstasy


Not every person who tried Ecstasy had a good experience with the drug and
not every pill sold as Ecstasy actually contained the drug. In one series of
tests, only 10-15% of the pills sold as Ecstasy were completely composed of
this drug. In many other cases, there was no MDMA in the pill at all or it was
composed of a mixture of drugs, occasionally including heroin or
methamphetamine.

But even when the pill was straight, unadulterated MDMA, it was possible to
have a bad “trip” or even a fatal outcome. Panic attacks, vomiting, blurred
vision, faintness, overheating and resultant organ breakdown are possible.

People having bad reactions to Ecstasy began to arrive in emergency rooms.


In 1994, there were 253 of these events but by 2001, the number had
climbed to 5,542. At music events around the world, reports of deaths began
to mount.

In 2010, the Australian Sunday Mail reported that more than 100 young
people in that country had died after taking Ecstasy. Between the beginning
of 2011 and January 13, 2012, a total of eighteen of British Columbia’s
deaths involved Ecstasy or PMMA (Para-Methoxy-Meth-Amphetamine, a drug
similar to Ecstasy). Britain’s Daily Mail reported 200 deaths between 1996
and 2011.

In 2012, eight deaths in Alberta, Canada and five in British Columbia were
attributed to Ecstasy pills that actually contained PMMA. Ecstasy’s popularity
contributed to these deaths without the drug even being involved.

Effects of Ecstasy Abuse


While the short-term effects of ecstasy use might seem like a lot of fun to some naÏve
users, the drug is doing its destructive work from the first moment it is ingested. A
surprising amount of damage can be quickly accumulated, including, of course,
addiction.

There are some people for whom the effects of ecstasy use include addiction
in a quite short time. Cravings to use more ecstasy can drive a person back
to use ecstasy again and again, even when they realize how much it is
hurting them. One survey showed that nearly half of young people who
reported ecstasy use also showed signs of addiction.

What is harder to see is when the effects of ecstasy are lasting psychological
harm. Research has shown that even a short exposure to ecstasy can cause
problems that last for several weeks, such as memory loss, problems
learning, confusion, anxiety, and depression. Heavy users may also
experience paranoia and sleep problems.
Night Clubs, Dance Clubs, and Music Festivals Cater
to Ecstasy Dealers and Users
If you visit these venues, you will often find that there are obvious places
where the patrons can buy cold water and sometimes there are chilled rooms
where a person can cool off. This is because of the overheating effect of
ecstasy use. As a user’s tactile sense is exaggerated, nightclubs who wish to
attract drug-using clients may cover their walls with suede or other sensual
material.

Occasionally, a patron at one of these events will overheat and die or may
die of an ecstasy overdose. Other harm comes from the trend toward
polydrug use. Ecstasy users may combine ecstasy use with alcohol,
marijuana, methamphetamine or even heroin, seriously increasing their risk
of harm.

Ecstasy Users May Not be Able to Feel Pleasure


Without the Drug
While the reason for taking the drug is the sensations that users consider
pleasurable, it is ironic that one effect of ecstasy use is to disable a person
from feeling pleasure from normal events. This may help to drive addiction
as the person feels depressed and miserable when they are not high.
Other effects of Ecstasy:

 Difficulty focusing on complex tasks

 Poor memory recall

 Uncoordinated gait

 Changes in mental associations

 Instability

 Slow reaction times

 Impulsiveness

 Need for stimulation that may lead to impulsive sexual activity

 Euphoria

Some of these effects tend to make the person affected by ecstasy a


dangerous driver.

Other dangerous effects include flashbacks, panic attacks, and even


psychosis. A person who is a heavy and long-term ecstasy user may suffer
depersonalization, defined as a state in which a person feels detached from
themselves and that their thoughts and feelings are unreal or do not belong
to them.

If ecstasy is used repeatedly in a short time, the damaging effects


can be even more severe than if it is only used occasionally. It is
common for those attending dance parties to take multiple pills at once or to
take pill after pill to keep the sensation going.

When a loved one experiences this kind of damage or when they are driven
to use ecstasy over and over, despite the harm, you can help them recover
by enlisting the aid of the Narconon drug and alcohol recovery program. In
this program, those who became addicted to drugs or alcohol are helped to
regain sober living skills. A sauna-based detoxification program helps flush
out toxic residues left over from past drug use, which most people associate
with lowered cravings.

