The History of MDMA As an Underground Drug in the United States, 1960–1979

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

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The History of MDMA as an Underground Drug in the United States, 1960–1979

Torsten Passie M.D., M.A. (Phil.) & Udo Benzenhöfer M.D., Ph.D.

To cite this article: Torsten Passie M.D., M.A. (Phil.) & Udo Benzenhöfer M.D., Ph.D. (2016): The History of MDMA as an Underground Drug in the United States, 1960–1979, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2015.1128580

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2015.1128580

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Download by: [New York University] Date: 05 March 2016, At: 02:03 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2015.1128580

The History of MDMA as an Underground Drug in the United States, 1960–1979 Torsten Passie, M.D., M.A. (Phil.)a and Udo Benzenhöfer, M.D., Ph.D.b aProfessor and Visiting Scientist, Senckenberg Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; bProfessor, Senckenberg Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine, a.k.a. “ecstasy”) was first synthesized in 1912 Received 29 June 2015 and resynthesized more than once for pharmaceutical reasons before it became a popular Revised 17 October 2015 recreational drug. Partially based on previously overlooked U.S. government documentation, Accepted 26 October 2015 this article reconstructs the early history of MDMA as a recreational drug in the U.S. from 1960 KEYWORDS to 1979. According to the literature, MDMA was introduced as a street drug at the end of the Ecstasy; entactogens; MDA; 1960s. The first forensic detection of MDMA “on the street” was reported in 1970 in Chicago. It MDMA appears that MDMA was first synthesized by underground chemists in search of “legal alternatives” for the closely related and highly sought-after drug MDA, which was scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970. Until 1974, nearly all MDMA street samples seized came from the U.S. Midwest, the first “hot region” of MDMA use. In Canada, MDMA was first detected in 1974 and scheduled in 1976. From 1975 to 1979, MDMA was found in street samples in more than 10 U.S. states, the West Coast becoming the major “hot region” of MDMA use. Recreational use of MDMA spread across the U.S. in the early 1980s, and in 1985 it was scheduled under the CSA.

By the 1990s, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine The present article focuses on the history of MDMA (MDMA or “ecstasy”) had become a significant recrea- as an underground drug in the 1960s and 1970s. In the tional drug worldwide. It was first synthesized in the literature, this period receives only passing mention (e.g., search for hemostatics at the pharmaceutical company Seymour 1986;Kirsch1986;Shulgin1986, 1990, 1997; Merck KGaA (of Darmstadt, Germany) in 1912 and Eisner 1989; Shulgin and Shulgin 1991; Saunders and patented in 1914. Pharmacological tests with MDMA Walder 1994; Beck and Rosenbaum 1994;Silcottand in animals were conducted at Merck in 1927, 1952, Silcott 2000; Pentney 2001;Pilcher2008). Existing find- and 1959, but these were left unpublished (Beck 1997/ ings are incorporated in the following text, but we draw 1998; Benzenhöfer and Passie 2006; Bernschneider-Reif, also on a previously unpublished U.S. government source Oxler, and Freudenmann 2006). The toxic effects of document: “Schedule I Control Recommendation Under MDMA were studied secretly by the U.S. Army in the CSA [Controlled Substances Act] for 3,4- laboratory animals at the University of Michigan in Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).” It was Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016 1953–4 (Hardman, Haavik, and Seevers 1973). In 1960, compiled by the Drug Control Section, Office of two Polish chemists published a paper describing a Diversion Control at the U.S. Drug Enforcement synthesis of MDMA (Biniecki and Krajewski 1960). No Administration (DEA) in January 1984 (cited in the human studies with MDMA took place until the 1970s. following as Drug Control Section DEA 1984). The com- MDMA’s history as an underground drug began plex developments since 1980, which led to the ban of most probably in the 1960s in the U.S. The drug was MDMA, are not covered in this report, but short remarks first conclusively detected in a street sample by a for- aboutthisperiodareofferedinthesummarysection. ensic lab in 1970 (Sreenivasan 1972). Increasingly often The following history is divided into subsections: through the 1970s, MDMA was found in forensic street 1960–1969, 1970–1974, and 1975–1979. But before samples and underground laboratories. In the first half turning to MDMA, the chemically similar and histori- of the 1980s, MDMA began being distributed on a large cally related substance MDA (Figure 1) deserves scale, and in 1985 MDMA was banned in the U.S. mention.

