Starting in 1983, the Texas Group mass-produced MDMA in a Texas lab or imported it from California and marketed tablets using pyramid sales structures and toll-free numbers. In 1981, Clegg had coined “Ecstasy” as a slang term for MDMA to increase its marketability. Hoping MDMA could avoid criminalization like LSD and mescaline, psychotherapists and experimenters attempted to limit the spread of MDMA and information about it while conducting informal research. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, “Adam” spread through personal networks of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, users of psychedelics, and yuppies.
- Researchers and addiction specialists widely consider ecstasy a hard drug.
- Long-term exposure to MDMA in humans has been shown to produce marked neurodegeneration in striatal, hippocampal, prefrontal, and occipital serotonergic axon terminals.
- The most serious short-term physical health risks of MDMA are hyperthermia and dehydration.
- By 2014 the EMCDDA reported that the range was more usually between €5 and €10 per tablet, typically containing 57–102 mg of MDMA, although MDMA in powder form was becoming more common.
- Induction of dopamine release is thought to be importantly involved in the stimulant and euphoriant effects of MDMA, while induction of norepinephrine release and serotonin 5-HT2A receptor stimulation are believed to mediate its sympathomimetic effects.
- However, it never underwent formal clinical testing and was never approved by the FDA as a drug whose benefits outweighed its risks.
Overdose
The NRI reboxetine and the serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) duloxetine block MDMA-induced increases in heart rate and blood pressure. It is notable in this regard that serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin, which act as serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonists, likewise have sympathomimetic effects. SRIs like citalopram and paroxetine, as well as the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin, have been found to partially block the increases in heart rate and blood pressure with MDMA. Concurrent use of MDMA with certain other serotonergic drugs can result in a life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome. Therefore, chronic use of MDMA at high doses can result in altered brain structure and drug addiction that occur as a consequence of ΔFosB overexpression in the nucleus accumbens.
Shulgin’s research
Only later was the term ecstasy used for it, coinciding with rising opposition to its use. MDMA likely emerged as a substitute for MDA, a drug at the time popular among users of psychedelics which was made a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the United States in 1970. MDMA was also found to have effects on blood sugar levels comparable to high doses of ephedrine. However, because MDMA excretion and metabolism have nonlinear kinetics, the half-lives would be higher at more typical doses (100 mg is sometimes considered a typical dose).
How is Ecstasy used?
However, similarly with Ecstasy in its pill form, Molly is often adulterated with methylone. A powdered form of Ecstasy, “Molly” (so called because it was a pure “molecular” state of MDMA), emerged in the early 21st century. A significant portion of what is sold as Ecstasy is MDMA adulterated with or replaced by other substances, such as ketamine, caffeine, mCPP (meta-chlorophenylpiperazine), or PMMA (paramethoxymethamphetamine). Despite its ban in the United States and the rest of the world, the drug retained a huge following, and it came to play an important role in youth subcultures, similar to that of LSD during the 1960s. By the 1980s, parties and dances that featured Ecstasy use (known as “raves”) had become popular among young people. Other effects include heightened self-awareness, reduced social inhibitions, and feelings of happiness and well-being.
What Is Ecstasy?
MDMA also interacts with drugs which inhibit CYP450 enzymes, like ritonavir (Norvir), particularly CYP2D6 inhibitors. A number of drug interactions can occur between MDMA and other drugs, including serotonergic drugs. The estimated fatal dose of MDMA in humans is around 15 or 16 times a typical recreational dose.
This may be due to increased seizures during use and decreased production of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture MDMA. In 2010, the BBC reported that use of MDMA had decreased in the UK in previous years. “Molly”, short for ‘molecule’, was recognized as a slang term for crystalline or powder MDMA in the 2000s. Charles Grob initiated an ascending-dose safety study in healthy volunteers. After MDMA was criminalized, most medical use stopped, although some therapists continued to prescribe the drug illegally. The use of MDMA in Texas clubs declined rapidly after criminalization, but by 1991, the drug became popular among young middle-class whites and in nightclubs.}
Your health, weight, the amount you’ve taken, and other drugs used with ecstasy can all play a role. In addition to the high you get from ecstasy, the drug also causes many unpleasant and potentially dangerous side effects that affect your mind and your body. Stacking increases the risk of drug overdose.
