Talk:MDMA/Archive 1
I changed "psychoactive substance" to "synthetic drug" because it didn't say anywhere in the article that ecstasy is synthetic. -- Moved to talk:
"Despite popular belief, the drug is not very deadly: the LD50 is 100mg/kg or roughly 70 standard quality clandestine pills. (LD50 is the amount of a substance at which half of those will take this amount will die.)
The dangers today is largely believed to be of a more mental aspect. Severe depression is regarded as the most evident."
- Note that this could be taken to mean that 25% of those who take 35 pills or approximately 2% of those who take three pills will die. However, there is no requirement that the LD50 scale linearly - it could be 0.005% at three pills or 40% - there's no way to tell from the LD50 alone. Also note that the LD50 tells nothing about other side effects - a hypothetical drug might have an LD50 of 75 pills, but 80% of people who take even one pill are rendered permanently parapalegic.
What about other types of "extacsy," such as religious or sexual? F. Lee Horn
- If they're worthy of an encyclopedia article, we have articles called "religious ecstasy" or "sexual ecstasy", and move the contents of this to "ecstasy drug" or similar. We then make up a "pointer page" on the parent to this page pointing to the two or three articles. However, we should probably keep in mind that Wikipedia is not a dictionary. --Robert Merkel
- I realize this, although I seem to see quite a few articles which are not much more than dictionary style definitions. Thank you for the pointers on creating the articles, though. : ) F. Lee Horn
There's more to be said about the effects of the drug; it's been called an "empathogen" because of the way it breaks down barriers between people (this is why Shulgin and others were using it in psychotherapy). Also, towards the end of the article it talks about serotonin receptors, but nowhere is it mentioned that MDMA is an SSRI. XTC was another street name. (These are mostly notes to myself; when I get time, and if nobody beats me to it, I'll make these changes...)
- Does that mean if I get a prescription for SSRIs from my doctor, I can take enough of them and get ecstacsy-like effects? :) Also, does ecstacsy have any risk of causing serotonin syndrome? -- SJK
Well the dosage most people take in street E is way in excess of the usual pharmacological dosage of things like anti-depression drugs. I assume weird stuff would happen if you OD'd on prescription drugs but its not a course I'd recommend. Very few of the E related deaths have been due to overdose, those that weren't ascribed to external factors (too much/little water etc) where usually put down as allergic reactions. The little experimental evidence so far suggests that long term excessive generation of seratonin causes burn out with low seratonin levels when not under the effect of the drug.
I love shulgin...
SSRIs do half of what MDMA does. They inhibit the reuptake of serotonin to the recepters. MDMA does that as well as flooding your brain with serotonin. The result is lots of serotonin in your brain, and your brain is unable to "reuptake" it (i.e. get rid of extra). If you take a bunch of SSRIs you get sick, dizzy, nauseated, lightheaded, with excessive yawning. (I did it when I was 14 to see what would happen. ha.)
Many dangers associated with "ecstacy" are because pressed pills people buy on the street are almost always cut with other substances- amphetamines, MDA, ketamine, caffeine, etc. There are websites where you can look up your pill (the color and mark on it) and see a chemical analysis of its content. There are also pill-testing kits you can buy online.
Sometimes they have no MDMA at all, often substituting MDA, which has very similar effects, but is more likely to induce running around telling everyone you love them. Pure MDMA has a mellow, calm, more rational feeling than pressed pills, which make you feel speedy and overly affectionate. parallax
It's been reported in some sources that long- (and possibly medium-) term ecstasy use can lead to depression and especially unnatural paranoia, which I don't see mentioned here. Anyone have any reliable information? --Delirium 07:42 10 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Not really. There are very few proper studies on Ecstasy (and many other illeagal/non-prescription drugs) and its long term effects. Those that are often contridict or are mis-reported in drug education campaigns. However this is not to say that such effects do not occur but the body of eveidence is low compared to other drugs.
A lot of information that users use is anecdotal or hypothesis of experienced professionsals.
Decent research is a general problem with all recreational drugs unfortunatly. Alex
I'm rephrasing the "enitre months supply" because as far as I can tell no research that points to the amount dumped, and it will be subjective and related to dose... Alex
Hey, I just wanted to make a note here: I'm going to remove the phrase "notwithstanding the tremendous amount of FUD propagated through the media by well-financed, politically motivated anti-drug groups (including some scientists)." due to its inherently POV nature. Any problems?
MDMA is said to have been used during world war II on the Russian Front by the Germans
In light of the recent section renaming does anyone think it would be worth splitting of the Chemistry (and possibly pharmacoligical) bits into an article on MDMA leaving this article to deal with the recreational effects and legal issues? - Alex