Find out how Narconon can help someone you care about who is trapped in
addiction.

MDMA / Ecstasy Addiction


MDMA users may encounter problems similar to those experienced by
amphetamine and cocaine users, including addiction. In addition to its
rewarding effects, MDMA’s psychological effects can include confusion,
depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and paranoia during, and sometimes
weeks after, taking the drug. Physical effects can include muscle tension,
involuntary teeth-clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness, and chills or
sweating.

Increases in heart rate and blood pressure are a special risk for people with
circulatory or heart disease. MDMA-related fatalities at raves have been
reported. The stimulant effects of the drug, which enable the user to dance
for extended periods, combined with the hot, crowded conditions usually
found at raves can lead to dehydration, hyperthermia, and heart or kidney
failure. MDMA use damages brain serotonin neurons. Serotonin is thought to
play a role in regulating mood, memory, sleep, and appetite. Recent research
indicates heavy MDMA use causes persistent memory problems in humans.

Long-term Brain Injury from Use of Ecstasy


The designer drug ecstasy, or MDMA, causes long-lasting damage to brain
areas that are critical for thought and memory, according to new research
findings in the June 15 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. In an experiment
with red squirrel monkeys, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University
demonstrated that four days of exposure to the drug caused damage that
persisted six to seven years later. These findings help to validate previous
research by the Hopkins team in humans, showing that people who had
taken MDMA scored lower on memory tests.

“The serotonin system, which is compromised by MDMA, is fundamental to


the brain’s integration of information and emotion,” says Dr. Alan I. Leshner,
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of
Health, which funded the research. “At the very least, people who take
MDMA, even just a few times, are risking long-term, perhaps permanent,
problems with learning and memory.”
The researchers found that the nerve cells (neurons) damaged by MDMA are
those that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons.
The Hopkins team had also previously conducted brain imaging research in
human MDMA users, in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental
Health, which showed extensive damage to serotonin neurons.

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has a stimulant effect,


causing similar euphoria and increased alertness as cocaine and
amphetamine. It also causes mescaline-like psychedelic effects. First used in
the 1980s, MDMA is often taken at large, all-night “rave” parties.

In this new study, the Hopkins researchers administered either MDMA or salt
water to the monkeys twice a day for four days. After two weeks, the
scientists examined the brains of half of the monkeys. Then, after six to
seven years, the brains of the remaining monkeys were examined, along
with age-matched controls.

In the brains of the monkeys examined soon after the two-week period, Dr.
George Ricaurte and his colleagues found that MDMA caused more damage
to serotonin neurons in some parts of the brain than in others. Areas
particularly affected were the neocortex (the outer part of the brain where
conscious thought occurs) and the hippocampus (which plays a key role in
forming long-term memories).

This damage was also apparent, although to a lesser extent, in the brains of
monkeys who had received MDMA during the same two-week period but who
had received no MDMA for six to seven years. In contrast, no damage was
noticeable in the brains of those who had received salt water.

“Some recovery of serotonin neurons was apparent in the brains of the


monkeys given MDMA six to seven years previously,” says Dr. Ricaurte, “but
this recovery occurred only in certain regions, and was not always complete.
Other brain regions showed no evidence of recovery whatsoever.”

Find out how the Narconon program can help with ecstasy addiction.

Ecstasy Damages the Brain and Impairs Memory in


Humans
A NIDA-supported study has provided the first direct evidence that chronic
use of MDMA, popularly known as “ecstasy,” causes brain damage in people.
Using advanced brain imaging techniques, the study found that MDMA harms
neurons that release serotonin, a brain chemical thought to play an
important role in regulating memory and other functions. In a related study,
researchers found that heavy MDMA users have memory problems that
persist for at least two weeks after they have stopped using the drug. Both
studies suggest that the extent of damage is directly correlated with the
amount of MDMA use.

“The message from these studies is that MDMA does change the brain and it
looks like there are functional consequences to these changes,” says Dr.
Joseph Frascella of NIDA’s Division of Treatment Research and Development.
That message is particularly significant for young people who participate in
large, all-night dance parties known as “raves,” which are popular in many
cities around the Nation. NIDA’s epidemiologic studies indicate that MDMA
(3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) use has escalated in recent years
among college students and young adults who attend these social
gatherings.

