Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Health & Body

Urge
Weapon or toy?
One seasoned sex explorer gets more than he expected from a run-in with airport security.
By David Steinberg
[07/06/99]

Urge
Private dancers
From North Beach bars to the Mitchell Brothers' high-priced flesh emporium, she went in search of women to dance in her lap.
By Annalee Newitz
[07/03/99]

Column
Why doesn't anyone have dropsy anymore?
The 1899 Merck Manual is being released along with the 1999 version.   
By Mary Roach
[07/02/99]

Don't worry, darling, I have giant fennel
The history and mystery of the plant that may have been one of the first contraceptives.
By Susan McCarthy
[07/01/99]

Going right through you
The diet pill Xenical reduces fat absorption, but may cause unpleasant side effects.
By Sharon Lerner
[06/30/99]

Complete archives for Health & Body

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Editor's Note:The names of ecstasy users have been changed.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Dawn MacKeen

July 7, 1999 | It's been less than an hour, and you can already feel it. The corners of your mouth are starting to lift up, creating a big semicircle, a Cheshire grin. The pit of your stomach, normally so weighed down with stress, is lightening. You're giddy, like the first time you fell for someone. The pupils of your eyes are dilating, growing with excitement. You look around and announce to the world that you're in love -- with everyone and everything. Suddenly a new feeling hits; you realize it's all been foreplay until this instant, a slow buildup of excitement that you couldn't stop. But now, before you realize it, before you can control it, it's here. You want to let out a scream; you are so fucking happy. It's like the best moment in your life.

And all it took was just one pill, one gulp of water and $20.

There's a reason why this dose of happiness -- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) -- is called "ecstasy." It's a swallow of pure bliss -- triangular, circular and diamond-shaped bliss.

Sam, a 29-year-old writer, has become completely smitten with E (also called the "love drug," "XTC" and just plain "X") since he made its acquaintance about a year ago. "It's the most amazing feeling in the world," he says. "It just makes you want to touch everybody and be touched by everybody. When you're in a club and they're playing good music, it becomes the best music you've heard in your life."

Why not transform any old techno beat into the best mix you've ever heard? A simple hug into a sensual tactile experience? Taking E is like trading up for one night to first class, where everything seems a hundred times better.

But for every chemically induced pleasure, it seems, there's a price. Excessive use of ecstasy has long been suspected to cause neurotoxic effects -- i.e., brain damage. But a new study raises the stakes; it posits that only a few uses of the drug can cause permanent impairment. And some researchers see other long-term problems as well -- including, ironically enough, depression.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Click here for more information on how the drug ecstasy may cause brain damage.

MDMA isn't a new drug -- it was patented before World War I by the Merck drug company, and rediscovered once before, in the '60s. Ecstasy has been illegal in the United States since 1985, when it was put into "Schedule 1," the most dangerous drug class, which means it is considered to have no medical value. (Even cocaine doesn't fall into this category, because of its use in anesthesia.) But ecstasy is now moving its way up America's drug-popularity ladder and being closely watched as a consequence. U.S. Customs has seen a surge in the amount of ecstasy being smuggled into this country, and has confiscated more than 1 million doses in just the first eight months of this fiscal year. (In comparison, only 375,000 tablets were seized in the previous year.)

"This has mainly been used by middle-class college students, but the fact that this is pouring in here now, primarily from Western Europe and the Netherlands [creates] a real worry that we could see street dealing of this stuff," says Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Customs. "What Colombia is for cocaine, the Netherlands is for ecstasy."

The drug isn't produced in the United States in any sizable amount; as a consequence, suppliers in Europe are capitalizing on increasing demand here. Boyd says that as the market grows, its distributors are changing as well, from the dorm dealer to the drug world's more traditional retailers. "Once you get organized crime involved, that's where it gets transformed from the drug that college friends might have to one with a real potential for violence," Boyd says.

You've probably seen the eggs-in-a-frying-pan commercial describing the harmful effects of taking drugs. To paint a picture of what your brain looks like on ecstasy requires a walk through cranial byways of the brain, and through doctors' vastly different interpretations of what happens when you take it. Is E, which is not physically addictive, the harmless "soft drug" users think it is? Or is it just sneakier than other drugs, inflicting injury without the telltale signs caused by other drugs?

Its partisans love it. "I think my life is pretty good and I wouldn't want to do anything to wreck it: I would never do cocaine or speed because I don't like that loss of control, and I would never do anything addictive," says John, a San Francisco dental student. "Ecstasy is a safer escapism, and you still have your wits about you." John says the first time he took ecstasy, he felt like he could sit down and do calculus -- because, unlike alcohol, it didn't affect his ability to concentrate.

But researchers are increasingly contending that the attitude of users like John is naive. Contrary to widespread rumors, doctors say ecstasy does not drain your spinal fluid; but it does have negative effects. "There's no such thing as recreational ecstasy use; this is not like playing ping-pong or tennis," says Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "We are very concerned because of its rise in popularity and how people claim that it doesn't have a big effect ... Whether or not it produces physical dependence is not relevant. Methamphetamine and crack cocaine don't cause physical dependence according to physical medical criteria, but they are among the most addicting substances ever known to mankind."

Next page | Ecstasy is great -- too bad it's so damn neurotoxic!