Design for the soul MDMA (Ecstasy): The drug of the party people

Developed by the Merck pharmaceutical company and launched in 1914 as an appetite suppressant (after all, it was wartime...), it never became popular as such. After various stages of distribution - in the US military as a truth serum, in psychotherapies, where it may still be used in Switzerland today - and oblivion, it was discovered in the 80s by the nuclei of the forming rave movement and in the 90s by 'Stern', 'Focus', and other media as the hip drug of the decade. Since 1986 it falls under the narcotics law in the FRG - a fate it should successively share with its close friends and relatives like MDA, MMDA, MDEA, etc... As part of the hegemonic campaigns against the oh-so-unpredictable danger of the so-called "designer drugs", everything chemically reminiscent of ecstasy was prophylactically banned by administrative act.

MDMA is sold as a pill, capsule, or tablet, the average dosage (and also the recommended dosage) is between 80 and 150 mg. Due to the ease of production and the large profit margins, it is produced in home laboratories, by small entrepreneurs who sometimes give their product a seal of origin (dolphin on the pill, etc.), the recognition value of which can then be recalled when purchasing. For hobby chemists, the production is quite unproblematic.

Use

XTC is swallowed, and after half an hour to three quarters of an hour the effect usually sets in (if it takes longer, it will have its reasons - too much eaten, inhibitions, etc. - so that fast follow-up is recommended. (If it takes longer, it will have its reasons - too much food, inhibitions, etc. - so that a quick refill is not recommended; and if the pill is no good, it is of no use anyway). What happens then was once characterized by R. Rippchen in the colors of party politics as the red-green rush: The status quo remains as it is, but rarely does it feel as good as it does under MDMA. XTC seems to have something of all drugs: the energy of speed, the self-confidence of coke, the satisfaction of heroin, the relaxed cheerfulness of hashish, the urge to share alcohol, and the intensity of feeling of LSD. Pigeonhole sorters have had to create a new one to classify MDMA and its relatives, the class of so-called "entactogens. Users usually feel a need for social interaction, be it dancing, cuddling, talking, or sleeping together. Even the most mundane activity can fill one with great pleasure, and many, for whatever reason, find it easier on MDMA to soften the armor of the bourgeois subject.

After two or three hours, the high subsides into various forms of tidiness, sweet melancholy, or even sadness, depending also on how the time was spent. What happens between people, especially those who have shared a nice trip, naturally lasts longer than their chemical pledge works. Whether the ravages of time are able to gnaw away at it in such a way that that change appears as a trip reverberation is no longer a question of material science. In any case, a popular snack claims that one should not marry until six weeks after taking MDMA.

Advice to be careful, especially with MDMA, not only sounds maternal, but for the most part it is; it's just that no mother tells her XTC-tripping child how to avoid pneumonia and circulatory collapse - so let's do it: Because MDMA is indeed a highly effective appetite suppressant, one should at least not forget sufficient hydration, especially when dancing in overheated locations. Also, feelings of exertion are suppressed (the speedy part of the effect), and if you don't know exactly how much movement your body usually tolerates, you should take breaks from time to time while wildly jerking around to the 4/4 beat, just to be on the safe side. And, oh yes, don't forget to dress warmly if you've been sweating a lot... And of course, the next day, only do what you feel like doing.

How often XTC is taken is a question of personal priority and, especially with this drug, financial disposition. Some people are more into ritual use every two to three months, others like to take it several times every weekend. XTC is not physically addictive, but firstly, the effect can weaken very quickly from time to time, especially with regard to the entactogenic effect, and secondly, it may be that whoever expects his body to do this too often, can get on a war footing with it.

Scientists, as always eager to get a grip on the horrors of new drugs, transfer with media effect all sorts of behavioral abnormalities observed in rats after weeks of non-stop administration of insanely high doses of XTC as a scare tactic to party people.

