tinue to take it on a weekly basis. Ecstasy has become a very popular designer drug in the United States, but many of the users of this drug have little to no knowledge of what it really is, how it affects them and what dangers they can run into when they use this drug.Ecstasy is one of the many names for the drug called MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine). This drug, which is very similar to another drug, methamphetamine, or speed, is also known as X, XTC, E, or Adam (Clayton 18). Many people take ecstasy and don’t even know what it contains. Half the time it may not even contain MDMA at all. Investigators from the University of California-San Francisco have been conducting a new study on the pills. They found that out of 107 pills of ecstasy, sixty-three percent actually contained MDMA. Twenty-nine percent contained a drug, but no MDMA. Most of the pills had very high dosages of a drug called dextromethorphan. Dextromethorphan is the cough suppressant found in many over the counter cough medicines. The rest of the pills contained caffeine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and salicylates (“Ecstasy”). Those aren’t the only things found in ecstasy, however. Some dealers put other things like baking soda and sugar in the pills (Clayton 16). Or on a rare occasion someone might put LSD, heroin or speed just so they can sell the pills at a higher price (Alvergue 22).Ecstasy wasn’t always a club drug. It was actually first developed in Germany in 1914 as a diet suppressant but the drug was never really used or tested (Clayton 16). In 1965, a chemist named Alexander Shulgin recreated the drug in the United States. Since it was not an illegal drug for peopled to use, psychotherapists began to use ecstasy on their patients. The drug helped their patients open up and speak freely about their problems. The patient’s ability to communicate and in the manner that they did so was compared to that of “Adam&...
