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.”