The father of MDMA is Alexander Shulgin. After obtaining a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, Shulgin got a jop as a research chemist. He had an exciting experience on Mescaline and decided to research psychedelic drugs. An accepted test for psychedelic drugs was to observe how fish change their behavior. But there were problems: fish don't say when they are under influence and, well, have you ever seen a fish that doesn't look stoned? Shulgin's answer was to 'suck it and see'. Eventually his company was embarrassed to find themselves holding the patents of some popular street drugs and he was politely given the push. He continued testing new compounds on himself and select group of friends for many ywars.

Those years 1977 to 1985 are looked back on as the 'golden age' of Ecstasy or Adam as it was known in the US. In psychotherapy, its use only appealed to a few experimental therapists, since it didn't fit in with the usual 50-minute psychotherapy session, but they did include some of the most dynamic people in the field. There was also a select a group of 'explorers' who used the drug in various ways, but it was not until MDMA bacame popularised that it became known as a dance drug.

By 1984 the drug was still lagal and was being used widely among students in the USA under its new name 'Ecstasy'. In Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, Ecstasy was even on sale in bars where you could pay by credit card, and it had the reputation of being fun among people (such as yuppies) who otherwise kept well clear of drugs.

On July 1st 1985 the US Congress passed a new law to ban MDMA.

The temporary ban only lasted for a year; meanwhile a hearing was set up to decide what permanent measures should be taken against the drug. The case recived much publicity and was accompanied by press reports advancing the kind of scare stories now current in England, which added to the pressure to make the ban permanent.
The case ended with the judge recommending that MDMA be placed in a less restrictive category, Schedule 3, which would have allwoed it to be manufactured, to be used on prescription and to be the subject of research. But the recommendation was ignored by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), which refused to back down and instead placed MDMA permanently in Schedule 1.

In England, Ecstasy became widespread in the late eighties, along with rave culture modelled on warehouse parties in America, with the difference that England raves included kids from all walks of life. Big warehouses were chosen and prepared secretly so as to avoid local people abtaining a court order to prevent the raves happening. By 1990 the government had passed a law, the Entertainments (Increased Penalties Act), which effectively put an end to these big gahterings.

The result was to push ravers into dance clubs. The Hacienda in Manchester led the trend in 1988 with now prevalent style: DJ's who never spoke, but teased the dacncers with their subtle 'scratching' establishing the Manchester sound. From there clubbing on E came to London and the rest of Europe. by 1992, when the Manchester rave scene was all but not history, the culture had spread back to the States.

The European pattern of use contrasts with the Americans one both in kind and volume, which accounts for there being so many more casualties here. The proportion of young people taking Ecstasy is many times higher in Europe, and here it is nearly always used as a party (dance) drug - in a combination of circumstances that has led to overheating and even death. Americans generally use Ecstasy at home, although European-style raves are on the increase.

I believe that one day MDMA will be an acceptable medicine.