CONTACT Torsten Passie [email protected] Senckenberg Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Paul-Ehrlich-Strasse 20-22, D-60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. © 2016 Taylor & Francis 2 T. PASSIE AND U. BENZENHÖFER

(Poland) published a report in Polish about the synthesis of MDMA from the essential oil safrole (Biniecki and Krajewski 1960). In 1961, an English abstract appeared in Chemical Abstracts (Langs 1961). Figure 1. Molecular Configuration of MDMA (Left) and MDA. The American chemist Alexander T. Shulgin, who had a great interest in psychoactive drugs (having, for example, synthesized the closely related 3,4-methylene- MDA dioxyethylamphetamine or MDE in 1967), mentioned The drug MDA (3,4-methylenedioxy-amphetamine), once that he had first synthesised MDMA in 1965 which is in some respects similar to MDMA, played a (Shulgin and Shulgin 1991), but this date has not significant role in the pre-history of MDMA (Beck and been reliably verified (Benzenhöfer and Passie 2010). Rosenbaum 1994). In the 1950s and 1960s, MDA was Information on the appearance of MDMA as a tested for selected medical indications by pharmaceutical recreational drug in the 1960s in the U.S. is vague. M. companies, but it was abandoned due to unwanted “cen- M. Kirsch, a Los Angeles-based writer who interviewed tral side-effects” (Smith, Kline & French Laboratories researchers, coroners, toxicologists, chemists, and deal- 1957; Friedhoff et al. 1958; Cook and Fellows 1961). ers on both coasts (Kirsch 1986, IV), wrote in his well- “ ” “ MDA’s hallucinogenic effects were discovered in 1955 informed book Designer Drugs that a number of (Alles 1959). MDA then turned up as a recreational drug black-market chemists had synthesized it during the ” in the mid-1960s (Meyers, Rose, and Smith 1967; Stafford 1960s but found LSD and MDA more profitable 1992, 289) and quickly developed a reputation for produ- (Kirsch 1986, 80). The Californian psychopharmacolo- “ cing a sensual, easily manageable euphoria, thus its nick- gist Ronald Siegel wrote that MDMA remained rela- name “The Love Drug” (Weil 1976; Student Association tively ignored until 1968 when nonmedical use first ” for the Study of Hallucinogens1974). By the end of the appeared in the western part of the US (Siegel 1986, ’ 1960s, there was no difficulty in obtaining “unending 349). But, as with Shulgin s claim to a 1965 synthesis, quantities of it, as it was available as a research chemical neither Kirsch nor Siegel provided solid proof for their from different supply houses” (Shulgin and Shulgin 1991, claims. Also noteworthy is that the data from the U.S. ’ – 717f). This ended in 1970, when MDA was scheduled Army s animal studies on MDMA in 1953 54 were under the CSA. Thereafter, recipes for MDA were dis- declassified in 1969 but left unpublished until 1973 tributed in underground chemistry cookbooks (Hardman, Haavik, and Seevers 1973). (Anonymous 1973;Smith1973; Salt and Pepper Syndicate 1976). Underground laboratories manufactur- MDMA, 1970 to 1974 ing MDA were frequently seized by the DEA and the “ drug became one of five “drugs of choice produced in the In a 1997 German-language publication titled The ” United States by clandestine laboratory operators” (Frank early history of MDMA, Shulgin reported an episto- 1983, 31). Its scheduling did not slow demand, produc- lary exchange in 1970 with a chemist who owned a tion, and use (Dye 1982;Renfroe1986). Indeed, produc- chemical company in Los Angeles. When Shulgin first Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016 tion increased during the 1970s (Frank 1983). met him at a conference in Santa Monica, he men- MDA also played a role in drug-assisted psychother- tioned his ambition to increase the number of legal apy, as would MDMA later. Claudio Naranjo and psychoactive chemicals in his inventory. He asked “ Alexander T. Shulgin did some initial tests (Naranjo, Shulgin for help synthesizing DOM and N-Methyl- ” Shulgin, and Sargent 1967), and the psychotherapist MDA, or MDMA. A short time later, Shulgin sent Leo Zeff began using MDA in psychotherapy in the him instructions for the synthesis of MDMA (Shulgin 1960s (Stolaroff 2004; Shulgin and Shulgin 1991, 73f). 1997, 101). The chemist thanked Shulgin in a letter and In the mid-1970s, MDA, although indexed, was tested mentioned that he had informed a young psychologist, “ ” in one of the last government-funded research projects one of his customers, about MDMA. investigating drug-assisted psychotherapy (Turek, During an August 1970 conference of the American Soskin, and Kurland 1974; Yensen et al. 1976). Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics held at Stanford University, Shulgin hap- pened to meet a young “pharmacologist/psychologist” ’ MDMA, 1960 to 1969 with the same name as the chemist s customer from the Midwest. This person had come to San Francisco to In 1960, the chemists Stanislaw Biniecki and Edmund study street drugs with the Haight Ashbury Free Krajewski of the Medical Academy of Warzawa Medical Clinic. A while later, Shulgin was informed JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS 3

