Ecstasy is Methylene Dioxymethamphetamine, often abbreviated as MDMA. This drug is a member of the same family of drugs that include amphetamine and LSD. I once believed that ecstasy was a mixture of methamphetamine and LSD, but as I researched, I found out that it has its own chemical structure. Ecstasy is not a mixture of other drugs; it is something all its own.
Ecstasy alone makes people biased towards ecstasy without even doing the research necessary to judge it. There are some 500,000 regular users of the drug Ecstasy in the United Kingdom alone. (lec.org/DrugSearch/Documents.Ecstasy.html, p.1) It can't be all that bad, can it?
Before ecstasy was called MDMA, it was known as MDA. MDA was first made in Germany in 1898, and was used as an appetite suppressant. It was also tested in 1941 as a relief for Parkinson's disease, but it was dropped because one trial subject felt rigidity of the muscles. It was also dropped as an appetite suppressant at about the same time because some "strange side effects were noted". (lec.org/DrugSearch/Documents/Ecstasy.html p.1) It isn't clear what those effects were. MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, was synthesized in 1914, and was patented by the German company Merck. MDMA gained popularity in 1972 as a legal alternative to MDA. MDMA was used in marriage counseling as a way of reducing hostility during the counseling session.
The father of MDMA is Alexander Shulgin. Shulgin received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkley. From there he got a job as a research chemist with Dow Chemicals where he invented a profitable insecticide. The company wanted to reward him for such an invention that they gave him his own lab. Shulgins ambition was to find a drug that was theraputic, and with his research at the lab, he created MDMA, which was the drug that came closest to fulfilling it. (Saunders,p.7)
During1984, while Ecstasy was still legal, you could find it at any bar in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, where you could pay for it by credit card. Ecstasy replaced cocaine as the drug of choice. Everyone seemed to be using it. It ranged from the regular drug user all the way up to people who normally kept away from drugs. "…it was this public and unashamed use that resulted in the drug to be outlawed.&quo...
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... so many people believe that it can have a positive affect on a persons life. Not enough research has been done to disprove that Ecstasy can in fact be a great tool for therapy. The media has caused many to fear Ecstasy with its concentration on the deaths indirectly related to the drug, that it has closed the minds of many to see the type of positive effects it can bring. Before anyone can judge this drug, one should balance the positive effects compared to the negative. Through my research I have seen how many people believe in this drug, and their reasons for it, that it has made me a believer as well.
Works Cited
How Drugs Affect You: Ecstasy. 1998 Australian Drug Foundation <http://www.nevdgp.org.au/geninf/adf/ecstasy.htm, p.1-5>
Drug Information. 1999 Drug-Free Resource Net, Partnership for a Drug-Free America
< http://www.drugfreeamerica.org/ecstasy.html,p.1>
1995 research trip to the USA. 1995 John Hopkins
<http://www.ecstasy.org/info/trip/html,p.1-5>
Recreational use of ecstasythe drug user's perspective. 1997 Nicholas Saunders <http://www.ecstasy.org/info/bps.html, p.1-2>
Ecstasy Survey Results
<http://cia.com.au/aburton/Ecstasy/
Dr. Ronald L. Jackson’s piece titled “Mommy…There’s a nigger at the door” (which appears in Journal of Counseling & Development; Winter99, Vol. 77 Issue 1, p4) shares his experience with racism as a child and continues on as it follows him into adulthood. And expressing that what we instill in our children impacts their lives in a huge way.
Have you ever been locked in a World full of excitement and happiness? Have you ever taken a pill that allows you to escape from the cruel reality of the world but for this escape you had to sacrifice your wellbeing by being handicap to this getaway. Ecstasy is this sacrifice known to take you into a world that you never thought you could enter. Ecstacy on the corner famous name is Molly. This not your typical walk through the park drug. Ecstasy brought happiness through adolescents in mid-1900. It also became very interesting to therapist, psychiatrist and other researchers that never could continue to research it after being banned in 1988. This drug is a psychoactive drug that kills through your own pleasure
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a social commentary of both England and Europe around the time of its circulation. During William Shakespeare’s time, women in England had very few rights; men had superiority and authority over everything, including the women. Shakespeare connected Ophelia, a female character from Hamlet, to an era where women has very few rights and had the duty to obey the men in their lives. A women in Europe or even England, if unmarried, they obeyed their brothers and father and when married they were obligated to obey their husbands. As a woman, Ophelia had few alternatives in a patriarchal society that divided her from Hamlet who could change his fate at any given time. Ophelia was a proper woman of her time and she tried to
During the 1960’s and the 1970’s, it was known as the “love drug.” The following decade, many witnessed the popularization of the “happy drug.” This drug is chemically known as MDMA, or methylenedioximetamphetamine. To many of the younger generation, it is dubbed as “Ecstasy” or “XTC.”
