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. ======================================================================== 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. .