MDMA

Important Update:
Pictured above: Sasha and Ann Shulgin by Alex Grey

If you get a rash on your face and neck when first taking MDMA, this is a huge danger sign that due to your genetics your kidneys cannot process it and you should refrain from using it, ever as you could easily die from kidney failure..
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4wbe8b/can-you-really-die-from-an-mdma-allergy

First, my background. Second, the risks. Third, harm reduction and practical application.

I’m not going to go into the rewards, since I do not want to encourage trial adoption.

I have taken MDMA hundreds of times. But when I turned the Jesus age of 33 I took stock in what I did. When I was run out of Twilo by Sasha & Digweeed’s manager for throwing rival parties and setting up the brain machines in “his” space, I escaped the Twilo Titanic, the capital of the MDMA culture behind for a cleaner psy-trance scene, I felt a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Overall, considering the benefit I received, I do not regret taking MDMA, but would have taken a purer form and taken it with less frequency. There are definitely risks and I am sure there was “pruning” on my serotonin generation abilities, which just may possibly have not returned to baseline.

E is harmful, like alcohol and cigarettes and too much of anything – possibly even more toxic than amphetamines such as Ritalin.

I have been on MTV multiple times with my domain name flashing but was incredibly misquoted (surprise!). All my footage of saying how to best avoid harm using MDMA (see below) was cut out.

The debate now is fought by many who have no clue as to the subtleties of the scientific and therapeutic arguments for or against legalization or laboratory research into the relation of emotion to neurochemistry. I personally warn against its use as too “high risk.” An Abomination to use on a regular basis, with callous disregard to your long term neural structure.

In an ideal world, it would be a tool for doctors and sufferers of terminal illness and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (currently being tested), not recklessly hedonistic sybarites. If I did it all again I would have taken it only with loved ones in an intimate setting, and much less frequently, with SSRI’s in hand to alleviate damage afterward (see below).

Do NOT take MDMA if you’re taking Nardil or any heavy-duty MAO Inhibitor on an ongoing basis. If you’re unsure, check. You can DIE from the hypertensive crisis. People have.

Armed with the Truth, Be Responsible

The tone here changes… because I have taken MDMA hundreds of times over two decades and have benefited greatly from its effects. I know people who have met and married on MDMA and are still married. I have also smoked cigarettes which have undoubtedly caused greater harm.

Dosage

If you give humans too little MDMA, many are uncomfortable, unsocial, and agitated. If you give humans too much MDMA, they are speedy, anxious, and insane.. So the window is pretty small, even for humans, where the effects are extremely social, opening, and bonding. Let’s say 50-400mgs in a single dose as a generous range for humans, with most people finding 90-200mgs the proper ‘good’ range.

Allaying imbalance in your Neurochemistry

There is some evidence that taking Melatonin can prep your neurochemistry before MDMA or reboot your brain after taking MDMA. There is also some practice of taking ONE SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, e.g. Prozac, Zoloft, or Paxil) the morning after, for that’s when the damage hits – the two days after ingestion. It stops the effects of MDMA in its tracks, but should prevent any neurotransmitter damage. But taking too much can result in a hypertensive crisis and a near-fatal response. You’re playing with fire, is it REALLY worth it?

Pre-loading is an attempt to enhance the good effects of MDMA and reduce the negative ones. These vitamins and amino acids are all available from health food shops. Many people who have tried pre-loading say that it helps a great deal. The most important one to take is 5-HTP which is a precursor of serotonin. But 5HTP can make the experience so intense as to be more potentially damaging to vulnerable individuals.

Pre-loading with precursors of the neurotransmitters depleted by MDMA will give you a better roll and ease your comedown.

Dr. Tom Oth writes (in the MDMA Clearinghouse Forum):

1. 200-500mg 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)
2. 500-1000mg tyrosine
3. 500-1500mg DLPA
4. 2 grams glutamine
5. 1 gram of vitamin C

Take 1 hour before rolling with some grapefruit juice. The sugar will spike your insulin and help the aminos cross the blood-brain barrier. You will be amazed.

1-3 are amino acids, precursors of serotonin, dopamine & noradrenaline. 4 is another amino acid – it’s like glucose for the brain.

5 is required for neurotransmitter production and is a good antioxidant.