Descartes started his Meditations by doubting all his ideas and believes, and his goal was to acquire a certain foundation of knowledge. Descartes, a rationalist, believes in innate ideas, which are built into us naturally and not dependent or derived by experiences. As an example, Descartes believes in the existing of God, a powerful and perfect. Also, as a perfect God; he will not try to trick or deceive people by making them believe that they are sensing a physical thing when there is in fact no such material thing; therefore God is not a deceiver, who gives people the right ideas. On the other side, John Locke, an empiricist, who believes that all ideas come from experience, raise an objection on Descartes premises of the innate ideas because Locke does not believe in such thing as ideas, which are built in us naturally and the reason of the of putting the right ideas is God for he is perfect.
Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a club drug that is extremely popular amongst high school and college students. Because club drugs can enhance enjoyment from touch they are used to increase intimacy and, worse, in rape situations. They are also used to stimulate psychedelic effects and to energize the user for the night. These designer drugs lead to the deaths of multiple people each year. Club drugs are created to induce a stimulant and psychedelic effect; however, these sensations are definitely not worth the addictive and disabling effects they may cause.
The chemical name for ecstasy is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA. Besides the name ecstasy, MDMA has other names normally used on the streets such as Adam, XTC, hug, beans, and love drugs (NIDA InfoFacts 1). MDMA is described to be a “synthetic, psychoactive drug possessing stimulant and hallucinogenic properties” (Ecstasy Hazards 1). As in the case of other amphetamines, the process to produce ecstasy is not that complicated. The simplest method is clandestine production, which starts with PMK . If not, it can still be produced from piperonal, isosafrole, or safrole but even then, these chemicals have to be converted to PMK before they could be turned into ecstasy (Iversen 149-150). The molecule itself is a combination of 11 carbons, 2 oxygens, 6 hydrogens, and 1 nitrogen as seen in the figure (Chemical Structure 1).
“Nearly four years ago, Ashley Zumbrunnen 's life was forever changed in the blink of an eye. She was partially paralyzed in a car accident. The reason? She was texting while driving” (7 KTVB.COM). Do you think texting while driving is worth it? I do not think a text is worth a life, if I was her I would have waited to text my husband. Here story goes as follows “I was on my way on my way to work, said Zumbrunnen about the morning of the crash. I took out my cell phone, and I wanted to say 'I love you, have a good day ' to my husband” (7 KTVB.COM). She could have waited to text her husband but instead she decided to send a cute message to her husband causing the following “while typing a text message, she crossed Highway 55 into oncoming traffic. I over-corrected, I lost control of my vehicle, said Zumbrunnen. I felt like I was in a washing machine. Then all of a sudden, I flipped and flew in the air. I felt my body flying in the air” (7 KTVB.COM). Just by watching her video online and hearing her tell us her story makes me want to cry, it is such a sad story that texting and driving can change someone’s life. Who would have ever thought that in a blink of an eye you can go paralyzed or even die for doing such little thing?
As most of you know, smoking is bad for your health, but what some of you might not know is that you don’t actually have to smoke to be harmed by smoking. Lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women, is mainly caused by cigarette smoking. Secondhand smoking causes approximately 2 percent of lung cancer deaths each year. It causes respiratory disease, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), middle ear disease, and asthma attacks in children.
In today’s society, texting and driving have become an issue. Many teens and adults, have formed a habit of using their cell phones while driving. Texting while driving can be very distracting, which can cause many accidents to happen. In trying to prevent this, new laws have been passed, making the use of cell phones while operating a car, illegal. However, too many people do not respect this law. People should stop getting distracted while driving because texting while driving is taking people’s attention on the road, accidents are getting higher and is comparable to drunk driving.
