Mrs Frolic

> And this kid overdosed on..? It's very difficult to OD on Ecstasy. He would have to have taken a lot! He could have taken Ecstasy (which isn't always MDMA..it's a pill being sold as it) and then could have OD'd on whatever else. So Ecstasy isn't entierly to blame here.

FTR, the autopsy report was never publicly released.

> none the less, ecstacy as i am sure you know was created as a group theropy drug (i believe... if not, that was one of it's early uses), but got taken off the market, and made illegal because of it's side effects. plain and simple... if it was safe (to an extent), it would still be used.

The misinformation in that statement is incredible. So, point by point:

MDMA was not created as a therapy drug. "MDMA was synthesized sometime before 1912. The German pharmaceutical giant Merck was attempting to create a new medication to stop bleeding when it stumbled across MDMA as an intermediate step in the synthesis. On Christmas Eve in 1912, Merck filed the patent for this styptic medication, called hydrastinin; MDMA was included in the patent application as an intermediate chemical only. ...There was no use mentioned for MDMA in Merck's patent application."

Nor was therapy one of it's early uses. It wasn't used at all, for therapeutic purposes, until the 1970's. Alexander Shulgin introduced MDMA to some friends, some of whom were therapists, in 1976. "One therapist, referred to as Jacob in Myron Stolaroff's book 'The Secret Chief', was so impressed by the effects of MDMA that he came out of retirement and began to introduce other therapists to the drug. This led to a slow spread of underground psychotherapeutic work in the late seventies and early eighties. Psychotherapist Ann Shulgin estimates as many as four thousand therapists were introduced to MDMA during Jacob's tenure."

At that time a shift began into recreational use. "The name the therapists had given to MDMA was Adam, signifying 'the condition of primal innocence and unity with all life' described in the Bible's account of the Garden of Eden. But MDMA acquired a new name among recreational users of the drug. It is widely accepted that the name Ecstasy was chosen simply for marketing reasons. ...'It would sell better than calling it Empathy. Empathy would be more appropriate, but how many people know what it means?'"

"By the early 1980's, recreational use of MDMA had begun in earnest. Because MDMA was not yet a scheduled drug, people could order it by calling a toll-free number and paying with their credit cards. It was also available at certain nightclubs where over-the-counter sales were subject to tax."

"All of this MDMA-fueled nightlife got the attention of Texas Democratic Senator Lloyd Benson, who ... urged the FDA to make the drug illegal. The DEA published their intention to declare MDMA a schedule I drug on July 27, 1984. A Schedule I drug is prohibited for every application, has no recognized medical use, and cannot be prescribed by a physician. ...A group of psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and researchers ...filed a letter asking for a hearing. The request was granted."

"An expert committee of the World Health Organization recommended that MDMA be placed in Schedule I but urged countries to 'facilitate research in this interesting substance'. ...People who had experience giving MDMA to patients testified as to the unique ability of MDMA to catalyze the therapeutic process..."

"Speaking on behalf of the DEA were those who felt MDMA caused brain damage. Dr. Lewis Seden of the University of Chicago presented data from animal studies of MDA, demonstrating changes in the axon terminals of rodents given injections of large amounts of that substance. Humans do not take MDMA by injection, but ingest it orally. Moreover, these two drugs are very different in terms of their effects and how long they last, and they have opposite active optical isomers. Nonetheless, the MDA neurotoxicity data seemed to make an impact for the prosecution's side."

"Based on the weight of the evidence presented at the three hearings, Judge Francis Young handed down an opinion on May 22, 1986. Because he felt there was an accepted medical use for MDMA, he recommended to the DEA that MDMA be placed in Schedule III. This would allow clinical work and research to proceed unhindered and would permit physicians to prescribe MDMA."

"Judge Young's recommendation was ignored. During the course of an appeal by Dr. Lester Grinspoon, ...MDMA was again unscheduled. Grinspoon won his case - the first circuit court of appeals in Boston ruled that the DEA could not use the fact that MDMA did not have Food and Drug Administration approval as the basis for their argument that MDMA had no medically accepted use."

"At the end of all the trials and appeals, John Lawn and the DEA permanently placed MDMA in Schedule I on March 23, 1988."

Despite the limited research that has been done, the consensus is still out on whether MDMA causes damage, what kind of damage it may cause, and the effects of that damage. The studies performed on animals have used incredible amounts of MDMA far beyond what a human would take, and the studies almost always used injection as versus ingestion.

In addition, animal studies don't show all that much; animal studies showed us that Thalidomide was safe! On the basis of animal studies showing its safety, thalidomide was given to pregnant women and caused extraordinary amounts of massive birth defects such as babies without limbs and 'flipper children'.

And you don't really believe that things are taken off the market because they're dangerous, do you? If fear for public safety was really what motivated the government to do what it does, tobacco and alcohol would have been made Schedule I years ago. Cigarettes kill more people each year than ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS COMBINED.

The only reason the government wants to see MDMA kept illegal is because Merck patented MDMA in 1914 (the patent has long since expired) and nobody else can patent it; ergo, nobody can make much money off it.

The FDA approved the first legally sanctioned U.S. MDMA study on November 2, 2001. The purpose is to study the use of MDMA on people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Similar studies have been occurring in European countries for several years now.

I also want to point out that nobody really understands yet the role of serotonin in the brain and body. Most of the antidepressants here work by slowing reuptake of serotonin; most of the European antidepressants work by *increasing* the reuptake of serotonin. Even though their actions are exactly opposite, both types of drugs are effective. I think this clearly illustrates that when it comes to neurotransmitters and their functions, we're still unable to find our ass in the dark with both hands and a flashlight.