By contrast, (R)-MDMA acts as a lower-potency serotonin–norepinephrine releasing agent (SNRA) with weak or negligible effects on dopamine. This may be due to formation of toxic MDMA metabolites and/or induction of simultaneous serotonin and dopamine release, with consequent uptake of dopamine into serotonergic neurons and breakdown into toxic species. The drug also interacts with α2-adrenergic receptors, with the sigma σ1 and σ2 receptors, with the imidazoline I1 receptor, and with other targets. By inducing release and reuptake inhibition of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, MDMA increases levels of these neurotransmitters in the brain and periphery. The drug is specifically a well-balanced serotonin–norepinephrine–dopamine releasing agent (SNDRA). The α2-adrenergic receptor agonist clonidine did not affect the cardiovascular effects of MDMA, though it reduced blood pressure.
History of the Ecstasy Drug
This can help prevent bruxism, the medical term for the type of teeth clenching that ecstasy can cause. Taking illegal substances such as ecstasy always comes with risk. Even though ecstasy includes addictive ingredients, there is very little research to prove that you can get addicted to the drug. It’s important to know that the effects of ecstasy will be different from person to person. When you take ecstasy, the drug affects a variety of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.
- The variability of the induced altered state is lower compared to other psychedelics.
- After MDMA was criminalized, most medical use stopped, although some therapists continued to prescribe the drug illegally.
- Taking ecstasy over a long period can have a dangerous, potentially fatal impact on your health.
- The committee made this recommendation on the basis of the pharmacological similarity of MDMA to previously scheduled drugs, reports of illicit trafficking in Canada, drug seizures in the United States, and lack of well-defined therapeutic use.
It was adopted enthusiastically in the 1970s and ’80s by adherents of the New Age movement, who explored the similarities between the mental and emotional states induced by Ecstasy and the mystical states of awareness described by some traditional religions. Developed in 1913 as an ecstasy appetite suppressant and patented by Merck & Co. the following year, the drug was not originally approved for release. The use of Ecstasy, commonly known as “E,” has been widespread despite the drug’s having been banned worldwide in 1985 by its addition to the international Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Ecstasy is a synthetic drug, meaning it’s made in a lab.
Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) such as citalopram (Celexa), duloxetine (Cymbalta), fluoxetine (Prozac), and paroxetine (Paxil) have been shown to block most of the subjective effects of MDMA. Life-threatening reactions and death have occurred in people who took MDMA while on ritonavir. A scheme for management of acute MDMA toxicity has been published focusing on treatment of hyperthermia, hyponatraemia, serotonin syndrome, and multiple organ failure. One study found approximately 15% of chronic MDMA users met the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for substance dependence.
Can You Get Addicted to Ecstasy?
Both (S)-MDMA and (R)-MDMA produce entactogen-type effects in animals and humans. Relatedly, (R)-MDMA shows weak or negligible stimulant-like and rewarding effects in animals. (S)-MDMA is much more potent as an SNDRA in vitro and in producing MDMA-like subjective effects in humans than (R)-MDMA.
A common and dangerous practice among Ecstasy tablet users is “stacking” – swallowing three or more pills at once – and “piggybacking” – taking a series of pills over a short amount of time. One can therefore never be sure of the potency of the dose they have taken until they ingest it and experience its full effects. A tablet is the both the most popular and the riskiest method of consumption, since tablets do not come in one uniform or standardized concentration. However, it never underwent formal clinical testing and was never approved by the FDA as a drug whose benefits outweighed its risks. Avenues Recovery, experts in addiction treatment, presents a comprehensive ecstasy guide.