The damage that can be done in the inside of the body will last with the person throughout their lifetime. It blackens the lungs and causes lung cancer. Secondhand smoke can also lead to heart disease. Researchers have found that some deaths result in ischemic heart disease. “Nevertheless, this is likely and underestimate” (Wendy Max), told LiveScience. Studies show that people have a greater risk of lung cancer as opposed to heart disease. Secondhand smoke plays a role in our personal hygiene. It can lead to smells within our body, clothes, and hair. Smoking and secondhand smoke can cause us to age faster. Scientists out of the state of Oregon have also took note on how secondhand smoke can build up a compound that affects our blood and urine. “There is experimental evidence from nonsmokers studies where you put nonsmokers in a room, blow smoke into the room, and measure their artery function, that you see the platelets get sticky, which can cause clots and lead to a heart attack, and the ability of the arteries to dilate decreases very rapidly”, says Dr. Matthew McKenna. This cannot only harm our blood but also harm urine within the body. “Some people may say they’re not exposed to secondhand smoke, but they forget about the smokey bus ride they took in the morning or when they walked through the park and someone was smoking near them.” (Max). This compound
Second Hand Smoke In the 1950's and 60's scientists gave the people a lot of evidence on the deadly effects of smoking where the tobacco companies on the other hand tried to put the doubt in people’s minds through the campaigns to show that it is not all true. By the time people actually decided to take care of their health and finally saw how life-threatening smoking could be by real life examples, the tobacco companies already got rich from its sales. Nowadays, nobody doubts that “firsthand” smoke is deadly to your health and it causes lung cancer and heart disease in adults and asthma and bronchitis in children. Now the industry is onto the secondhand smoke. Scientists and researchers are representing a lot of evidence and research that has been done throughout the years showing that the secondhand smoke can also cause a lung cancer in nonsmokers. The study has been done of people who have been long exposed to secondhand smoke and it shows that 26 out of 33 published studies indicate a link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. The study estimates that the people that were breathing secondhand smoke were 8 to 150 percent more likely to get lung cancer. The tobacco companies are trying to argue the facts and are still in serious debate about the health hazards of breathing a secondhand smoke. A lot of anti-smoking organizations are trying to turn smoking in public into a private activity that does not have to involve nonsmokers breathing secondhand smoke. What is even more important is that many of these organizations convinced a lot of smokers to cut back or quit completely. The problem of secondhand smoke is increasing because it is so common in our society. It makes secondhand smoke the third-ranking cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Mothers who live with a smoking spouse have to realize the ill effects of secondhand smoke on children even before they are born. The smoking components reach the developing fetus through the mother. Infants that are born in a smoking environment weigh less and have a weaker chance of becoming a fully developed child. Secondhand smoke leads to blood clots and damages arterial linings which are the two most leading factors in the development of heart disease. The tobacco companies got scared of the effect that the secondhand smoke research can do to the cigarette makers.
That everything in our mind is in idea. It all could be developed by human reason, not innate ideas. Locke goes on to describe his theory in order for your mind to gain knowledge humans will have to fill it up their brain with ideas, and learn through their five senses. Since, the innate ideas was not that relevant to Locke he needed to come up with another perceptions. Locke then suggested that external experience called as sensations; this experience which we can attain our knowledge through our senses that we have such as smells, touch and color. In other words, it is about analyses the characteristics of an object. The second kind of experience which Locke mentions is internal experience known as reflection, it is summarize those personal experience such as our thoughts, thinking, and feelings. He says that all knowledge come from sensations or reflection, “These two are the fountains of knowledge, from whence all the ideas we have, or can naturally have,” (page186). Therefore, the sense and observation make up the whole of knowledge. On the contrary, as for Descartes views he believes we do have innate
They both divide their metaphysics and epistemology into two sections. Descartes explains his in two meditations while Locke explains his in two qualities. They both describe how the mind plays a very important part in describing what is real. Of course the mind is a main factor for humans to describe what is real and how we receive our knowledge but they both explain their theories in different ways. Descartes explains that our main source of knowledge comes from our sense perception. In his theory we have to doubt our perceptions and ideas. In his view nothing is certain but us, he makes it simple by saying “I think therefore I am. He uses the immaterial mind to explain the existence of things. Locke on the other hand believes that our main source of knowledge is sensory experience. Locke provides strong evidence of his theory but his theory is known as one of the most confusing in his work. He views that without experience or reason, we have to question our reality and the external world we live in. Through experience comes sensation and reflection and that is how we know what is real because all ideas to form complex ideas come from those two