HEED WARNINGS, KNOW DANGERS

Harvard psychiatry professor Lester Grinspoon warned in 1985 that if MDMA
were classified a Schedule I drug, it would go underground, "and we'll get
into cops and robbers stuff."

Medical sociologist Marsha Rosenbaum interviewed 100 MDMA users between
1987 and 1989 - some using the drug for personal growth and others to dance
and have fun - and found that all gave the same description of the drug's
effects.

"It didn't matter what world they came from," she recalls. "The reason
people valued the experience so much is that they didn't get a sense of
tolerance and community and the ability to connect with people in any other
set ting. .

"I thought, "It's a good thing this hasn't reached the teenage population.
If mature adults are getting this kind of fulfillment, imagine how that
would feel to an adolescent struggling for identity and acceptance.'"