A HISTORY OF MDMA

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as Ecstasy, is a
synthetic, nonhallucinogenic compound with structural similarities to
amphetamine, mescaline and safrole oil, which is found in sassafras and nutmeg.

The street version of Ecstasy rarely is pure MDMA and often poses hazards
that MDMA would not. But scientific findings on the risks and benefits of
pure MDMA are incomplete and subject to great debate. Here is a brief
history of this controversial drug:

MDMA was created by E. Merck, a German pharmaceutical firm, in 1914. It was
patented but never manufactured.

During the 1950s, the U.S. Army tested MDMA on animals. Large doses proved
toxic to monkeys and dogs.

In the 1970s, some psychotherapists, especially in San Francisco, began to
use the drug with patients and reported high success rates.

Word of the drug spread, and by the early 1980s, college students were
experimenting with MDMA, by then called Ecstasy.

In May 1985, the flood of the drug in Dallas discos prompted then-U.S. Sen.
Lloyd Bentsen, DTexas, to call for an emergency ban on Ecstasy.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration appointed its own administrative
law judge to oversee formal hearings on the drug. Prominent psychiatric
experts testified that the drug had therapeutic value and wasn't addictive.
The judge ruled that Ecstasy met all criteria of a Schedule III drug -
accepted medical use, accepted safety and less than high abuse potential.

On July 1, 1985, the DEA rejected its own judge's finding and issued an
emergency order scheduling Ecstasy as a Schedule I drug, like heroin. That
ban brought a stop to therapeutic research, but not to illegal street use,
which has skyrocketed ever since.

During three months in late 1987 and early 1988, MDMA was removed from
Schedule I while the ban came under a court challenge. But then it was
restored to Schedule I.

Between 1994 and 1998, Ecstasy was reported to have contributed to 27 U.S.
deaths, but many states, including Colorado, don't track such deaths.

A similarly incomplete count of emergency room admittances for Ecstasy rose
more than tenfold, from 250 in 1994 to 2,850 in 1999.

Seizures by the DEA increased from 196 units in 1993, to 143,600 in 1998 to
216,300 in just the first half of 1999.

In 2000, six youths died in central Florida and three more died in the
Chicago area after ingesting pills marketed as Ecstasy but laden with toxic
PMA instead, DanceSafe reports.

On Feb. 2, 2001, Brittney Chambers died of water toxicity in Boulder after
having taken Ecstasy at her 16th birthday party on Jan. 27. An autopsy
showed that Brittney ingested excessive water, which washed the sodium from
her body and caused her brain to swell, depleting it of oxygen.

A 15-year-old Highlands Ranch High School girl became critically ill Feb. 9
after ingesting up to three "Red Bull" Ecstasy pills at a rave. She was
sedated into a near-coma for two days before she recovered.