|
|
|
|
|
|
Ecstasy
on the Web |
•
E
for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders
Complete profile on the use, history,
effects and dangers, legal concerns and cultural contexts for MDMA. Note:
Sadly the author Nicholas Saunders
recently passed away as a result of an automobile accident.
•
BioChemist/Inventor
Alexander Shulgin
The stepfather of MDMA.
•
MAPS
MAPS helps scientific researchers
design, obtain governmental approval for, fund, conduct and report on psychedelic
research in human volunteers. MAPS is also investigating obtaining an Orphan
Drug Designation to recieve an MDMA exclusive market
patent.
•
Ecstasy
Org
Pro MDMA website that gives information
on toxicity & risk, media, dance culture, manufacture, spiritual uses,
emergency measures, and current research.
•
National
Institute of Drug Abuse - MDMA
•
Ecstasy
: An abridged FAQ
•
Ecstasy
- Health Statistcs
•
Ecstasy
Neurotoxicity
•
All
About MDMA
From the wonderful folks at Lycaeum.
•
Pictures
of Ecstasy Pills
German language, pictures of ecstasy
or MDMA pills. Warnung: Ecstasy ist eine harte Droge, kein Genußmittel
oder Partyspaß ! |
|
|
By
Mary
Bellis
MDMA has the full chemical name of
'3,4 Methylene-dioxy-N-methylamphetamine' or 'Methylenedioxymethamphetamine'.
The 3,4 indicates the way in which the components of the molecule are joined
together, as it is possible to produce an isomer which has all the same
components but is joined differently. Although it is derived from organic
material, MDMA itself does not occur in nature, and must be created in
a complex laboratory process. There are various popular street names for
MDMA such as Ecstasy, E, Adam, X and Empathy.
It is a mood/mind altering drug and
like Prozac
works by effecting the chemical level of Serotonin in our brains, a 'neurotransmitter'
naturally present in the brain which can alter our emotions. MDMA also
adversely effects blood pressure and pulse rate. Chemically the drug is
amphetamine
like, but psychologically it's what's known as an empathogen-entactogen,
empathogenic means the ability to communicate things to others or the ability
to feel empathy towards others and entactogenic means feeling well or good
with yourself and the world.
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. The US army experimented with MDMA in 1953, possibly as
truth serum, they have not revealed their reasons.
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 was 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 has already been patented
in 1913, it holds no profit potential for a drug company. 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. Note: View MAPS article on current patent
concerns.
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 residing 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. However, the DEA
decided to place MDMA permanently on Schedule 1.
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.
Partial Bibliography:
E for Ecstasy
by Nicholas Saunders - Published by Nicholas Saunders, 14 Neal's Yard,
London, WC2H 9DP, UK. ISBN: 0 9501628 8 4. Published May 1993 - 320 pages.
and information
found at The Lycaeum http://Lycaeum.org/
molecule graphic©The
Lycaeum
Continue
with >>> Prozac
|