Ecstasy History

Ecstacy is the common name given to the drug methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA). C11H15NO2. Only by an accident was it ever created by Mannish and Jacobsohn, two German Scientists working for Merk in 1912 as an intermediate to a vasoconstrictor known as hydrastinin. It was believed to be used as a weight loss drug, but was not heavily marketed, and the paten does not give description of purpose. For the most part the drug laid inactive for 40 years. Its next rumored application was in the US Military during drug tests. It was believed to be tried as a truth agent, though for obvious reasons this can not be confirmed.

Other than the rumored US Military uses in the early 1950s, and minor use in the 1960s, ecstasy laid dormant for sixty years before Alexander Shulgin started to use it in his psychietry practice in the late 1970s. Shulgin designed a new pesticide and was granted more of a free reign of his practices. It only took one good use of mescaline for him to become interested in psychodelic drugs. He then began to study and experiment with a wide variety of psychedelic drugs, usually those classified as phenethylamines. One time he gave some to a friend who was about to quit psychiatry. His friend changed his mind after one use. It became a recognized tool in psychotherapy, and was kept quiet to prevent abuse.

Ecstasy is clasified as an empathagen, and psychiatrists began to use it with thier patients to clear their defenses and better relate to them. The most prominent desirable effect of ecstacy is how it breaks down the walls of communication by aleviating feelings of guilt, remorse, and fear. Its original name for street sale was empathy, but they changed it to ecstacy because it would sound more marketable.

In 1984 though its use started to spread quickly. College students began to use it reguarly and it was even available at bars in Texas. In 1895 people sued to prevent ecstasy from being made illegal, which gave it extreme national exposure. Since it was not alcohol or nicotine and could not have a paten applied it was quickly made illegal for the sake of society. China white was intended to be a heroin substitute, but caused extreme brain damage. Due to its production, congress passed a law that allowed the DEA to immediatly put a ban on any drug it saw as dangerous to public health. This law was first used in June of 1985 on none other than ecstasy. They compared MDMA to MDA, which was shown to cause brain damage in rats. Though psychietrists had proven MDMA usefull in thier treatment, they did not have enough of a case to change the desires of the DEA. The judge recomended that the drug be placed schedule 3, but it remained schedule 1 which is the most restrictive catagory of a drug.

In effect, they stopped treatment with the drug, lowered quality of product, and introduced profit motive into the equasion as gangs began to deal the drug. That obviously increases crime, and thus the beauty of the war on drugs.

In 1987 the rave culture began to pick up on the small Spanish island Ibiza. Within four years this drug use had gone full circle and found its way back home. Users from warehouses and outdore raves in late 1980's England began to move to San Francisco in the early 1990's. In late 1991 and early 1992 the authorities in England had siezed many large supplies of ecstasy. This combined with the increased demand caused insufficient supply. Dealers began to sell fake E, and people began to use LSD instead.

As a taboo side bar I saw on pop up video ecstasy traces can be found on 5% of English money.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) opened a Drug Master File for MDMA in 1986, allowing research to be conducted on MDMA. Currently ecstacy is no longer a schedule 1 drug. A friend of mine told me it is used to treat post traumatic stress dissorder. This was confirmed when they ripped up my incorrectly made paperwork that had schedule 1 on it. They then made up a paper that said it was schedule 2. This is a legal technicality on which my case could have been thrown out on, however the system does not need to follow its own rules in the persicution of another.