5-HTP is the most important supplement so don’t be tempted to skip it. If you don’t want to neck all that lot then skip the Tyrosine & DLPA, although they do have a noticeable effect in most people. I would take it about an hour ahead of time and the juice does make a difference.

The basic idea is that MDMA will deplete stores of the neurotransmitters in your brain. The MDMA experience is largely caused by your neurons firing rapidly and releasing Serotonin & Dopamine. Supplementing your diet with the precursors to these neurotransmitters will ensure that you get the maximum out of the MDMA. The supplements are not drugs themselves, they are nutrients.

Serotonin = empathy, contentment, bliss, love, head rushes

Dopamine = energy, euphoria, body rushes ((the ‘speedy’ effect)

5-HTP replaces Serotonin. Tyrosine & DLPA replace Dopamine. DLPA also has other functions but I’m not clear on them and they’re not too important in this context. These aminos will circulate in the bloodstream and some will cross the Blood-Brain Barrier and be synthesized into the appropriate neurotransmitter.

Take one hour before dropping your pill. Any fruit juice will do by the way. I usually take Cola anyway for the additional caffeine. You should not eat for 3-4 hours before you drop. If you get hungry eat foods containing no protein as proteins will break down into amino acids and reduce the effect of the pre-load. You should get a longer & stronger roll and not feel so fucked afterwards.

Additional information contributed by Kallisti -Malaclypse the Youngst KSC (Mal-3) :

Magnesium cuts down on jaw clenching. B6 is required for the conversion of 5-HTP into 5HT so taking some Vitamin B6 might help. 5-HTP should be taken after, maybe with an SSRI (prozac, Zolaf, etc) to cut down on the axon trimming and serotonin depletion that occurs afterward and creates tolerance and “Post-E Depression”.

For more information check out the Neurotransmitters page.

Use in Therapy

The mild psychedelic drugs which act upon serotonin, such as MDMA (‘Ecstasy’) and MBDB (‘Eden’) are more suitable for ‘talking therapies’, and LSD can sometimes also be used to good effect depending upon the circumstances, although it is often too chaotic when used as the sole substance (the combination of MDMA followed by LSD at 90 minutes results in preservation of the ego and an anchoring in consensus reality which is particularly valuable for psychotherapeutic purposes, as a result of neurochemical changes and tolerance induced by the preceding MDMA).

By the way, it is pleasant to mash balloons against the ears so as to hear music as if in a big bubble.

What makes MDMA stand apart?

According to Nichols MBDB, less potent by weight is similar to MDMA and has been identified as a milder empathy inducing “entactogen” (to touch within) without the initial stimulant “rush” or very much euphoria.

MDA/MDMA affects dopamine and serotonin.

MBDB affects serotonin only and has the classic jaw clenching and nystagmus (“eye wiggling”).

So maybe the dopamine effect is responsible for the “speed” effect?

“The results suggest that the effects of MDMA at 20 min postadministration are solely serotonergic in nature. At 105 min post-injection, there appears to be the presence of a weak dopaminergic component. This biphasic serotonergic-then-dopaminergic action of MDMA may explain the reported human experience with the drug, as well as the often controversial results in the literature. “

Isn’t this seemingly the wrong way? In humans, we get stimulation first which should be due to dopamine effect?. Very odd.

The same article states that MDMA trained rats generalized to TFMPP and fenfluramine. Serotonin antagonists decreased MDMA discrimination with dopamine decreasing drugs having no effect.

TFMPP is an anxiogenic/panicogenic agent affecting serotonin (5-HT1B/1C)
which is alleged by those selling it on the net to be MDMA-like when taken with a stimulant.

New study of MDMA users and memory

There is a growing body of evidence that ravers who use lots of MDMA have memory scores well within the normal range, but still significantly lower on average than controls. How much of this is preexisting, how much is due to MDMA, how much to the combination of MDMA and marijuana, how clinically significant this is, what relevance does this have to therapeutic use, what role sleep deprivation plays, is this acute or long-term, is it temporary or permanent, etc???

In the study by Jacqui Rodgers and Dave Sanders of the University of Sunderland, do the people who combine MDMA and marijuana show the same problems with verbal memory as cannabis users, but also the inability to retain info till the end of the interview? So many questions that I have a difficult time commenting.

These studies have many inherent methodological limitations. At present, memory is the only area of functional or behavioral consequences that has been linked to MDMA. Only rigorous prospective research will fully resolve these issues.

