Ecstasy: The MDMA Story

By Eisner

The history of ecstasy, its discovery and use and social implications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronin Publishing
• Release date: Jan 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781579511456

Book preview

What they’re saying about . . .

Ecstasy: The MDMA Story

A remarkably complete, courageous and well-researched work.

—American Book Review

It is possible Bruce Eisner’s book will play a role in dispelling misconceptions about MDMA. The book is a splendid summary of the drug’s history, usage and effects.

—Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

author of Healing States, Dream Working, Personal Mythology

Bruce Eisner has spent time in both the world of academic psychology and as a journalist covering the psychedelic scene. He has written a masterly book about an important new mind-changer which is scholarly and readable. I enthusiastically recommend it!

—Timothy Leary, Ph.D.

performing philosopher

The first compendium of the pertinent MDMA data. Eisner’s book is helpful, wise and balanced.

—Peter Stafford

author of Psychedelics Encyclopedia

Bruce Eisner has created an excellent study of how hysterical and ignorant bureaucrats create drug problems while trying to solve drug problems. Before we plunge headlong into a totalitarian state, I wish every American citizen would read this book.

—Robert Anton Wilson

"This book presents the significant findings concerning MDMA, or ‘Ecstasy’ . . . The very large numbers of people who now self-experiment with this drug should benefit from the wealth of information—including the fact that longer-term effects on the brain are still unknown . . .

It is absolutely certain that a new world is dawning in which alterations of brain function and states of consciousness will be accepted and of great value . . . A substance such as MDMA—reminiscent as it is of Homer’s Nepenthe—will banish many of the now ‘normal woes’ of everyday life.

—R. E. L. Masters, Ph.D.

co-author of The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience and Mind Games

Ecstasy: The MDMA Story

Second Edition

ISBN: 978-1-57951-145-6

Copyright 1989, 1994 by Bruce Eisner

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author or the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Project Editors: Sebastian Orfali, Dan Joy, Ginger Ashworth

Manuscript Readers: Alexander Shulgin, Lester Grispoon, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Claudio Naranjo

Typography: Peter Stafford, Aiden Kelley

Cover: Copyright 1992: LordNose! (Mark Franklyn)

Chemical Drawing: C.hristopher and Kim Workdelay

Half-tones: Norman Mayell

Disclaimer:

Neither author nor the publisher condone or encourage the possession, use, manufacture of any illegal substances. The material herein is presented for reference and informational purposes only. The author and publisher advise against breaking the law and against any action involving hazard to person and/or property. Consult your attorney and physician. Readers are urged to support, authorized research and to work for more intelligent drug laws.

U.S. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bruce Eisner

Ecstasy: The MDMA Story

Includes Appendix, Bibliography & Index

1. Psychology. 2. Hallucinogenic drugs. 3. Drug Lawsd 4. Psychopharmacology. I. Title.

Dedication

To David Banton

Acknowledgements

To Peter Stafford, who typeset this book three times and read it at least 17 times;

Alexander Shulgin, who offered generous help and guidance;

Kim and Christopher Workdelay for chemical drawings and comment.

Sebastian Orfali, who patiently guided me through the steps from manuscript to volume;

Claudio Naranjo, to whose Gurdjieff I attempt to play Ouspensky;

Irene Ehrlich, for support and encouragement;

Will Penna, for editing and suggestions on the second edition; and to the many therapists, anonymous pamphlet writers and other brave explorers who first ventured into the territories I have mapped.

The author has made every effort to trace the ownership of all copyright and quoted material presented. In the event of any question arising as to the use of a selection, he offers his apologies for any errors or omissions and will make the necessary corrections in future printings.

Thanks are due to the following:

Ralph Metzner, Through the Gateway of the Heart, (© 1985) Four Trees Press

Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Ecstatic Electricity, New York Talk, 1985 Claudio Naranjo, M.D., The Healing Journey (© 1973)

Joe Klien, The New Drug They Call Ecstasy: Is It Too Much to Swallow? (© 1988) New America Publishing, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of New York magazine

Alexander T. Shulgin, Ph.D., Twenty Years on My Ever-Changing Quest, Psychedelic Reflections (© 1983)

George Greer, M.D. and Requa Tolbert, R.N., MDMA: A New Psychotropic Compound and Its Effects in Humans (© 1986)

George Greer, M.D. Using MDMA in Psychotherapy, Big Sur, California, March 10-15, 1985 (© 1986)

Getting High on Ecstasy, (© Newsweek, April 15, 1985)

Peter Stafford, Psychedelics Encyclopedia (© 1983, 1992) Ronin Publishing, Inc.

