Ecstasy - MDMA - XTC
SouthCrackalack
3,853 Posts
Yay or nay? I think the last time I used it was in the early 2000's, but I just watched the Frontline(Peter Jennings) report on it(link below)..and just wondered what everyone here thinks about it. It's history is quite interesting. It definintely ended up getting a bad wrap with the bullshit goverment studie. The goofy raver/frat boy types geeking out on it didnt help its image by any means..but I know it is still going strong with the hip hop/clubbing community. I admit that I had a shitload of fun times back in the day, but it was shitty quality of the pills that really started to turn me off..fuck all that speedy shit. It also was weird to see the transition from the kind of people taking them/selling them in the late 90s..shit just got too shady for me. What's your experiences and opinions on MDMA?Here is the link..just click to enter the site and the drop down menu, Health>Drugs>Peter Jennings Ecstasy Rising (this is also a GREAT source for other free documentaries)http://best.online.docus.googlepages.com/
Comments
oops, there you go(look in the original post)
Peter Jennings worked for ABC. Frontline is produced for PBS.
Ahh..that explains it. I was looking for that episode on the Frontline site and couldn't find it anywhere.
Used it quite a lot when I was young and first went raving and clubbing in the early nineties, but then about a third of the population of 18-30 year-olds in the UK were doing the same (and so far no 28 Days Later[/b] scenario despite tabloid fears). Doing my first E in a club was a really powerful experience, up there with doing my first acid trip, but on a completely different wavelength, and I can see why lots of people were totally seduced by the drug - friends of mine were slowly upping the number of pills they were taking, and regular usage led to higher tolerance that was (a) un-affordable and (b) became slightly disturbing to consider were 18 pills a night might lead somebody... my own usage dropped at about the same rate that I witnessed it rising in people around me, and I haven't done a pill in 5 years at least, and probably 3 in total since about 1998. Given the right time and place, and I would do another.
I would recommend reading Last Night A DJ Saved My Life[/b] for a number of reasons, but in this instance because of the social commentary they make on the impact E had in breaking down the barriers of a class-divided nation like England; I agree wholeheartedly on their conclusions. The young people that are growing up now take for granted many of the big changes that happened in this country because of ecstacy and raving - not all them were good (dance music commodification, strict laws drawn up against public gatherings with 'repetitive beats' etc), but I don't remember there being such an insular, snobbish attitude that there is now - the sort of people that laugh at others for being 'chavs' now, would have been scoring their pills and dancing with them 15-17 years ago. There was a better sense of community and a stronger feeling of counter-culture. At least, that's how I remember it, and if was because of the pills, booze, herb and partying, Amen to the stuff.
Edit: have unknowingly taken quantities of MDMA last year and year before, both times loved it, even though I had to be told what I was on.
And my take on X is...if the pill is pure, pop away. And you'll know it's pure if you're able to go to sleep comfortably, albeit in a strange state of dreamy cluodiness, at the end of your trip.
How is one to know at the beginning if it's pure if the only way of knowing is if they are able to sleep at the end?
How am I not myself?
The golden rule of untested hard drugs is: always have Mikey try it first.
I would love to see video of me and friend in the mall that day
http://www.dancesafe.org/testingkits/
People ignore that fact but if you tell them they "penis may stop working or breast may fall off", they'll stop using the shit.IMO
In the whole hippy community, the kids that goto Disco Biscuits, Phish (when they were huge) and electronic or jam band festivals or shows, there was a substance around called "molly" that was supposedly pure MDMA. Ive never got any, but lots of people said it was cut with dope, or other adulterants.
MDMA is a pretty fascinating drug though. Its actually pretty safe if you take it the right way. A lot of the anti drug propaganda about holes in your brain or spinal fluids leaking was mostly scare tatics used to thwart usage. The biggest concern with E is dehydration which can cause serious problems and even death. People forget to drink fluids cause they are trashed and wind up overexerting then overheating while on it.
some stuff
In the Beginning...[/b]
It came. It was embraced. It was banned. But the final
chapter has yet to be written.[/b]
1965: Independently predicting that
MDMA might be psychoactive, a chemist named Alexander
Shulgin synthesizes
MDMA while working at Dow Chemical, but does not try the substance.
