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[Contents][Appendix 1]
[Reference 109][Reference 112]

E is for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders

Appendix 1: Reference Section

110 Psychedelics Encyclopedia, by Peter Stafford, 3rd edition published by Ronin, 1992

This edition has an added 26-page piece on MDMA. It describes how MDMA was scheduled in the most dangerous category of drug because of scares regarding a previous "designer drug" called China White which caused Parkinson's disease, and the false assumption that MDMA is similar to MDA which had already been scheduled. These drugs were confused in the press. Rick Doblin, president of MAPS, is accused of making well-meaning but misguided attempts to publicise the benefits of MDMA. The strong opposition to the scheduling of MDMA failed to prevent the drug being scheduled. It would be too expensive to challenge MDMA's status again.

MDMA has little abuse potential because it exhibits tachyphylquaxis - rapid build up of tolerance - so that repeated use over a short period leads to a loss of the desired effects.

A tiny proportion of people are hypersensitive to such compounds as MDMA and so it is best to try a low dosage first.

MDMA has an unusually consistent response compared to psychedelics. Set and setting are far less important. According to Claudio Naranjo, it gives a "brief, fleeting moment of sanity".

Stafford also mentions a meeting of therapists enthusiastic about Ecstasy in March 1985 at Esalen, a psychotherapeutic centre in California. The combined total clinical experience of using Ecstasy among those present was several thousand sessions, and they reported uniformly positive reports. The drug was found to reduce defensiveness and fear of emotional injury, thereby facilitating a more direct expression of feelings.

Problems encountered in using Ecstasy therapeutically were raised at the meeting. The main problems aired were that an Ecstasy trip would not fit in with the standard 50 minute therapy session, and that conventional psychologists might regard the ecstatic effects as pathological. Quick insights may not be absorbed as well as the slower approach. Stafford points out that when pure, MDMA consists of white crystals 2-3mm long. A brownish colour indicates incomplete synthesis.


[Contents][Appendix 1]
[Reference 109][Reference 112]
E is for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders (contact@ecstasy.org)
HTMLized by Lamont Granquist (lamontg@u.washington.edu)