Ecstasy

The drug 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), or more commonly known as Ecstasy, is a synthetic drug that can alter a person’s mood or perception. It also is known to produce feelings of increased energy, pleasure, emotional warmth, and distorts sensory and time perception (What is MDMA). Ecstasy was very popular back in the 1970s and 80’s among those who attended nightclubs and all-night dance parties (Skomorowsky). Ecstasy was taken in order to help party goers get more in tune with the music and the environment around them. Today, Molly, short for molecular, is the new so-called pure form of ecstasy. However, this crystalline, powder version is not always as pure as dealer makes it out to be. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), users do not always know what they are ingesting when they “pop a molly”. Like many synthetic drugs, molly is often mixed or substituted for other drugs such as bath salts (synthetic cathinones). Bath salts are another form of synthetic (human-made) drugs that are known to produce feelings of euphoria, increase sociability, as well as an increase in sex drive. These similarities are the reasons why bath salts are so easily sold in …show more content…
As Sessa and Nutt stated in their article, “differentiating between moderate, infrequent use of ecstasy that is medically supervised over a high, frequent, and reckless use of ecstasy will allow lawmakers to see the value of its therapeutic use”. However, with more and more reports of young adults and teenagers overdosing in the news, it is hard to see anything other than the hazards that are associated with this drug. Dangerous side effects like increased heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating all make it difficult for the body to regulate its temperature and often lead to cardiac arrest. Many users may not even realize that they are overdosing until it’s too