This makes people think it’s safe. I think the danger is people are slowly damaging their brains and are totally unaware of it” (Mackeen 3). So just what exactly does Ecstasy do to the brain? MDMA has recently been discovered by the medical community to be neurotoxic, meaning that it causes long-term, irreversible damage to the brain. Its effects focus mainly on the neurotransmitter serotonin, the major chemical in the brain associated with the regulation of mood, sleep, pain, emotion and other behaviors (Lashner 2). Ecstasy causes the serotonin receptors to flood the brain with the neurotransmitter, eventually depleting the entire available supply. “By releasing large amounts of serotonin and also interfering with its synthesis, MDMA causes the brain to become significantly depleted of this important neurotransmitter. As a result, it takes the human brain time to rebuild its serotonin levels. For people who take MDMA at moderate to high doses, depletion of serotonin may be long-term” (Lashner 2).It often takes up to two weeks for the brain to replenish its stores of serotonin, which is one of the reasons that Ecstasy is seen as being physiologically non-addictive. This is because if the serotonin levels are not completely restored, users will not be able to achieve the full effects of the drug. (Kuhn 73). Long- term damage occurs at the receptor site, and consists of the permanent destruction of serotonin producing brain cells (Kuhn 74). This damage occurs because the exorbitant release of neurons is too much for the structure to handle, and so it breaks down and dies, never again to recover. Dr. Bill Wilson, a professor of pharmacology at Duke University Medical Center, has said that “Ecstasy falls into the category of ‘extremely dangerous’ because you can use other drugs like alcohol and cocaine 50 or 100 times and still recover from it with drug treatment. But you can not recove...
