Ricaurte stood by the results of the September 2002 article and further suggested that even careful clinical MDMA research ran the risk of causing brain injury.

Included in MAPS ’ research efforts are MDMA ( Ecstasy ) for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ), LSD and psilocybin for the treatment of anxiety and depression associated with end-of-life issues, ibogaine for the treatment of opiate addiction, and alternative delivery systems for medical marijuana such as vaporizers and water pipes.

The second wave of modern psychedelic research is associated with renewed interest in MDMA.

Throughout the 1970s, the main source of information regarding the still legal MDMA came from independent research unaffiliated with traditionally scholarly settings led by the extensive self-experimentation performed by chemist Alexander Shulgin.

Dr. George Greer, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Professor James Bakalar, and Professor Thomas Roberts contributed to the argument that MDMA belonged in Schedule III, a category that would more readily enable future research and permit the continuation of its use in psychotherapy.

Holding the belief that MDMA had the unique potential both to aid psychotherapy and eventually to become a prescription medicine, Rick Doblin sought to gain incorporation for MAPS as a 501 ( c )( 3 ) non-profit research and educational organization.

Currently, MAPS has been given a Schedule I license to conduct research with MDMA on veterans and survivors of physical or sexual assault who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, as well as with advanced-stage cancer patients who are experiencing anxiety associated with this diagnosis, the first licenses the DEA has granted for MDMA psychotherapy research.

Extensive research has demonstrated that moderate doses of MDMA taken a limited number of times are sufficiently safe for human consumption.

Other notable research he helped carry out includes extensive studies of the structure-activity relationships and mechanisms of action of MDA and MDMA, during which he helped to discover many novel analogues including such compounds as 5-methyl-MDA, 4-MTA and MDAI.

He co-founded Earth Metabolic Design Laboratories in 1984 to support psychedelic research and Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies ( MAPS ) in 1986 with the goal of making MDMA ( or Ecstasy ) an FDA-approved medicine.

Even more importantly, the committee explicitly encouraged the signatory nations to the international drug control treaty to facilitate research into MDMA, which they called a most interesting substance.

Zimmer's experience caring for his mother, who died of cancer, led him to support research into the therapeutic use of MDMA, and for his efforts to legalize cannabis ( for instance, by making donations equaling $ 70, 500 to support California's Proposition 19 in 2010 ).

He is sometimes credited, incorrectly, with first synthesizing MDMA ( which was first synthesized by Merck KGaA chemist Anton Köllisch in 1912 ).

Wouter Basson was later found to have also been selling large quantities of MDMA and methaqualone as tablets on the black market, but the amount manufactured was far larger than what was sold and the court accepted that at least some genuine weaponisation and testing of these agents had been done.

The press reported that Betts ' death was an example of the dangers of illegal drugs in general, and MDMA in particular.

A subsequent inquest determined that her death was actually not directly due to MDMA consumption, but rather the result of the large quantity of water she had consumed, apparently in observation of an advisory warning commonly given to ravers to drink water to avoid dehydration resulting from the exertion of dancing continuously for hours.

At the inquest it was stated by toxicologist Professor John Henry, who had previously warned the public of the danger of MDMA causing death by dehydration, " If Leah had taken the drug alone she might well have survived.

" Severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA (" ecstasy ")'", was a paper by Dr. George Ricaurte which was published in the leading journal Science, and later retracted.

Jon Cole of the University of Liverpool explained that the results on dopaminergic neurotoxicity in the Ricaurte article were a big surprise and was quoted as saying, " The entire human literature relies on the notion that MDMA is a selective serotonergic neurotoxin.

Ricaurte was reported to still be interested in previous results that suggested MDMA is toxic to dopamine neurons in mice.

Since PMA has a slow onset of effects, several deaths have occurred where individuals have taken a pill containing PMA, followed by a pill containing MDMA some time afterwards due to thinking that the first pill was not active.

Emergency-scheduling power was used for the first time for MDMA.

Her death was initially considered to be the result of a contaminated tablet ; it was later determined that she had died from the effects of water intoxication secondary to use of MDMA ( commonly known as ecstasy ).

The subsequent coroner's report determined that the cause of death was a cerebral edema caused by water intoxication ( hyponatraemia ) secondary to use of MDMA ( ecstasy ).< ref name =" erowid mdma ">

Shulgin believed that as with LSD, the primary use for MDMA was to serve as an adjunct to psychotherapy, which prompted him to share MDMA with psychiatric practitioners.

Throughout the 1980s, MDMA was administered in psychiatric and counseling settings, but recreational use also became increasingly widespread.

Although this move was ruled illegal, the decision to place MDMA within Schedule I was reached in 1988 after the DEA overruled a DEA Administrative Law Judge's recommendation that it be placed within Schedule III.

As MDMA was now deemed illegal, held in the same category as such substances as heroin, the only way for it to be employed in scientific inquiry would be through the lengthy and expensive FDA approval process.

His paper " Severe Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates After a Common Recreational Dose Regimen of MDMA (' Ecstasy ')" in Science was later retracted after it became clear that the monkeys had in fact been injected not with MDMA, but with extremely high doses of methamphetamine.

It had a medical application as a treatment for depression until 1985 when the DEA placed MDMA into schedule 1, prohibiting most medical studies and applications.

Downing ( 1985 ) concluded “ one can only say that MDMA, at the doses tested, has remarkably consistent and predictable psychological effects that are ... free of clinically apparent major toxicity .”

* December 24 – Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA ( Ecstasy ), developed by Anton Köllisch.

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine ( MDMA ), known by its common street name " Ecstasy ", is an illicit substance that typically comes in either tablet, capsule, or powder / crystal form.

According to the testimony given by Wouter Basson to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a number of analogues of these compounds were prepared and studied, and both methaqualone and MDMA ( along with the deliriant BZ ) were manufactured in large quantities and successfully weaponised into a fine dust or aerosol form that could be released over a crowd as a potential riot control agent.

In early years drugs like MDMA were the most common drugs taken at parties, however over the last fifteen years there has been a steady increase in the popularity of ketamine as the drug of choice for party-goers, most noticeably in the London acid techno scene, where ketamine has a massive presence and has been said by some to have spoiled the atmosphere found at earlier parties.

* December 24 – Merck files patent applications for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA, developed by Anton Köllisch.

However, SIADH caused by the MDMA, reducing her ability to urinate, may have exacerbated her hyponatremia.

It also has data on how to synthesize MDMA or MDA, and how to synthesize methcathinone by oxidation of ephedrine.

Research conducted by Torsten Passie has shown that patients who also suffer from anxiety and depression can especially benefit and make significant progress in healing when given doses of MDMA and other entactogens that stimulate social and emotional effects.

Studies of MDMA and PTSD are currently underway in the United States ( South Carolina ), Switzerland, and Israel, all sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies ( MAPS ).

Fuelled by the drug MDMA ( Ecstasy ), nightclub goers in London were desperate for events that catered to their needs and went on until the early hours of the morning.

It evokes robust hyperthermia in rodents while producing only modest hyperactivity and serotonergic neurotoxicity, substantially lower than that caused by MDMA, and only at very high doses.

Accordingly, it is not self-administered by rodents unlike amphetamine and MDMA, and anecdotal reports by humans suggest it is not particularly euphoric at all, perhaps even dysphoric in contrast.

The effects of PMA also seem to be much more unpredictable and variable between individuals than those of MDMA, and sensitive individuals may die from a dose of PMA that a less susceptible person might only be mildly affected by.

There are approximately twice as many deaths caused by PMA as by MDMA, even though the actual proportion of PMA on the market is only a fraction of that of MDMA.