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- If I may, I'd like to try and summarize some of the info about MDMA.
- A more complete explanation was given somewhere earlier in this pile
- of responses. The best books for further info are Ecstasy: The MDMA Story
- and Psychedelics Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia is by Peter Stafford.
- I don't recall who wrote the other one.
-
- On second thought, I'm just gonna copy this from Whole Earth Review. It's all
- accurate and simplified.
-
- MDMA (3,4 -Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)
-
- Dosage: 100-150 mg/oral
-
- Duration: 30-60 minutes to onset; 2-3 hour plateau; 6 hours to baseline
-
- Effects: Ego softening; neurotically based fear dissolution; feelings of
- emotionally based love and empathy. No visual effects. Lucidity retained, in-
- depth communication facilitated. Present moment awareness heightened.
-
- Side effects: Appetite loss; stimulation; mild jaw-clenching; mild to
- moderate post-session fatigue. Occasional nystagmus (lateral eye wiggle).
- Initial restlessness, nervousness, nausea, shivering or tremor.
- CAUTION: May induce inappropriate and unintended emotional-bond imprinting.
- Note: Reversible nerve cell toxicity has been reported in laboratory animals
- at a dose equivalent to human consumption of 175 mg or more.
-
- Contraindications: Concurrent use of stimulants or MAO inhibitors
- (see Warning). Heart ailments, glaucoma, hypertension, aneurism or "stroke"
- history, hepatic or renal disorders, diabetes or hypoglycemia.
-
- Context: Light and warm environment; with a loved one or a few close friends,
- but sometimes with many others in celebration.
-
- So, that's what I have. Good luck on finding any other information.
-
- Willie
- wbogue@cwis.unomaha.edu
-
-
- ========================================================================
-
-
- MDMA, aka Ecstasy, X, XTC, E, Adam, etc, etc...
-
- Chemically:
- ----------
-
- MDMA = 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine
- MDA = 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine
-
- MDMA = N-methyl-MDA = Adam
- MDE = N-ethyl-MDA = Eve
-
- O /\ /\ NHCH3
- / \ / \ / \ /
- / | | |
- CH2 | | CH3
- \ | |
- \ / \ /
- O \/
-
- Replacing the NHCH3 with NH2 is MDA; Replacing it with NHCH2CH3
- is MDE. MBDB is formed by replacing the CH3 with CH2CH3 (I forget
- the chemical name of this offhand). Replacing the NHCH3 with
- a double bond to an O atom gives you 3,4-methyeledioxyphenylacetone
- which is typically the immediate precursor to MDA, MDMA & MDE.
- Eliminating the radical entirely and replacing the CH3 with a
- double bond to a CH2 gives isosafrole which is 3,4-methylenedioxy-
- allylbenzene which is an essential oil.
-
- If you slice off the first methylenedioxy ring you get
- methamphetamine -- then replace the NHCH3 with NH2 and you're looking
- at amphetamine.
-
- Psychologically:
- ---------------
-
- MDMA is *chemically* an amphetamine, but psychologically its
- whats known as an empathogen-entactogen. There is some amphetamine
- stimulant quality left, which enhances the empathogenic quality.
- The empathogenic quality is basically the ability to communicate
- things to others, and the ability to feel empathy towards others.
- Its sort of an "external" quality, that opens lines of communication.
- The stimulating quality and the empathogenic effect are what most
- recreational users seem to be after. The entactogenic effect, on
- the other hand, is an internal quality. Its a sense that the
- world is sort of "and okay place to be" (that sounds kinda stupid
- but its hard to describe... kinda like daily affirmation with
- Stuart Smalley only its a genuine feeling...).
-
- THESE ARE ACUTE EFFECTS!!!! You don't dose someone up with MDMA
- and expect the high to last forever, thats not the concept...
-
- Psychotherapeutic Use:
- ----------------------
-
- The idea is to use the acute effects of the drug to massively
- accelerate psychotherapy. The empathogenic effect has obvious
- applications, both for use by the therapist and the patient.
- It facilitates communication, trust, etc, ad nauseum.