Shulgin had made Dow a tidy sum of money with his prior work on a
biodegradable insecticide,
and as his reward was allowed to pursue whatever field
of research appealed to him. Shulgin chose to study psychoactive
drugs...a
decision that would eventually impact the entire world.
1967: A student at the University of California/San
Francisco describes having taken MDMA to Shulgin. Eventually, Shulgin
tries the new drug himself...and is amazed.
1972:[/b] MDMA is seen in Chicago by police. Use is apparently slowly
spreading, but it remains a rather rare drug.
1977: A friend of Shulgin's, psychologist Leo
Zeff,
begins to prepare for retirement from his practice. While starting
to clean
out his office of memorabilia,
he
invites Shulgin over to see if the chemist would like any of the items.
Shulgin, in turn, brings him a gift: A small vial of MDMA, and a
suggestion
that he might find the material worthwhile. Leo, who was
experienced with psychoactive drugs and had used them in his practice
for
some patients, accepted the gift without committing to whether or not
he might try it.
Several days later,
Shulgin receives a phone call from Leo. He has tried the MDMA. He no
longer wants to retire. Instead, he begins to utilize the new drug,
first in
his
own practice, then introducing other therapists to it. The ability
of MDMA to help patients overcome emotional barriers was so striking
that
one psychiatrist dubbed it "penicillin for the soul." When
Dr. Zeff passed away years later, his widow estimated that
the network of therapists using MDMA had grown to about 4,000.
1984: All hell breaks loose. The growing networks
of therapists, chemists and users, which had managed to stay largely
below the radar of the government, becomes impossible to ignore when
Michael Clegg begins openly selling MDMA in Texas,
using advertising, a 1-800 number to place orders, and even offering
shipping. A former seminary student, Clegg considered himself an 'Ecstasy
missionary' (having given the drug that name himself) destined to
help bring MDMA to the public. At its peak, he was delivering half
a million pills a month to the Dallas area.
Responding to the crisis
of people being able to get high without risking arrest, the Drug
Enforcement Agency announced its intent to Emergency Schedule MDMA,
placing it into Schedule 1 (the most restrictive class of drugs,
such as heroin) for a year while it was decided how it should be
permanently Scheduled.
Shocked and angered by the DEA's plans
to completely ban access to a drug that had become an important and
valued part
of their practices, psychiatrists, therapists, and other scientists
and doct ors challenged the Scheduling, resulting in government hearings
on how MDMA should be Scheduled.
1985: The hearings began. The DEA
appointed Judge Francis Young to hear the case. Months of testimony
and sometimes bitter argument
went by as the hearings dragged on through the summer, autumn and
into winter.
1986: On May 22nd, Judge Young released his decision
on the laws, science, and use surrounding MDMA, declaring that MDMA
was safe when used under medical supervision, did not have a high potential
for addiction, and had legitimate medical use. As such, Judge Young
said, it was not legal to place MDMA higher than Schedule 3. This much
less restrictive category would have allowed doctors to continue to
use MDMA, but would have still made sale without a prescription illegal.
Angered by these findings, the DEA condemned
Judge Young as biased, shortsighted, and incorrect in his interpretation
of the laws. They rejected his non-binding ruling and declared MDMA
permanently Schedule 1.
Outraged by the DEA's attempts to re-write
the laws and ignore the science, the groups that had first challenged
the Scheduling of MDMA sued, taking the DEA to court.
1988: After several years of motions, hearings, and
angry debate, the doctors and scientists appeared to have achieved
victory: On January 27, the courts agreed with Justice Young's original
opinion and ordered the Drug Enforcement Agency to reassess its Scheduling
decision. In the meanwhile, MDMA is removed from Schedule 1, becoming
briefly legal once again.
