Ecstasy Facts

• Ecstasy's psychological effects can include confusion, depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and paranoia during, and sometimes weeks after, taking the drug.
• Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University demonstrated that 4 days of exposure to the drug caused damage that persisted 6 to 7 years later.
• Ecstasy is most commonly used at all night parties called "raves".
• Brain imaging research in humans indicates that MDMA causes injury to the brain, affecting neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons.
• Many of the risks users face with MDMA use are similar to those found with the use of cocaine and amphetamines.
• Psychological difficulties due to ecstasy include confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety, and paranoia - during and sometimes weeks after taking MDMA.
• Physical symptoms due to ecstasy include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movement, faintness, and chills or sweating.
• Ecstasy content varies widely, and it frequently consists of substances entirely different from MDMA, ranging from caffeine to dextromethorphan.
• Emergency room data indicate that MDMA is increasingly used by marijuana users, with reports of MDMA in combination with marijuana increasing from 8 in 1990 to 796 in 1999.
• Ecstasy tablets seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration increased from 13,342 in 1996 to 949,257 in 2000.
• MDMA is on the U.S. Schedule I of controlled substances, and is illegal to manufacture, possess, or sell in the United States.
• Typical doses of ecstasy range from around 80 to 160 milligrams of MDMA when taken orally.
• When ecstasy is taken by mouth, the effects manifest about 30-45 minutes later.
• MDMA was first synthesized and patented in 1914 by the German drug company called Merck.
• Memory tests of people who have taken Ecstasy as compared to non-drug users have shown that the Ecstasy users had lower scores.