Cynthia Robins, The Ecstatic Cybernetic Amino Acid Test, San Francisco Examiner Image, February 16, 1992

Contents

Ecstasy: Then and Now

Prologue Ecstasy Revisited

Foreword by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

Introduction by Peter Stafford

Formula Chemical Synthesis for MDMA by Alexander Shulgin

Preface Ecstatic Easter

Ecstasy: The MDMA Story

Chapter I Introducing Adam

Chapter II What Is an Empathogen?

Chapter III The Uses of an Entactogen

Chapter IV Some Experiences

Chapter V A Guide for Users

Chapter VI Future Potentialities

Appendices

Appendix I MDMA’s Family Tree: Chemistry and Physiological Effects

Appendix II Report on MDMA Neurotoxicity and Current Research by Rick Doblin

Appendix III Bibliography

List of Illustrations

Party goers at a New Year’s Eve rave organized by Toon Town in San Francisco (© 1993 by Marc Geller).

A selection of rave handbills from the early 1990’s

Ecstasy, by Maxfield Parish

Alexander T. Shulgin, Ph.D., who first reported on the effects of MDMA (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Doonesbury takes off on MDMA (Doonesbury © 1985 G. B. Trudeau. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved)

Ronald Siegel, Ph.D., a witness for the DEA (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Through the Gateway of the Heart, an excellent book of vivid first-hand MDMA experiences

June Riedlinger, D. Pharm., who testified at the DEA MDMA hearings (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Proceedings of the MDMA Conference in May 1986, which were published in Vol. 18, No. 4 of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (© Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 1986)

Rick Ingrasci, M.D., a Boston therapist who used MDMA in couples therapy (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Andrew Weil, M.D. (photo compliments of Andrew Weil)

Timothy Leary, Ph.D., who didn’t wait six weeks to marry . . . (courtesy of Panacea Entertainment Management and Communications)

. . . Barbara Leary (photo compliments of Timothy Leary)

David Nichols, Ph.D., who defined a new class of psychoactive compounds—the entactogens (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

George Greer, M.D., and Requa Tolbert, R.N., the MDMA therapy team that conducted the first clinical study (photo compliments of George Greer)

Joseph Downing, M.D., who used MDMA in his therapy practice (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Philip E. Wolfson, M.D., who used MDMA to treat psychotics (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

Claudio Naranjo, M.D., author of The Healing Journey

An MDMA crystal magnified by an electronic microscope 410 times (© 1988 by Marc Franklin)

MDMA crystals

Nutmeg, a psychoactive spice, is the dried seed within the fruit of an East Indian tree, Myristica fragrans (Grieve, A Modern Herbal)

Myristica (nutmeg) (Squibb Handbook, 1896)

Sassafras is a botanical source used in synthesizing MDA-like compounds (Grieve, A Modern Herbal)

Mace (Squibb Handbook, 1896)

Chemical Structure of Mescaline and the Phenethylamines (Kim and Christopher Workdelay)

Chemical Structure of Those in the MDMA Series (Kim and Christopher Workdelay)

Chemical Structure of MDMA and Its Variations (Kim and Christopher Workdelay)

Gordon Alles, discoverer of the psychoactive effects of MDA (Cal. Inst. Tech. Archives)

MDMA Mass Spectrum (Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, © 1986)

Archives—An unusually large MDA crystal grown in ethanol (Jeremy Bigwood, Psychedelics Encyclopedia, © Peter Stafford 1983)

Bruce Eisner, author of Ecstasy: The MDMA Story (photo compliments of Karen Saltzman)

Young people dancing at a New Year’s Eve rave organized by Toon Town in San Francisco

Young people dancing at a New Year’s Eve rave organized by Toon Town in San Francisco

Prologue: Ecstasy Revisited

THE FIRST EDITION of this book, published in February 1989, chronicled the introduction of a powerful psychoactive entity into the world. Nicknamed Adam after the primordial being, but known in chemical nomenclature as MDMA, this substance (methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine) is the most prominent member of a new generation of mind-altering compounds with family roots in the psychedelics. But unlike its predecessors such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin, this chemical has a personality that is precise, predictable—and almost universally pleasant. By the time this book made its appearance, these qualities had already made Adam—or Ecstasy, as it is now commonly called—a favorite among spiritual seekers, yuppies, and psychotherapists alike.

