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Ecstasy Begets Empathy - MDMA and the Middle East
(Sheerly Avni, Salon, September 12, 2002)
Last week, an essay in the Psychologist, a magazine published by the British Psychological Society, called into question the validity of recent research on the effects of Ecstasy. . . . but the question the researchers had hoped to raise -- whether MDMA may have medical benefits -- was lost in the din. And not for the first time, according to Dr. Charles Grob, a longtime researcher of MDMA and hallucinogenic drugs and one of the study's three authors. . . . We never said it wasn't dangerous. Clearly, Ecstasy use in today's recreational drug scene is full of risks. . . . Well, I think, as far as medical marijuana is concerned, the charge is that people who support medical marijuana would also support the legalization of marijuana for recreational or personal use. With MDMA, I look at it as a very valuable potential adjunctive treatment, but on the other hand, I would say that there are serious risks involved with recreational use. So I am very reluctant to advocate that this drug be used in a recreational drug scene. It's a problematic drug in how it's used, and people are overdoing it. . . . There are a number of problems. First of all, there is rampant substitution going on. The reliability of the drug Ecstasy is very poor. Whereas 10 years ago you could be pretty sure that all Ecstasy was MDMA, today that is not the case at all. Things have changed radically. Surveys are indicating that often more than 50 percent of surveyed Ecstasy turned out to be drugs other than MDMA. . . . Some are potentially lethal like paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, and you really have no idea what you're getting. In fact, that's the strongest argument I can muster when I talk to young people about the dangers of the youth recreational drug scene. Drug substitution with Ecstasy is like no other drug that I've ever seen. You really have no idea what is in the pill. So right off the bat, that makes it very problematic. . . . you can also have interactions with prescription medications that people take to treat medical conditions. . . . you couldn't do this with Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat because I'm sure they are in terrible medical shape, but what about taking their children, who are adults, and get them together and provide a sanctioned, medically facilitated MDMA session? Let them have a mutually emphathogenic experience, get in the shoes of the other, feel the pain and the suffering that the other has gone through, and then take a few steps toward feeling what a mutual understanding could be like?

posted by LoZo 2:26 PM