Up to 10 percent of Caucasians lack an enzyme that protects the liver from damage by ecstasy

A rash that looks like acne may identify people who risk suffering severe side effects if they take ecstasy, according to a German dermatologist.

Uwe Wollina of the University of Jena first noticed the symptoms when a woman was admitted to the university hospital with liver failure after taking ecstasy. “She developed a facial rash that resembled acne, but wasn’t,” says Wollina. The rash vanished when the woman received treatment for her liver failure. Another ecstasy user being treated for drug-induced psychosis developed a similar rash. It cleared up within a few days, by which time the drug had left the patient’s system. In both cases, the reddish pimples only appeared on the face and throat.

Wollina suspects he knows why ecstasy users can be plagued with spots. “The underlying mechanism may be in the serotonin pathways,” he says. Ecstasy stops nerve cells from reabsorbing the neurotransmitter serotonin, so high concentrations can build up in the brain and other tissues. Wollina suggests that high levels of serotonin enhance blood flow to the face, boosting the activity of the sebaceous glands that can produce spots when they become blocked.

While it may be difficult to distinguish normal teenage spots from the drug-fuelled variety, Wollina believes the pimples can reveal ecstasy use among older people. “If a patient with acne turns up in the surgery who has never before had spots on the face, one should be wary,” he says. However, only a urine test for metabolites of the drug can prove someone is using ecstasy.

Wollina believes the condition indicates that the body is under stress from taking the drug. He suspects that people who break out in spots after taking ecstasy will develop other symptoms more readily, even if they are not heavy users. “The side effects are not dose-dependent,” he says.

Other researchers are intrigued by the idea that Wollina has found a marker for ecstasy-induced liver damage. “There have been several cases of liver failures from the ecstasy that went on to require liver transplants,” says Robert Forrest, a forensic pathologist at the University of Sheffield who has been called in to investigate a number of ecstasy-related deaths.

Forrest says that up to 10 percent of Caucasians lack an enzyme that protects the liver from damage by ecstasy. But they are not the only ones at risk: a letter published in The Lancet (vol 353, p 593) earlier this month describes three cases of ecstasy-induced liver failure in people with apparently normal enzymes. If spots on the face really do identify those at risk, users could receive an early warning of the dangers they face.

MDMA Testing Kits

In Amsterdam they sell Ecstasy testing kits legally in “Smart Shops” which are the equivalent of head shops in the US. A 40+-year-old friend of mine who has a Masters Degree in Public Health from one of the top Universities in the United States decided to conduct his own non-scientific study of Ecstasy sold in clubs throughout Amsterdam, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami. He talked to several people in the clubs in Amsterdam after he acquired the kits and they said that the testing kits were reliable and approved by the government.

In some of the clubs safe drug groups were reported to be openly testing the drug in the clubs but this was not witnessed by my friend. He shipped 100 of these kits back to the U.S. When he arrived in the US the envelopes had a seal on them “Open and Inspected by the US Customs Service”. Nevertheless they were delivered to the appropriate mailing address. The implication is that such kits are legal to own in the US though I do not know of any place in the US where they can be purchased. He acquired Ecstasy capsules in two clubs in Amsterdam and they turned black when the solution was applied to them indicating they were MDMA (there were different colors for MDA, MDEA, Speed, etc.)

Thus armed he decided to conduct his own non-scientific survey in the US. Over the course of the next six months, he purchased various kinds of Ecstasy tablets in clubs from people whose friends said were regular sources of the drug in those clubs. In most of the major clubs, there seem to a handful of individuals who are sources of MDMA who have a good reputation (as in not selling “bad” stuff) in the local community. These individuals had been around for a while and they had not been known to sell drugs that were known to produce unusual or unexpected results. It should be added that these were considered top clubs in their communities, had cover charges ranging from ten to twenty dollars, and were “21 and over” clubs. This is to distinguish them from the “rave scene” where the writer has no experience as to who sells what to who.

Overall he purchased over 100 pills and capsules in each of the three cities. About 80% of the Ecstasy purchased tested black (MDMA) and the rest turned the color of MDA and MDEA. How accurate the testing kits are in unknown. The effects of the drugs that tested black still varied from being speedy (i.e., a brand sold as RN’s) at one end of the spectrum and Ecstasy that produced heavy eyes (a brand known as “Apples”) at the other end of the spectrum. Thus even though samples tested as MDMA they still produced different results … I assume that one factor would be the quantity of MDMA in each sample tested.