Release of the first edition occurred during perhaps the single most turbulent week in the history of the drug war. Headlines focused on the appointment of a new drug czar and stories appeared about marijuana dealers who reportedly ate their babies. Fear about Ecstasy and its possible effects on the brain was spreading. Around this time, recreational MDMA use—which had been on a rapid upswing—began to drop drastically and rumors about its dangers abounded.

My first appearances on talk shows and at public lectures reflected these concerns. Frequently, two or three different audience members or call-ins would confront me with the same questions during a single appearance: Does Ecstasy drain your spinal fluid? Is it true that MDMA causes Parkinson’s disease? There was hardly time to talk about Ecstasy’s positive uses and benefits.

Four years later, the climate has changed. The curtains have closed on Act One of the Ecstasy drama and have opened on another—with new scenes, fresh characters, and unexpected twists of plot.

Several exciting developments have taken place since the publication of the first edition. The National Institute on Drug Abuse study of recreational use of MDMA, the burgeoning international rave or Acid House youth movement, and Ecstasy’s declining purity on the street are all covered here. Also included are brief overviews of new information regarding MDMA’s alleged toxicity and of research efforts recently initiated in Switzerland and the U.S., two subjects given a more detailed treatment in Rick Doblin’s Appendix. This Prologue also features an explanation of the synthesis of MDMA by psychopharmacologist Alexander Shulgin, an update of the original edition’s Guide for Users, and closes with further thoughts on the future of this breakthrough compound.

The NIDA Study

The most memorable seminar on the topic of MDMA in which I participated after this book’s initial launch took place at Will Nofke’s Shared Visions seminar center in Berkeley in 1989. Co-leading the event was Jerome Beck, primary author of the National Institute on Drug Abuse study that served as the basis for his doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley (Beck’s book In Pursuit of Ecstasy should be available soon).

Almost every time I summarized an observation from my book, Beck would leap in with confirmations from his study. I don’t recall a single point of disagreement between the two of us—even though Beck’s research hadn’t even commenced when my book was written and was still under way when it was published. I was gratified by the discovery that an independent empirical study had validated many of the ideas put forth in the 1989 edition—which would have been greatly enhanced had Beck’s results been available for inclusion at the time of publication. For instance, Beck’s topography of the stages of an MDMA trip was congruent with my own—but was documented in his study by reports from a broad cross-section of users spanning diverse social categories.

Titled Exploring Ecstasy: A Description of MDMA Users, the 253-page study lists Beck as project director; Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D. and Patricia A. Morgan, Ph.D. as principle investigators; and Deborah Harlow, Douglas McDonnell, and Lynne Watson as coauthors. Employing a primarily sociological methodology, the NIDA report bases its conclusions on intensive interviews with 100 MDMA users and supplemental interviews with MDMA distributors.

The NIDA study makes fascinating reading in large part because of the authors’ use of excerpts from their interview transcripts to illustrate each point. It focuses on the reports of the users themselves to demonstrate that MDMA—because of the unusual social strata in which its use occurs and the extraordinarily low frequency of addictive behavior associated with it—is a truly unique phenomenon among recreational drugs.

Despite the many places where this book and the NIDA study dovetail, there are three significant subjects explored by the report that are barely touched upon in these pages: extreme abuse of MDMA; the sociological terrain covered by MDMA use; and the history of its dissemination.

The authors of the NIDA study divide the abuse of MDMA into two types: binge use and frequent use. They point out the striking parallels between abusive consumption of MDMA and syndromes more commonly associated with cocaine and amphetamines. By way of example, I was surprised to receive a letter after the publication of this book from a binge user who reported on his addictive use of MDMA. Once he started, he was compelled to continue using the drug for its stimulant properties. Even though he was besieged by mounting side effects, he could not stop for days on end. Beck and I concur that such abuse patterns occur very rarely because of their unpleasant and rapidly felt consequences.