that the young pharmacologist/psychologist had gone MDMA, 1975 to 1979 back to the Midwest (Shulgin 1997, 101f). The fact that According to Kirsch (1986, 81), “in the mid-1970s a MDMA first appeared in the Midwest is suggestive, but group of entrepreneurs/chemists decided to set up a lab there is no conclusive evidence about the possible in Marin County, California, to manufacture MDMA.” involvement of the owner of the Los Angeles chemical It is not clear when the lab started production, but it is company or the young pharmacologist/psychologist known to have been active until the 1980s (Klein 1985). from the Midwest in the emergence of MDMA as a Around 1975, Alexander Shulgin, also based on the recreational drug. West Coast, again became involved with MDMA. In August 1970, the Chicago Police Department Shulgin met a young student who was interested in seized the first MDMA sample in the U.S. Data from drugs, especially in “some N-methylated compounds” the analysis were first announced at a meeting of crime (as is MDMA). The student had found in self-experi- laboratory chemists. The author presented findings on ments that MDMA had a significant “amphetamine- “a new series of amphetamines,” among them DOM, like component” (Shulgin 1997, 102). In his laboratory TMA, MDA, and the then virtually unknown MDMA notebook, Shulgin referred to this student as “Marty” (Sreenivasan 1972, 308). The next appearance of (“~1975: Marty—reports considerable amphetamine- MDMA in street samples was documented by the like content” (Shulgin 1960–1976, 186). Chicago Regional Laboratory of the Bureau of Probably in the same year (no date is given), Shulgin Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). In the 4 met another person who had used MDMA. In a box on May 1972 issue of the DEA-owned journal the right side of page 186 of his laboratory notebook (it Microgram, the authors point to “several inhibits is unclear when Shulgin added it), the trials of a certain [sic]. . . within the last months containing 3,4 methyle- “Flip” with “N-methyls,” especially with “N-methylated nedioxymethamphetamine (MDM)” in the Chicago MDA” (i.e., MDMA), are listed. “Flip” had taken 15, 30, area (Gaston and Rasmussen 1972, 60). Further sam- 45, 60, 75, 100, and 150 mg of MDMA. Doses of up to ples of 12.75 and 37.79 grams of MDMA were seized in 60 mg had “no effect,” 75 mg made him “fuzzy,” Chicago on 31 May 1972, and two capsules were seized 100 mg and 150 mg made him “active” (Shulgin in nearby Evanston, Illinois, on 1 July 1972 (Drug 1960–1976, 186). Given the circumstances, it is prob- Control Section DEA 1984, 17). able that “Flip” is a colleague from the University of On 25 April 1973, more than 890 grams of pure San Francisco whom Shulgin identified as someone MDMA (plus enough precursors for another 10 kg of who had synthesized some N-methylated phenethyla- MDMA) were confiscated by the DEA in a lab in Cedar mines in the 1970s (Shulgin 1997, 103). Hill, Tennessee (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 21). In 1975, another forensic detection of MDMA in a DEA officials reported that this and other “. . .labora- street sample was reported by the Northwest Indiana tories seized were believed to be making a controlled Criminal Toxicology Laboratory in Gary, Indiana substance (MDA),” but were found to be producing (Eichmeier and Caplis 1975). PharmChem MDMA. Consequently, “investigations were not con- Laboratories Analysis Anonymous® received its first tinued due to the noncontrolled status of MDMA” sample of MDMA in 1975 from an unknown location Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016 (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 11). In 1974, DEA (Renfroe 1986, 366). Analysis Anonymous was a con- labs analyzed five MDMA street samples from fidential drug testing service of the non-profit Champaign, Illinois, and Aspen, Colorado (Drug PharmChem Laboratories and grew into one of the Control Section DEA 1984, 17). largest drug testing laboratories worldwide. A person Although this paper focuses on the U.S., it should be submitting a sample anonymously could later call an mentioned that, in the 1970s, MDMA also appeared in answering machine to get the results of the analysis. It Canada. Keith Bailey and his colleagues at the Research was active from 1972 to 1983 and analyzed more than Laboratories of the Health Protection Branch in 20,000 street drug samples (Renfroe 1986). Ottawa, Canada, submitted a scientific manuscript in In 1981, an early distributor of MDMA was quoted August 1974 in which they identified five N-methylated in the underground magazine WET: “We first started analogues of hallucinogenic amphetamines and distributing Ecstasy five years ago. . ..” This would make reported that MDMA “has been encountered on the 1976 the first year of its distribution as a recreational illicit market” in Canada (Bailey et al. 1975, 62). A drug (Anonymous 1981, 76). As far as can be recon- laboratory producing MDMA was raided in Ontario, structed from the literature, the name “ecstasy” was Canada, in early 1976 (Drug Control Section DEA coined by the former student of theology and later 1984, 11), and consequently MDMA was scheduled in proselytizer of MDMA Michael Clegg in 1981 (Eisner Canada on 11 June 1976. 4 T. PASSIE AND U. BENZENHÖFER