The DEA, complying with the court order,
're-evaluated' their decision. And decided that they had been right
all along, and the doctors, scientists, and courts were the ones that
were wrong about the science and the law. They permanently declared
MDMA Schedule 1, taking effect on March 23, 1988.
Vindicated in their interpretation of
the law, in the science and in court but beaten down by sheer political
power, the doctors and scientists were defeated. The prohibitionist
bureaucrats had lost every battle but won the war, and MDMA has remained
in Schedule 1 since.
1991: Alexander Shulgin's legendary book, "PIHKAL"
is published, and the world discovers what 'Sasha' has been up to in
the past few decades. (The book's title is short for "Phenethylamines
I Have Known And Loved", a reference to the basic chemical
structure he based his work on.) The book itself is divided into
two parts: The
autobiographies of Alexander and his wife Ann; and a massive drug section
describing the structures, dosages, effects, and synthesis of
nearly
180 psychoactive drugs, most of which Shulgin had invented; many of
which were new to science. (The
Chemistry
section is available on-line.) Within the book were also glowing
descriptions of the effects of MDMA:
Today, most of the psychedelic drugs
that have been prohibited in America were born in Shulgin's basement
laboratory, and his work continues to inspire the invention of even
more new drugs.
March, 2001: Alarmed by skyrocketing use of MDMA
and their own clear inability to stop it, the US government increases
penalties, making the distribution
of MDMA ten times more severely punished, dose for dose, than heroin. In
spite of being opposed by prominent scientists and even the former
head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse as irrational and a diversion
of resources from the control of truly dangerous
drugs, the measure passes easily.
November 2, 2001: Revenge of the Scientists. The
US Food and Drug Administration gives approval for human testing of
MDMA
for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder to the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies. MAPS, a group made up of many
of
the same doctors and researchers that had originally fought tooth-and-nail
to keep MDMA available to doctors, is conducting the research as part
of their plan to gain full FDA approval of MDMA as a prescription drug.
The next two years would prove to be a long, difficult struggle to
gain IRB approval (Institutional Review Board oversight is needed to
conduct human research.)
September 5, 2003: The infamous
MDMA researcher George Ricaurte, who's work had been the cornerstone
of MDMA prohibition and anti-MDMA government
ad campaigns, confesses:
One of his most recent and sensational studies, claiming that a "common
recreational dose" of MDMA could cause extensive
brain damage and Parkinson's-like symptoms never actually happened.
The monkeys used in the experiment had actually been given near-lethal
doses of methamphetamine; not MDMA!
September 23, 2003: With Ricaurte
disgraced, the
"it'll eat holes in your brain" house of cards began to
come tumbling down; MAPS
was finally granted IRB approval for human research with MDMA.
April 6, 2004: The first dose of MDMA in MAPS' post-traumatic
stress disorder study is administered.
To support or get more information on
this ongoing research, visit MAPS on
the web. MAPS also maintains a
complete record of the Scheduling fight, including government documents,
testimony and court rulings.
Epilogue
Today, the placement of MDMA in Schedule
1 remains one of the most blatantly anti-science and anti-reason pieces
of government excess. Scheduling shows no signs of having actually
reduced usage and has driven the market into the hands of criminals,
while
simplistic anti-drug 'education' efforts ensure that young people don't
know what they need to know to stay safe when, inevitably, many of
them
choose to use drugs anyway.
MDMA prohibition will
inevitably be overturned, not because those of us that champion research
and personal freedom have a
powerful
political machine or even broad support. It will be overturned because
we are right. The science supports us, and the truth has a power of
its own. Like water and wind carving out the Grand Canyon, the truth
is a force of nature that can be opposed and delayed, but never stopped.
Whether in ten years or a hundred, the defeat of drug prohibition is
inevitable because prohibition is not rational; prohibition is a religion
built on ignorance and fear, not sound public policy. They only real
question is how
much money we can spend and how many lives we can destroy in the name
of the dark god Prohibition before this foolishness ends.