The NIDA study also observed that MDMA users could be grouped according to six social categories: college students, new age spiritual seekers, gays, Deadheads, participants in the Acid House scene, and the mid-’eighties contingent from Dallas, where use of Ecstasy exploded when large amounts of the compound became available. The report documents similarities and differences in patterns of use among these various social arenas, and concludes that usage was abating in all of these spheres at the time the research was being conducted.

The researchers’ examination of distribution channels adds depth to our understanding of the spread of the Ecstasy phenomenon. It confirms this book’s account of the massive jump in volume that occurred around 1984 when the primary channels of distribution shifted to the Texas Group from the small, quiet cadre of users that had largely monopolized the drug in the late ’seventies and early ’eighties. This transition played a crucial role in the criminalization of MDMA. The NIDA study also offers a discussion of the personal motivations and experiences of distributors drawn from extensive interview material.

The report concludes by stating, Given how much we really know about MDMA and its users, the obvious recommendation forthcoming from this exploratory study is for more research exploring all facets of this substance. Such research is just now getting underway.

Although a rich exploration of early recreational use of MDMA, the NIDA study, published on September 15, 1989, was somewhat premature in its conclusion that the Acid House phenomenon had failed to catch on. In the intervening four years, the rave underground has rapidly blossomed into a full-blown youth subculture whose development has been accompanied by a new upsurge in the use of MDMA.

The Rave Scene in England

According to some accounts, the rave scene began in 1987 when working youth from England began to hold parties on the Spanish island of Ibiza. These gatherings featured all-night dancing to a propulsive, trance-inducing, heavily electronic, new form of music. The new sound was dubbed Acid House after the House music of Chicago, from which it borrowed the practice of acid burn—using snippets or samples of previously recorded music to build a throbbing sonic collage. While the acid in Acid House originally bore no reference to LSD, the psychedelic was often used to fuel a night of dancing ’til dawn.

Later, the drug of choice became MDMA, and the celebrations spread to England, where raves—as Acid House parties then came to be known—became a huge phenomenon. Perhaps most remarkable about the early English gatherings was the camaraderie evident among members of diverse ethnic, social, and economic groups—no doubt at least partially stimulated by the presence of empathogens. The true import of this breakdown of cultural barriers can only be understood in the context of the relatively rigid stratification of traditional British society.

With large numbers of young people taking illegal drugs, it wasn’t long before Parliament had passed a number of increasingly harsh laws against MDMA and against raves themselves. To avoid police harassment, raves moved from traditional nightclub venues to less predictable locations such as empty warehouses and open fields along the Orbital, the highway encircling London. In X Magazine, Christian Barthodsson reports:

Ardent dancers come flocking from all the surrounding cities, often up to 30,000 dedicated ravers. To make it a little bit harder for the police to raid, the place where the party is held is kept secret until the very last moment. Then it’s up to the raver to find out where it is, and the standard way is to dig your way though a certain number of phone hotlines that give you the needed information. However, the bigger the raves are, the easier it is to track them down. According to legend, James Hamilton once drove around London late at night headed for Heathrow Airport, when he saw rotating floodlights, and heard a distant rumble. Convinced that it was the airport, he drove along the road only to suddenly find himself in the middle of an ongoing rave . . .

Since the raves began, the increase in the use of Ecstasy in the U.K. has continued—albeit along a rather twisted path. In January of 1992, my publisher forwarded to me the following letter from England:

I am not a doctor or anything, just a curious 20 year old, who got involved with MDMA back in July last year. I decided to find out about the drug and what it was doing to me after I read a book called The Vitamin Bible by Earl Mindell that basically showed me that if you are taking drugs, you need to be taking vitamin and mineral supplements as well (which you rightly pointed out in your book).

Basically I am telling you this, as I greatly need your help. There is widespread use of Ecstasy in this country among the young (some users as young as 14). And abuse of the drug is growing all the time. While I don’t expect any of them to stop (I’m not into preaching), I do believe they ought to know the score. As you must know there are now lots of different types of Ecstasy tabs with names like White Doves (mostly MDMA), and Triple X’s (to put it frankly, full of crap). Some of them don’t have any MDMA, and many have cocaine, smack, and concentrated caffeine (the last one is a guess) so nowadays taking Ecstasy is like playing Russian roulette with your life. Already youngsters have died (obviously from something put in the drug or from some negative synergy). I can honestly say I don’t think that would have happened if MDMA was legal and I think your argument on that is completely right.