-
- The entactogenic effect is what does the work, however. It
- strengthens the ego, and is *NOT* *NOT* dissasociative. It is
- the only recreational drug that I have tried to date that has
- allowed me to keep a clear mind without being dissasociative
- or stoning (hell, it makes my mind clearer than it normally
- is) -- confusion on MDMA is not a normally encountered
- problem.
-
- Now, if you read the book PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known
- and Loved by Alexander Shulgin) or Through the Gateway of the
- Heart [and I think you can find out how to get both of these from
- the Misc FAQ on alt.drugs -- if not, I'll post], you will come
- across very striking situations where the entactogenic effect of
- MDMA can help. In particular, I believe its probably the best
- way to get repressed memories to resurface that there is (provided
- that the patient is prepared to remember them). The entactogenic
- effect acts as an emotional brace so that the patient can
- recall the event without going through incredible emotional
- trauma. That allows the mind to relax its protection on those
- memories and let the person remember them...
-
- It is *not* another LSD. LSD, IMHO, is risky for doing this kind
- of shit. MDMA does not cause bad trips, and the only psychological
- risk that you're in for is that the person is going to not
- get anything out of it.
-
- Related Chemicals:
- ------------------
-
- Amphetamine stimulants are just useless because while they facilitate
- communications (and *lots* of communication), they tend to
- not do anything for a persons emotions (other than maybe inflate
- their ego).
-
- MDA is similar to MDMA, but its an empathogen-entheogen rather
- than an empathogen-entactogen. It (as opposed to MDMA) does make
- one stoned, and at higher doses it tends to be hard to remember
- the first part of the sentence that a person is speaking. Its
- generally not considered anywhere near as useful for therapy as
- MDMA, although some researchers have had some success with it.
- MDE has roughly the same effects as MDA (offhand I can't recall
- the details of the differences and I have never tried MDE before).
-
- Neurochemically, MDA and MDMA are quite different. Their active
- isomers are switched, and MDA seems to effect the 5-HT2 receptor
- where MDMA is inactive.
-
- MBDB has a somewhat similar effect to MDMA, and has been proposed
- as the prototypical entactogenic drug. Its not as useful as
- MDMA, however, since it doesn't facilitate the same amount of
- communication. Only about 50% of the people who take it feel that
- its comparable to MDMA. Neurochemically the difference is that
- MBDB seems to release less dopamine than MDMA for one thing.
-
- Side effects and other crap:
- ----------------------------
-
- MDMA doesn't cause parkinson's disease -- MPTP which an entirely
- different drug (an opiate) does. MDMA doesn't dry up your
- spinal fluid -- thats a completely stupid and silly concept to
- begin with. The way that researcher's have been *testing* for
- MDMA damage is to draw a spinal tap. What they are looking for
- is lower levels of 5-HIAA which might indicate damage to
- 5-HT neurons. In short they haven't found anything convincing
- in humans. In animals it takes large doses over consecutive
- days to produce neurotoxicity (bursting of 5-HT axons, which
- is reparable). With smaller doses with longer time periods
- in between, there is no evidence of neurotoxicity. I have
- never heard of MDMA producing paranoia or schizophrenic breaks
- or anything like that -- that is an effect one might expect of
- classical amphetamines or LSD (respectively). MDMA may actually
- be useful in treating patients with paranoia or schizoid features.
- MDMA is a damn safe drug, certainly more safe than alcohol. The
- only problems would be due to its exaggerating existing heart
- conditions. And also, as recently happened in England, the
- stimulant qualities could make a person overextert themselves
- without knowing it (however, thats really quite rare -- 7 cases
- is nothing compared with the wreckage due to alcohol).
-
- For more info check out the alt.drugs FAQ... or the books cited
- above (And add MDMA: the Ecstasy Story as another good one to
- check out...).
-
- So, have I cleared most everything up, or are there more questions?
-
- ps. and _Psychedlic Encyclopedia_ is a reference that I forgot in the
- original posting, but which is *very* good and for more than just
- MDMA -- it also covers LSD, DMT, Harmaline, Psilocybin/Psilocyn,
- and THC.
-
- --
- Lamont Granquist lamontg@u.washington.edu
- "When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases."
- -- Robert Anton Wilson
-
-
-