He also told me that the kits seem to have a shelf life of about 4 months and the small amount of solution in each tube evaporated after about 4 months.

From: Emanuel Sferios eman@tsoft.com
Subject: Ingredients of the Marquis reagent kits

The ingredients of Marquis reagent is:

90% sulfuric acid
10% formaldehyde

The E-Z Test people in Holland changed the mixture to this:

90% sulfuric acid
5% formaldehyde
5% methanol

They changed it because they were (still are, I think) seeking a patent, and you cannot patent straight-up Marquis reagent since it is such a standard chemical. Now here’s the interesting part…
l
Both the E-Z test people and the Green party in England were (still are) claiming that the addition of 5% methanol slows down the reaction enough in order to distinguish between the empathogens. We have determined in our laboratory analysis project that this is false. The methanol-“enhanced”Marquis reagent works no different from standard marquis in this regard, and will NOT distinguish between MDMA, MDA, MDE, or MBDB.

Check out our website for recent lab results: www.harmreduction.net

Emanuel Sferios, Ecstasy Harm Reduction Project
510-286-7942

From: ewoud@mdma.nl (ewoud vijfwinkel)

Dear everyone, I’ve been following the discussion you started about the EZ Test with great interest and I would like to make a contribution to tell you about the problems we’ve encountered, so far. In 1997 the Dutch government decided in all their wisdom to put a ban on certain chemicals, which were widely used in the production of illegal drugs such as ecstasy. (the mdp2p’s). We forecasted a dramatic fall in quality and countered with the development of the EZ Test, a variation on the Marquis reagent. Our forecast proved to come true as the quality had dropped by the end of 1997 and only 15 % of everything sold on the market was pure XTC . Since we have been on the market the government-sponsored drug-checking program has seen this percentage go up to 90%. A dramatic event was the arrival of pills that contained atropine, one of the visionary tropanes, which caused massive amounts of people tripping bad at parties all over Holland. Also, a couple of casualties were registered as they forgot who they were and unfortunately killed themselves by jumping in the water and such. At this point we started marketing the product through smartshops, with the motto ‘just say know’. At first, we had a booklet that came with it that suggested a noticeable difference in detecting MDMA, MDEA, MDA, and MBDB. Soon we discovered that this was not the case since there are too many factors influencing the reaction and we changed the packaging accordingly in March 1998. By that time the booklet had been copied by the green party in England, who decided to market Marquis in the dropper bottles. The people who distributed the EZ Test for us in the UK, stole the logo and went on selling Marquis with the old booklet. We told everyone that they were making a mistake but unfortunately, no one was listening. The reason that we only bring the test in the plastic tube in such a small amount is the following: glass can and will break and the reclosable lid can and will come off at some point thereby leaking sulphuric acid in ones pants. We know, we did the fool test on it.

You should be aware that most people who are walking around with the stuff are under the influence of a drug and we felt we should protect them against themselves. Also, and maybe even more important, a small amount will keep them come back to the point of sale. This has commercial value, of course, we do not do it for the money though, but there is also the opportunity to

inform people about the actual state of the market. The flyer that comes with it should have been used by harm reduction groups by now to warn about tablets that contain substances with a heightened health risk.

However, the Dutch harm reduction groups who are totally depending on the government have not taken this opportunity. At this point, we are working together with a German group to reach this goal and also offer a free quantitative and qualitative analysis by a lab.

We are aware of the limitations of the reagents we use. There is always a possibility of a false-positive reaction, after all, it is a reaction on the benzene ring. We emphasize this in the information material. I can think of a couple of substances that will give this reaction. I do not believe that these will be very likely to occur very often, probably less than 3 % or so, at least not in Holland. It is meant to give people the chance to make a better choice, with amphetamine being the most encountered adulterant. As long as there exists no controlled production of these substances you will find irregularities on the black market. In the case of safrol, I think it also takes some expertise to actually make a neat tablet with this, since it is an oil. However, it might give a false positive. Currently, we are developing a second test that should be able to distinguish among the XTC-like substances. We will keep you posted about the developments with this.