Yours Hopefully,

Claire Henderson

After receiving the letter, I corresponded with Claire, who supplied me with articles from the U.K. press. Gradually what was happening in England came into focus. The clippings she has sent remind me strongly of the stories that emerged about LSD in the ’sixties in the U.S. Although over one-half million people are said to take their tablet on any given weekend, there have been a few deaths at raves in England. The press has used these incidents to condemn both raves and MDMA use.

When Claire first wrote to me, the reasons for these deaths were not known. Medical authorities have now determined that these deaths are related to heatstroke caused by a combination of high temperatures in rave clubs, continuous dancing, and dehydration. It seems that some rave promoters in England turn off the water in bathrooms and at drinking fountains in order to sell more drinks. Young ravers, their financial resources tapped by increasingly expensive admission prices and therefore unable to afford equally over-priced drinks, have suffered the consequence of the exploitation by a greedy few of a subculture which, as British musician-producer Brian Eno has noted, was originally characterized by a refreshing lack of cynicism.

To put the English situation in perspective, it has been estimated that the average individual in England is 10 times more likely to die in a car accident, and for those who play soccer 33 times more likely to die on the soccer field, than an individual who uses Ecstasy is likely to die from taking the drug. While there have been some deaths directly attributed to this compound, the victims who have allegedly taken MDMA may well have ingested substitutes or combinations of drugs. With thousands of people dying every year due to tobacco- and alcohol-related causes, Ecstasy turns out to be safe by comparison.

Raves in the U.S.

With the pressures from English authorities growing ever greater, some of the most idealistic rave promoters and DJs traveled to California. In early 1991, one of the first large U.S. raves was held by a group called Toontown in San Francisco. Toontown ballooned in size to gatherings in excess of 7,000 people and sparked dozens of other events. On any given weekend night, there may be as many as a dozen raves occurring simultaneously in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Cynthia Robins offers this account of one such event in the February 16, 1992, issue of the San Francisco Examiner Image magazine:

By five minutes after midnight, New Year’s Eve, the music has been going for three hours. But the party is just starting to build. By 2 A.M., 6000 bodies are shoehorned into a cavernous space below San Francisco’s Fashion Center, buffeted, embraced, and engulfed by sound and lights caroming off the concrete walls, floors and ceilings.

Like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia, the DJ directs the flow of energy with controlled waves of sound. Prancing like a high priest in front of dual turntables and a control panel whose decibel levels constantly violate the red line, he weaves a seamless skein, a solid blanket of sound. He is an electronic shaman. No one escapes his spell. Relentless, the music is almost all bass—a boom da boom da boom da boom da boom cranked to marrow-boiling levels, plunging ahead at fetal heartbeat cadence. An incessant 118–126 beats per minute tickled incidentally by featureless vocals and snatches of sampled riffs and melody. The beat soaks your shoes, enters your feet like a tidal surge and then charges up your body to attack your groin. If you have one ounce of rhythm, you gotta dance. If you don’t, you gotta leave.

The lights synch with the sound—pulsing, whipping, whirling. Video screens televise live crowd shots overlaid with psychedelic fractal patterns. Laser-green light rays explode on the floor like shattered snakes. Smoke machines spew faux fog through which Intellebeam spots direct shards of color and white light, fragmenting on bodies, walls and ceilings like an ak-ak barrage in Baghdad.

The total sensory environment wraps the dancers in a techno-cocoon. It is disco inferno, psychedelic apocalypse.

All around you are heaving bodies. Belles in leather and lace. Beaux in jimmy-mams and exaggerated Dr. Seuss Cat-in-the-Hats. Men in garter belts. Women stripped down to jeans and bras. Drag queens. Gender benders. Hoary-headed hipsters. The straight, the gay, the old, the young. Mostly young. A phantasmagoria hurled from the bar scene in Star Wars.

Their arms stretch heavenward. Eyes roll back, looking not at the fusillade of imagery, but inward. They dance like lone wolves, occasionally entering