In the brain imaging study, researchers used positron emission tomography


(PET) to take brain scans of 14 MDMA users who had not used any
psychoactive drug, including MDMA, for at least three weeks. Brain images
also were taken of 15 people who had never used MDMA. Both groups were
similar in age and level of education and had comparable numbers of men
and women.

In people who had used MDMA, the PET images showed significant
reductions in the number of serotonin transporters, the sites on neuron
surfaces that reabsorb serotonin from the space between cells after it has
completed its work. The lasting reduction of serotonin transporters occurred
throughout the brain, and people who had used MDMA more often lost more
serotonin transporters than those who had used the drug less.

Previous PET studies with baboons also produced images indicating MDMA
had induced long-term reductions in the number of serotonin transporters.
Examinations of brain tissue from the animals provided further confirmation
that the decrease in serotonin transporters seen in the PET images
corresponded to actual loss of serotonin nerve endings containing
transporters in the baboons’ brains. “Based on what we found with our
animal studies, we maintain that the changes revealed by PET imaging are
probably related to damage of serotonin nerve endings in humans who had
used MDMA,” says Dr. George Ricaurte of The Johns Hopkins Medical
Institutions in Baltimore. Dr. Ricaurte is the principal investigator for both
studies, which are part of a clinical research project that is assessing the
long-term effects of MDMA.

“The real question in all imaging studies is what these changes mean when it
comes to functional consequences,” says NIDA’s Dr. Frascella. To help answer
that question, a team of researchers, which included scientists from Johns
Hopkins and the National Institute of Mental Health who had worked on the
imaging study, attempted to assess the effects of chronic MDMA use on
memory. In this study, researchers administered several standardized
memory tests to 24 MDMA users who had not used the drug for at least two
weeks and 24 people who had never used the drug. Both groups were
matched for age, gender, education, and vocabulary scores.

The study found that, compared to the nonusers, heavy MDMA users had
significant impairments in visual and verbal memory. As had been found in
the brain imaging study, MDMA’s harmful effects were dose-related: the
more MDMA people used, the greater difficulty they had in recalling what
they had seen and heard during testing.

The memory impairments found in MDMA users are among the first
functional consequences of MDMA-induced damage of serotonin neurons to
emerge. Recent studies conducted in the United Kingdom also have reported
memory problems in MDMA users assessed within a few days of their last
drug use. “Our study extends the MDMA-induced memory impairment to at
least two weeks since last drug use and thus shows that MDMA’s effects on
memory cannot be attributed to withdrawal or residual drug effects,” says
Dr. Karen Bolla of Johns Hopkins, who helped conduct the study.

The Johns Hopkins/NIMH researchers also were able to link poorer memory
performance by MDMA users to loss of brain serotonin function by measuring
the levels of a serotonin metabolite in study participants’ spinal fluid. These
measurements showed that MDMA users had lower levels of the metabolite
than people who had not used the drug; that the more MDMA they reported
using, the lower the level of the metabolite; and that the people with the
lowest levels of the metabolite had the poorest memory performance. Taken
together, these findings support the conclusion that MDMA-induced brain
serotonin neurotoxicity may account for the persistent memory impairment
found in MDMA users, Dr. Bolla says.

Research on the functional consequences of MDMA-induced damage of


serotonin-producing neurons in humans is at an early stage, and the
scientists who conducted the studies cannot say definitively that the harm to
brain serotonin neurons shown in the imaging study accounts for the
memory impairments found among chronic users of the drug. However,
“that’s the concern, and it’s certainly the most obvious basis for the memory
problems that some MDMA users have developed,” said Dr. Ricaurte.

Findings from another Johns Hopkins/NIMH study now suggest that MDMA
use may lead to impairments in other cognitive functions besides memory,
such as the ability to reason verbally or sustain attention. Researchers are
continuing to examine the effects of chronic MDMA use on memory and other
functions in which serotonin has been implicated, such as mood, impulse
control, and sleep cycles. How long MDMA-induced brain damage persists
and the long-term consequences of that damage are other questions
researchers are trying to answer. Animal studies, which first documented the
neurotoxic effects of the drug, suggest that the loss of serotonin neurons in
humans may last for many years and possibly be permanent. “We now know
that brain damage is still present in monkeys seven years after discontinuing
the drug,” Dr. Ricaurte said. “We don’t know just yet if we’re dealing with
such a long-lasting effect in people.”

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