Recreational use also increased after several cocaine dealers switched to distributing MDMA following experiences with the drug. A small recreational market for MDMA developed by the late 1970s, consuming perhaps 10,000 doses in 1976. Psychotherapists who used MDMA believed the drug eliminated the typical fear response and increased communication. Zeff named the drug Adam, believing it put users in a state of primordial innocence. When he tried the drug in 1977, Zeff was impressed with the effects of MDMA and came out of his semi-retirement to promote its use in therapy. Believing MDMA allowed users to strip away habits and perceive the world clearly, Shulgin called the drug window.
In 1978, he and David E. Nichols published a report on the drug’s psychoactive effect in humans. Shulgin first reported on MDMA in a presentation at a conference in Bethesda, Maryland in December 1976. She and two close friends had consumed 100 mg of MDMA and reported positive emotional experiences. A 1960 Polish paper by Biniecki and Krajewski describing the synthesis of MDMA as an intermediate was the first published scientific paper on the substance. In 1953 and 1954, the United States Army commissioned a study of toxicity and behavioral effects in animals injected with mescaline and several analogues, including MDMA. Research was stopped “particularly due to a strong price increase of safrylmethylamine”, which was still used as an intermediate in methylhydrastinine synthesis.
You will begin to feel its effects within 30 to 45 minutes. Typically, its effects last between four and six hours, but you may feel them for weeks. This may be safer than taking a full dose. This could mean cutting a tablet into quarters and only taking one quarter at a time — no more than every two or three hours — to see how it affects you.
Accordingly, the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin has been reported to reduce MDMA-induced perceptual changes in humans. Serotonin 5-HT2B receptor signaling appears to be required for MDMA-induced serotonin release and effects. Severe overdose resulting in death has also been reported in people who took MDMA in combination with certain monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), such as phenelzine (Nardil), tranylcypromine (Parnate), or moclobemide (Aurorix, Manerix). MDMA may increase the risk of cardiac valvulopathy in heavy or long-term users due to activation of serotonin 5-HT2B receptors. The effects established so far for recreational use of ecstasy lie in the range of moderate to severe effects for serotonin transporter reduction. MDMA has become widely known as ecstasy (shortened “E”, “X”, or “XTC”), usually referring to its tablet form, although this term may also include the presence of possible adulterants or diluents.
MDMA
There’s no set definition for “hard drugs.” Generally, hard drugs are considered to be those with the greatest potential for harm and addiction, such as heroin and cocaine. How long does it take for ecstasy to kick in? Educate yourself and your friends about the safety tips for ecstasy use to reduce unwanted health problems. If you choose to take ecstasy, use it with as much precaution as possible.
Tolerance to some of the desired and adverse effects of MDMA is expected to occur with consistent MDMA use. Approximately 60% of MDMA users experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking MDMA. The magnitude of these impairments is correlated with lifetime MDMA usage and are partially reversible with abstinence. Impairments in multiple aspects of cognition, including attention, learning, memory, visual processing, and sleep, have been found in regular MDMA users. Reduced gray matter density in certain brain structures has also been noted in human MDMA users. Elevations in brain temperature from MDMA use are positively correlated with MDMA-induced neurotoxicity.
For the treatment of PTSD, MDMA can only be prescribed by psychiatrists with specific training and authorisation.In 1986, MDMA was declared an illegal substance because of its allegedly harmful effects and potential for misuse. In Australia, MDMA was rescheduled on 1 July 2023 as a schedule 8 substance (available on prescription) when used in the treatment of PTSD, while remaining a schedule 9 substance (prohibited) for all other uses. In 2025, the BBC reported on a study of 650 survivors from the Nova music festival massacre.
However, adverse neuroplastic changes to brain microvasculature and white matter have been observed to occur in humans using low doses of MDMA. However, most studies on MDMA and serotonergic neurotoxicity in humans focus more on heavy users who consume as much as seven times or more the amount that most users report taking. However, there is consistent evidence of structural and functional deficits in MDMA users with high lifetime exposure. As of 2015update, the long-term effects of MDMA on human brain structure and function have not been fully determined.
