The Emergence of Ecstasy in Urban America

Ecstasy or XTC or MDMA as been viewed as a high risk drug with a high chance of death. I think this stereotype is due to the fact that most people do not know the history of ecstasy and the real intension for this drug. Of course we can blame the government for the bad rap ecstasy has, because it always tend to make illegal a substance that will help uplift the common man’s mind out of the bondage the powers that be have over us. In this paper I will present information to inform people of a brief history of ecstasy and how the drug affects an user and how we can use this drug to connect more with ourselves and the world around us.

Many believe that ecstasy was a new party drug introduced in the early 80s, but truth is it was first synthesized almost 70 years before it became intertwined with the rave dance scene. As with LSD and many other drugs, ecstasy’s birthplace was in an European chemistry lab. In the early 1900’s a German chemist Anton Kollish inadvertently created 3, 4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine- a.k.a. methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or simply MDMA. The myth was that Kollish was trying to create a styptic(a drug intended to slow bleeding from wounds), but due to pressure from the company he worked at he accidentally produced an intermediate chemical-MDMA- which his company patented on Christmas Eve 1912 (Pilcher, pg. 12). So how did this chemical accident find its way from a German lab to the clubs of urban America?

Well in the 1950s an extract of MDMA called MDA found its way to San Francisco. It was known as “the love drug” and “the mellow drug of America”, MDA was making hippies smile throughout San Francisco all through the 60s. MDA is a breakdown product of MDMA and belongs to the same family of chemicals as nutmeg and sassafras. Both MDMA  and MDA share the properties of amphetamines such as speed and mind altering drugs such as mescaline and shrooms. In 1970 the US government made MDA illegal under the  Controlled Substance Act due to the great fun the American people was having with MDA in the 60s (Pilcher, pg. 16). So with MDA band the more pure MDMA was still legal.

Now during the 60s the transformation of MDMA and MDA into what we know today as pure ecstasy is giving credit to a Dr. Alexander Shulgin, who is a russian born in Berkley, CA. In 1967 Shulgin first synthesized his drug and from then on he would be linked with MDMA. It was said that when Shulgin took ecstasy for the first time, he “found it was unlike anything I had taken before...It was not a psychedelic in the visual or interpretive sense, but the lightness and warmth of a psychedelic was present and quite remarkable,” stated in his 1991 book, PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. From there he went on to develop a new synthesis method for MDMA. So in 1976 Shulgin introduce his new drug to a psychologist named Leo Zeff from Oakland, CA. While Shulgin is referred to as the Godfather of Ecstasy, Zeff has been called the Johnny Appleseed of Ecstasy because of how he spread the drug. Supposedly Zeff’s zeal saw him introduce the substance to as many as 4000 psychologist around the nation. Zeff came up with a nickname for MDMA called ‘Adam’ because he said that it stripped away a lifetime of anxieties, self protective inhibitions, returning the user metaphorically to the state of innocence that biblical Adam had before he ate from the tree of knowledge. MDMA then went from ‘Adam’ to being called Ecstasy due to an anonymous dealer who was famously quoted in Bruce Eisner’s book Ecstasy: The MDMA Story as saying “Ecstasy was chosen for obvious reasons, because it would sell better than calling it Empathy. Empathy would be more appropriate but how many people knows what that means?”. I think that the deal had a good point for empathy being appropriate nothing could ever describe an experience on the drug than the word ecstasy. From here I think we can pick up the typical belief about Ecstasy being a party drug. So know by the early 80s, the general public has gotten hold of this new wonder Ecstasy. A small group of entrepreneurs, known as the “Texas Group” started manufacturing and distributing the still then legal drug. It was said that they produce somewhere to around 30000 pills a month and there was high high demand. Throughout the 80s they successfully marketed MDMA as a dance drug, at the same time a new kind of music was transforming out of the dying sound of disco and funk. From Chi-town came house, NY had the blazing mixes of DJs, and Motor City brought techno to the scene. These new sounds together with ecstasy would change the minds of society forever (Pilcher, pgs. 20-24).

So now that we have went through a nice history lesson about Ecstasy lets talk about the effects it may have on its user. Through personal experience and those of my references we can say that there are 3 different branches of the effects of Ecstasy which each of the 3 having its own unique effects. The first would be the physical effects, the second would be the psychological effects, and finally the third would be the spiritual effects of the drug. Lets keep in mind that these effects are of pure MDMA pills and that they will vary depending on if a user is taking a pure pill or one cut with MDMA and another component. The physical effects are common with those of  amphetamines which include raising of one’s blood pressure, increasing in one’s pulse rate, and causing one’s pupils to dilate heavily, in fact you can tell a user usually by their big black pupils. A majority of the physical effects that are well known that are are also common in amphetamines are restlessness, hot and cold sweats, and jaw ache which is commonly called lock jaw., also a user might experience a loss of appetite. A user usually experiences a tingling sensation, then a jittery sensation, and then an increased awareness of sight and sound, and touch. Accompanied with abundance feelings of happiness and well-being take over making it very difficult for the user not to smile. Ecstasy gives a user the feeling of hypersensitivity making users very physical toward each other usually touching, hugging, dancing with one another. Users generally keep a few packs of gum and a lot of water around due the lock jaw and in prevention of dehydration. The psychological effects can be summed up in the letter “E” which stand for many traits of MDMA, including “euphoria”, “ecstasy”, and “empathy”. This alone seems to be why most users take Ecstasy. the drug lets users completely understand and feel they can relate to other peoples emotional state, which usually turns into people becoming closer together trough a harmonizing feeling of comfort through the use of Ecstasy.  It also gives the user an instant surge of fearlessness, which allows the user to interact and communicate more freely with others, without the user worrying about any internal problems he/she was having with themselves. Last but not at all least the spiritual effects of the drug which really kind gives the initial insight to my last detail to explain. Users often relate their ‘trips’ on Ecstasy as a spiritual experience, which is rather unique for a recreational drug. The drug unlocks all the chambers of the heart, allowing the use to love and be loved conditionally, without fear of repercussions.  A common spiritual experience on Ecstasy especially when taken outside is a feeling of oneness with the natural world. Users find themselves in-tuned with nature and with animals, and realizing their place in the universe and realizing that everything is interconnected through one source, and that source is love(Pilcher, pgs. 40-55). So in that information this leads me to my final point.

Through personal experience I have found that a controlled use of Ecstasy has a lot of good values. As stated when you take Ecstasy it gives you this heighten sense of wholeness with everything around you. I feel like the use of Ecstasy can enable us to obtain to a degree of harmony and that we are all one race and we can overcome our differences using the power of love and music. Ecstasy makes it easier to use the power of love or should I say that it allows love to flow through the user more vibrantly and fluently. So in closing I hope that I provided an good explanation bout the drug Ecstasy and I hope that people will see that love is the way of the future and Ecstasy could be a good way to have us more equipped with love. 

My reference was the book call The Incredibly Strange History Of Ecstasy, by Tim Pilcher and published by Running Press, London, UK