Ecstasy

Penalties for Possession and Sale of MDMA in the United States

The average newspaper article about MDMA prior to 2001 frequently quoted up to fifteen years in prison or a 125,000 fine as the penalty for MDMA possession. This penalty has been cited repeatedly in articles about MDMA since its initial emergency scheduling in 1985. The penalties for MDMA possession or intent to distribute are complex. No mandatory minimum sentence exists for MDMA, as it does for some other drugs, such as crack cocaine. The maximum penalties are found in the statutes, but they...

Mdma Myths And Rumors Dispelled

The only way to remove spinal fluid from the body is with a surgical intervention called a lumbar puncture, better known as a spinal tap. In the mid-1980s, ongoing research required spinal taps on Ecstasy users. It is possible that this rumor began because of this practice. MDMA research may drain your spinal fluid, but recreational Ecstasy use does not. Parkinson's disease is a neurological illness that affects one's ability to move fluidly and causes a tremor when a person is sitting still....

The History Of Mdma

Although MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has been in the public spotlight only since the mid-1980s, its history extends back to the beginning of the twentieth century. MDMA was synthesized some time before 1912. The German pharmaceutical giant Merck was attempting to create a new medication to stop bleeding when it stumbled across MDMA as an intermediate step in the synthesis. On Christmas Eve in 1912, Merck filed the patent for this styptic medication, called hydrastinin MDMA was included...

How Mdma Works In The Brain

Malberg, Ph.D., and Katherine R. Bonson, Ph.D. The pharmacology of MDMA primarily involves two brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine. These neurotransmitters help nerve cells communicate with each other (as described below) and each of them have their own complex neural systems and behavioral responses. MDMA acts in the brain through three main neurochemical mechanisms blockade of serotonin reuptake, induction of serotonin release, and induction of dopamine release. With these...

Hyperthermia

Hyperthermia is an increase in body temperature to the extent of endangering life it can be a cause of significant morbidity and mortality. The condition usually occurs at temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit. A commonly reported scenario involves an Ecstasy user who spends time at a dance club, where the ambient temperatures may be high, usually dancing for many hours without adequate fluid replacement. This behavior leads to collapse or convulsions (seizures)...

Recent MDMA Legal Maneuvers

Senate bill 2612, proposed by Senator Robert Graham D of Florida and Senator Charles Grassley R of Iowa which was modified and rolled into the Children's Health Act of 2000 Public Law 106-310 , called for the United States Sentencing Commission to amend the federal sentencing guidelines to provide for higher penalties associated with the manufacture, distribution, and use of Ecstasy. Those penalties would be comparable to the base levels for offenses involving any methamphetamine mixture....

Ecstasy Induced Hyponatremia

Another problem seen in Ecstasy users is acute hyponatremia, a low plasma sodium level due to dilution of the blood with water. Sodium levels are often 125 mmol L or lower 137-147 mmol L is a normal plasma sodium range . This complication occurs among patients who have taken Ecstasy and who also have drunk large amounts of water without losing as much fluid by sweating. This raises a theoretical concern for those users of Ecstasy who are commonly advised by friends to drink plenty of fluids,...

The Chemistry Of Mdma

Holland what she wanted me to present in this chapter, she replied, Explain the molecule to the masses. . . . Keep it elementary. That is a somewhat daunting task, because for many people who attended college or university, organic chemistry is a subject that is best forgotten. Those of you who have never had the experience of a basic organic chemistry course may still have heard horror stories about the subject or you are at least aware that it instills a kind of instinctive...

Serotonin and Schizophrenia

Support for the involvement of the serotonergic system in schizophrenia has been gathering in the literature since it was first observed almost forty years ago that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) causes a syndrome evocative of schizophrenia in normal controls and that the structure of LSD shares similarities with serotonin (Gaddum and Hameed 1954). Although the dopamine hypothesis dominated the literature for the next three decades, further evidence to reassert serotonergic abnormalities in...

Adverse Psychological Effects of MDMA

As noted, current research evidence is sparse and retrospective (which means that research is carried out by looking into the past, after the side effect has appeared, rather than giving a person the drug to see what will happen). Research also generally is uncontrolled (there is no properly matched group of people for comparison who have not taken the drug) and typically lacks toxicological confirmation of the drugs taken. Moreover, we usually are not told what happened next the course of the...