The negative effects of Ecstasy grossly outweigh the benefits.

1. What?

1.1. A patent for MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as Ecstasy, was issued in 1914, but recreational use of the drug did not surface until the 1970s and 1980s

1.2. Ecstasy was picked up in the sixties by alchemist Alexander Shulgin who was working for Dow Chemicals at the time. Shulgin began experimenting with "mind-altering chemicals" as a young biochemist after being treated with morphine due to an injury. He became fascinated by psychedelic drugs. While working for Dow Chemicals, he invented a profitable insecticide, and was rewarded with the opportunity to research anything he wanted. It was at this point that he began to synthesize and test psychedelic chemicals on himself.

2. Proper 'medical' Uses to abuse

2.1. Ecstasy has been used during adult psychotherapy to help the patient to work through his/her problems with any family members or any problems within themselves. The therapists' belief was that MDMA inhibited the fear response to a perceived emotional threat, allowing the client to place the emotional sequelae of past experiences into a more realistic perspective in their current emotional lives and relationships. (find out what page)

2.2. One case study participant not only had positive feelings about his wife, but even experienced relief from chronic pain he had been experiencing (greer, george &thepage#)

2.3. Ecstasy is used at rave parties whereattendees just want to have a good time and become a part of a "marathon, vicorous group dancing with expensive laser light displays..."(Schwartz &Miller 706). Ecstasy makes you feel really good, like you belong.

3. Ecstasy is said to foster general good feelings towards others... why they're attracted to it... and how it becomes abuse

3.1. The drug is also attractive to adolscents, "who believe that it enhances empathy and closeness to others"(Schwartz & Miller 705). This is quite understandable, especially in light of what the bullying and other pressures that the young people of today have to endure.

3.2. The number of teens who said that they had close friends who use Ecstasy increased from 26 percent in 1999 to 32 percent in 2000. This may reflect teens' tendency to overestimate their peers' drug use, the report states, but it highlights a dangerous trend nonetheless.

3.3. Ecstasy was more associated with feelings of sensuality or deep emotions rather than sexual desire (according to a small majority) because most partakers reported sexual desires incresasing, incl prev point.(mdma &sexual 1467)

3.4. one study of

4. ...but it also increases the likelihood that you will engage in harmful activity. .. end w/it can lead to brain damage, and even death to segue

4.1. Ecstasy is described as a stimulant and also mildly hallucinogenic. Medical authorities say use of the drug can lead to stroke, heart attack or lasting neurological changes in the brain. Fifty-one percent of young people surveyed said they could obtain the drug "fairly or very easily."

4.2. several respondents who'd engaged in sex, reported engaging in behaviors that put you in contact w/STDs, that some or many of their friends engaged in unsafe sex during E episodes These sexual risk takers were more often younger, 18-25 yrs old. A number of male and female respondents voiced next day regrets about their sexual activity during MDMA episodes (mdma &sexual behavior, 1471).

4.3. ecstasy use has been linked with a variety of HIV-related risk practices (e.g., having unprotected sex, having sex with multiple partners, having sexual relations while under the infuence of ecstasy and other drugs) (Klitzman et al. 2002; Klitzman and Pope 2000; Lee et al. 2003; Mattison et al. 2001), and its use typically appears to co-occur alongside the consumption of a variety of other drugs (Kirk, Klein, and Claire, 572)

5. ecstasy has harmful side effects

5.1. Common short-term adverse effects of MDMA include sweating, tachycardia, fatigue, and muscle spasms, including jaw-clenching

5.2. Serious adverse effects from MDMA include serious or fatal heat injury, fluid and electrolyte depletion, and central nervous system, cardiac, muscular, renal, and hepatic dysfunction (Schwartz and Miller, 705).

5.3. Things have gotten so out of control with the abuse of ecstasy that studies are now able to be done on the number of deaths Ecstasy has caused. "We conducted a prospective, representative-sample nationwide study on morbidity related to" MDMA (Halper, et al.) .