Facts about MDMA
(3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has a chemical structure similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline and can produce both stimulant and psychedelic effects. Reportedly, MDMA's psychedelic effects are milder than those produced by hallucinogens such as LSD and mescaline. MDMA has been available as a street drug since the 1980s. Its use has escalated in the 1990s among college students and young adults, particularly those who participate in all-night dance parties called "raves." MDMA's street names include "ecstasy," "XTC," "clarity," "essence," and "Adam."
Methods of Use
MDMA is most often available in tablet form and is usually ingested orally. It is also available as a powder and is sometimes snorted and occasionally smoked but rarely injected.
Extent of Use
In 1998, 3.6 percent of 12th-graders, 3.3 percent of 10th-graders, and 1.8 percent of 8th-graders reported they had used MDMA in the past year, according to the NIDA-funded Monitoring the Future survey (MTF), which is conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.
MTF's followup of a group of graduates from each surveyed high school class indicates that the number of college students who had used MDMA during the past year rose from 0.9 percent in 1991 to 2.4 percent in 1997. Among young adults, annual MDMA use rose from 0.8 percent to 2.1 percent during the same period.
The NIDA-sponsored Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG), a network of researchers from 21 major U.S. metropolitan areas, also has reported increased MDMA use by young adults and adolescents in many areas of the country in recent years. At the December 1998 CEWG meeting, researchers from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York City, and Washington, D.C., reported MDMA use at night clubs and raves by young adults and adolescents.
Effects of Use
MDMA stimulates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin from brain neurons, producing a high that lasts from several minutes to an hour. The drug's rewarding effects vary with the individual taking it, the dose and purity, and the environment in which it is taken. MDMA can produce stimulant effects such as an enhanced sense of pleasure and self-confidence and increased energy. Its psychedelic effects include feelings of peacefulness, acceptance, and empathy. Users claim they experience feelings of closeness with others and a desire to touch them. Because MDMA engenders feelings of closeness and trust and has a short duration of action, some clinicians claim that the drug is potentially valuable as a psychotherapeutic agent.
is a stimulant drug made up of methylenedioxymethamphetamine which is overall used illicitly for its hallucinogenic effect. It can contain a variable mixture of unknown substances such as caffeine, LSD, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine (speed), etc. Ecstasy is generally taken in a capsule form, when swallowed, these effects begin within 30 - 45 minutes and last up to 3 - 8 hours.
...ll the effects of MDMA on the human body. Still, rave enthusiasts claim that raves are still about the music and the dancing and that drugs aren't the driven force. Music or medication, the rave trend doesn't seem to be losing any steam and could go strongly throughout the millennium.
Drugs are prevalent at raves. Ecstasy, one of the most popular drugs abused there is like the tiny insects that aren‘t widely feared, but can be deadly. It looks small and innocent, but its more harmful than you may think. Ecstasy is actually C11H15NO2, which means. New studies show women may be at an even greater risk to prolonged effects of the drug ecstasy- 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
Freismuth, M., Montgomery, T., Sitte, H., Steinkellner, T (2011). The ugly side of amphetamines: short- and long-term toxicity of 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy'), methamphetamine and d-amphetamine. Biology Chemistry, 392, 103-115. Doi:10.1515/BC.2011.016
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.”
In a world where mental illnesses like PTSD, depression, and autism are becoming more and more prevalent, MDMA, or “Ecstasy” is just the mental boost that someone needs and is illegally being dealt to patients while in therapy or counseling. The theory is that MDMA can raise “happiness levels” by forcing the brain to release serotonin and dopamine at the same time, resulting in intense euphoria and “ego softening” (Errowid). Some other side effects of MDMA can include feelings of inner peace, increase in social bonding, and an increase in ability to communicate. Some of the less positive side effects can be eye wiggling, increased heart rate, and dehydration. All of which, are quite manageable and not too noticeable. Sufferers of social anxiety and depression could greatly benefit from MDMA, as it can break down inner boundaries and increase the need to be around other people. A grou...
...y on Drug Abuse: Summary Report 1998 (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, 1999), p. 13; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1998
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.
One major issue that affects the US today is the use of illegal drugs. One of the fastest growing illegal drugs is methamphetamine. Methamphetamine, also known commonly as meth, is "the label given to a homemade substance that is manufactured (typically) in rural labs using fertilizers, cold tablets, and household acids" (Armstrong, 2007, p. 427). When it is manufactured, it is commonly seen as a powder or crystal that is white in color, has no distinguishable odor, and is pungent to the taste (McKinley & Fink III, 2006). There are several means by which meth can be consumed. This can include the product being smoked, inhaled, swallowed, or injected by needles (McKinley & Fink III, 2006 & O’Connor, Chriqui, & McBride, 2006).
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.
Ecstasy is a street term for a range of drugs that are similar in structure to Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as MDMA. Ecstasy is similar in structure and affect to amphetamines and hallucinogens. Amphetamines, or “speed”, are stimulants that speed up activity in the nervous system. Hallucinogens, such as LSD, typically affect perception and can cause things to be seen or heard that don’t really exist, or things that are distorted. Ecstasy is illegal, and its ingredients are often hard to get. Therefore, manufactures my substitute a wide range of substances when making the drug. There is a chance that when you buy ecstasy it will contain little MDMA. Like other illegally manufactured drugs, such as speed, there are no controls of factors such as strength and hygiene of the drug. The increases the chances of a person overdosing, being poisoned or experience other adverse reactions after taking the drug.
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).
The War on Drugs is a lost cause. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives. The result is any adult or child with a couple measly dollars can purchase any existing illegal drug almost anywhere in the country (Greer 6/24/98). The emergence of a new designer drug (a combination of two existing drugs) "ecstasy," which is the most common street term for the illicit drug MDMA (+/-3,4Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), has brought a fatal blow to the War on Drugs. The "love drug," as MDMA is sometimes referred to, has spread from its previously isolated dwellings within the darkness of the "rave" scene (a rave is an all-night illicit dance party), into high schools across the United States and Canada. "Police say the manufacture, smuggling, and availability of ecstasy are booming" (Oh 4/24/00). The tremendous increase of ecstasy use is due to its escalating social acceptability, the perceived safety of the drug, and the influence of peer testimonies. This dramatic proliferation of the use of "X" is something that urgently needs to be addressed.