This is of course dishonest. But it's also no reason to toss five pills a day for months on end. Especially when it is important not to be diagnosed with behavioral problems. Otherwise, the same warnings apply to chronic XTC throwers as to speed freaks, regarding physical emaciation and the paranoid effects of sleep deprivation. On the other hand, at least with MDMA, we feel the same way as with eco-camps anyway: at some point, you get tired of loving everyone, and you crave a tangible fight.

Symptoms like nausea, eye tremors, and muscle cramps can be a side effect of the trip. If they even become too unpleasant and get stronger and stronger in the course of the trip, and if they cannot be controlled by lying down quietly, drinking tea, taking supportive circulatory medication, or relieving tension by concentrating on some peripheral part of the body, a doctor can be called - even if he or she usually does not react too emphatically. The higher the dose, the more likely these physical side effects will occur. In case of undesirable psychological effects, psychedelics of earlier days always carried their Valium with them, but it should be dosed lower than LSD (about 10 mg to start).

Tips for increasing the pleasure of MDMA are no longer motherly, but silly. Users just try everything - unlike LSD, no hallucinations interfere with the reflection of what works "in real". The use of other substances seems to make different amounts of sense: While hashish is smoked to get high and to cushion the effect, speed is conceivably useless to intensify the effect - it only kills the entactogen. Finally, XTC can be used to provide a gentle and confident introduction to LSD - but with no guarantee of success. Alcohol, as is so often the case, is a drug that likes to be left alone; together with MDMA, it produces at least one killer hangover.

Literature

For a long time, the only German-language literature about MDMA was Rippchen/Weigle, "MDMA", Werner Piepers MedienXperimente, Löhrbach 1992, which - with a slightly esoteric touch - provides the 'E' basic knowledge.

In the meantime, there is a whole series of publications, of which the expensive but amusingly designed book by N. Saunders, "MDMA", Zurich 1995, is probably the best known - unfortunately, the author writes too many unnecessary behavioral instructions ("Don't disturb the neighbors" etc.).

From the corner of progressive drug research comes the anthology "Design für die Seele" (Design for the Soul), edited by Neumeyer/Schmidt-Semisch, Freiburg 1997, with contributions by activists from Eve & Rave, the accepting techno- & XTC-association, among others, which in part do not get rid of the smell of social work.

The most remarkable book, however, comes from the USA and must be ordered there, namely Shulgin/Shulgin, "PIHKAL ? a chemical love story", Transform Press, Berkeley 1992.

Written by the developer of countless hallucinogenic, entactogenic, and idiosyncratic substances based on phenylalkaline, Alexander Shulgin - best-known products: STP, 2-CB, MDBD, among others - it contains, in addition to the marital life and love story, many trip descriptions and over 300 pages of chemical handicraft instructions.

Myth prevention

There are not too many myths (yet) - the most important one is probably that MDMA is a particularly bad drug because it is synthetic. Now, first of all, this is only half true, since the basic substance is found in nutmeg, among other things, and secondly, anyone who has ever eaten a nutmeg to get wide will agree that chemical processing has many advantages and only the resentment of naturalness fetishists against it. Also - if only out of business interest - when buying MDMA, you can't be sold anything, but if you are, then similar substances, speed, or placebos, which is only annoying, but not tragic.

Those who don't have a connection therefore feel well-advised in places where other customers have already developed consumer awareness and the quality of the products is corresponding - in techno discos, for example.

And even sensationally reported XTC deaths are hard to be taken at face value - in most cases, they turn out to be mixed users already in the corresponding article, in whose death MDMA may have had the smallest share. The ratio of lover-paraders dancing continuously under the bright sun on XTC and those being treated for circulatory problems is surprisingly low every year, and collapses with fatal consequences involving MDMA can be assumed to be extremely rare. Last but not least: Dear 'Bravo-Girl', XTC is not and was not a "heroin-cocaine-mixture" when you wrote it in 1993; it would be too cheap to be true.

The aforementioned Eve & Rave are trying to provide some very tangible information: drug testing, i.e. the analysis of purchased pills for their actual content. What institutes are allowed to do in the Netherlands is threatened by repression in Germany: in 1996, the test lab was raided and the drugs to be tested were stolen by the police.