We emphasize the fact that the EZ Test will only give an indication about the substance in the tablet and that when it does not react it is definitely not XTC or the others. In Holland there has been a wide distribution of 4 MTA, an experimental amphetamine. When combined with alcohol and other drugs it can be lethal, with 7 casualties up til this date.

As to the legal aspects about the use of this test in the states, I want to say the following. Technically, a person who uses the test does not know what it inside. It could be anything. Therefore, in my opinion, it should not be illegal. However, I want to warn harm reduction groups for performing the test themselves because there are a few legal traps attached to this. You might render an indication of the quality for a dealer, so you will be an accomplice in the distribution of drugs. When you accept a tablet of someone else and do the test on it, this can apply as it did in Holland. Also, you might give out the wrong information, such as: this is a good pill. For an individual to do the test these facts do not apply.

I wanted to write a short comment and it seems to me that this one is already kind of long. I’ll leave it at this and hope you enjoyed it. If anyone wants to talk some more or has a question, please send me an e-mail.

Have a nice day,

Ewoud Vijfwinkel

Spank Products

Pure MDMA is supposed to smell a bit like aniseed and that tablets containing just MDMA can be accurately judged this way. The aniseed smell is supposed to come from the safrole from which it is made. Is this true and could this replace the need for the Marquis testing kits if one is only interested in MDMA?

HYPNOTHERAPY

Reports or studies involving hypnotherapy and psychedelics (particularly MDMA) Hastings, Arthur. “Some observations on MDMA experiences induced through posthypnotic suggestion.”. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 26(1). 1994

Abstract: This article reports a preliminary study of the use of posthypnotic suggestions to produce states similar to those produced by the substance MDMA, a psychoactive drug of the phenethylamine family.

The subjects were four postdoctoral students, aged 30-50. They had all had MDMA and experience with hypnosis previously. One reported only the MDMA body load, but the other three had experiences similar or identical to real drugs. It would be interesting to find subjects in whom MDMA-mimetic states can be reliably induced and see if their EEG, neurological metabolism, and other physical signs are as affected as they are by the drug. . .

From: Collectively Unconscious swarm@warpcore.provalue.net

Charles Tart has done research in this area. His book, Altered States of Consciousness has an article on mutual hypnosis that you may find quite interesting. Also, Richard Bandler claims to be able to affect what you outline via NLP, but the NLP field and Bandler, in particular, aren’t terribly rigorous or reliable so YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

It’s interesting that you should mention this. Some years ago, when visiting southern California, I happened to meet a licensed hypnotherapist who was working in private practice. She had several clients who had a high rate of recidivism in regard to drug habits, even though they had tried on numerous occasions to stop taking drugs. I am speaking here of opiates, both natural and synthetic (morphine, heroin, Demerol, hydrocodone and oxycodone). Through hypnotherapy and post hypnotic suggestions, she was able to give the patient a “cue” which was associated with the physical “high” the patient experienced when they were taking the drugs. By merely using the “cue” instead of the drugs, the patients were able to achieve their “high” without the use of drugs! After a time, the therapy was modified so that the cues were no longer used, and the patients remained drug-free. Since she developed the course of therapy herself, and because it was “somewhat” controversial, the cost of therapy was understandably high. However, as I recall, the success rate was also high (I believe in the 90 percentile range).

I’d be curious to know what “mahteow” means when he says “hypnotism”. Is he talking about trying to change someone against their will? Is he talking about Psychedelic Psychotherapy that helps others work out their issues in order to become more complete? If he means the latter, I would suggest he join MAPS as a new member. When you join, now, you get the “Secret Chief”, a book by Myron Stolaroff, which explores underground psychotherapy that was conducted in California during the 70’s and 80’s by “Jacob”, the secret chief. It is excellent and informative and shows the heart extended by a great man. It also mentions use of MDMA in the sessions and why it was the first substance that new patients would be introduced to get their “feet wet”, so to speak;). A great book! So, you see, membership does have its privileges;) Stan Grof has also done some outstanding work. While not necessarily work with MDMA, “LSD Psychotherapy” is the title of one of his books. I , also, enjoyed Grof’s newest offering “the Cosmic Game”. But, I digress… Check out www.promind.com for other pro-minded books.

As far as “re-creating” drug experiences without drugs, I think the tools of memory can go far to bring this about. Yet, these recreations fall into the “same, but different” category, but depending on the context, these re-creations” can still be useful.