therapists caused this drug to became readily available on the street as a recreational drug sometime during 1977 (Erowid). “Those first psychotherapists to use MDMA were keenly aware that they had found a valuable new tool.” As one put it “MDMA is penicillin for the soul, and you don’t give up prescribing penicillin, once you’ve seen what it can do (Saunders).” The therapists had agreed to due do much of their research in an informal process as possible so that the government would not criminalize the drug due to public attention (Saunders). They did this very well until about 1984, when it gradually became known as a fun drug during the bubble burst (Saunders). One of the most significant obstacles that had to be overcome in order to commercially exploit MDMA was that is had already been patented. Even though the patent ran out many years ago, a drug cannot be patented a second time (Saunders). Before marketing a new drug, a company is required to show that the potential side effects are justified by the drug’s benefits as a medicine, which involves long and expensive trials (The Invention). There is only one way to recoup that expense - obtaining the exclusive rights to sell the drug through holding its patent (Saunders). “Those years 1977 through 1985 are looked back on as the ‘golden age’ of Ecstasy or Adam as it was then known (Saunders).” In the years previous to 1984 the drug was still legal and being used largely among students in the USA under its more well known name “Ecstasy” (Saunders). This public and unashamed attention is what caused MDMA to be outlawed (Saunders). During 1985 Ecstasy jumped into the media’s eye when a small group of people sued the US Drug Enforcement Agency to try to prevent them from outlawing MDMA (Saunders). This came at the wrong time, because the year before there had been a widely spread disaster, i...