1989; Clegg 2013). PharmChem received the first street Abuse (NIDA) scientific conference in Bethesda, drug sample of MDMA submitted under the name Maryland. Their paper, “Characterization of three new “ecstasy” in 1981 (Renfroe 1986). psychotomimetics,” was mainly about two other The DEA-associated drug researcher Siegel, men- recently synthesized psychotomimetic drugs (4- tioned earlier, noted that “respondents had reported methylthio-2,5-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamine and widespread use [of MDMA] in Boston by 1976” α-methyl-5-methoxytryptamine), which were synthe- (Siegel 1986, 349). Siegel may be referring here to a sized in the context of research. The discussion of group of early distributors, later known as the “Boston these two drugs comprises the bulk of the paper, but group.” According to Beck and Rosenbaum, this group MDMA is mentioned briefly as a recently found street “had commenced production in 1976. The chemists in drug: “For this reason, if for no other, it falls under the this group had a ‘therapeutic’ perspective. They worked purview of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and a on their own timetable, often neglecting to meet the brief description of the pharmacological properties of growing demands of the market” (Beck and this compound in man would seem appropriate” Rosenbaum 1994, 18f). (Shulgin and Nichols 1978, 76). The description of the DEA labs did not find any MDMA in 1976, but a “psychotomimetic” effects of MDMA is very brief: non-DEA forensic lab at the Texas Department of “Qualitatively, the drug appears to evoke an easily Public Safety reported the first samples of MDMA in controlled altered state of consciousness with emotional Texas. According to the DEA, PharmChem and sensual overtones. It can be compared in its effect Laboratories reported five submissions of MDMA in to marijuana, to psilocybin devoid of the hallucinatory 1976 (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 20). component, or to low levels of MDA” (Shulgin and According to Shulgin, one of his students (later Nichols 1978, 76). The characteristics of this descrip- given the pseudonym “Klaus”) “was intrigued by tion of MDMA may point to the fact that Shulgin MDA and. . . its N-methylated homolog, MDMA,” and wasn’t aware at this point about the “special effects” in 1976 set up lab space and started MDMA produc- of MDMA. When he started his self-trials with MDMA tion. Klaus had a bad stutter. When Shulgin met him a in late 1976 and early 1977, he wrote only of an “alco- few years later, the stutter was gone. He reported to hol-like intoxication” (Shulgin Lab Book I, 186) and Shulgin “that methylated MDA allowed me to do new later, even when he gave it to the psychotherapist Leo things with myself. . .. I have some control over my Zeff in mid-1977, Shulgin referred to MDMA as his talking for the first time. And I’ve decided to take up “low-calorie martini” (Shulgin and Shulgin 1991, 73). a new career. . . speech therapy” (Shulgin and Shulgin Shulgin’s wife, Ann Shulgin, gives further evidence that 1991, 70). Shulgin wrote that he had MDMA “on the Shulgin at first took MDMA to be a run-of-the-mill shelf” at this point in time but still had not tried it agent within the phenethylamine series. According to (Shulgin 1997, 102). Ann Shulgin, he did not have an “appropriate reaction” Shulgin reports that he next heard of MDMA from to MDMA during the few times he took it in late 1976 another student in mid-1976. At this time, Shulgin was and early 1977. “Sasha wasn’t enthusiastic about the giving graduate courses on forensic toxicology at the effect of MDMA in the beginning. Only Zeff later on

Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016 University of California San Francisco (UCSF). “One of [in mid-1977] had an ‘appropriate reaction’ and after these [students] was a dear, dear sprite appropriately his first MDMA experience the whole thing began to named Merrie Kleinman, who told me that she had take off” (Shulgin 2013). done an experiment with two very close friends of On 2 February 1977, the DEA raided an underground hers, and that they had used 100 milligrams of laboratory in San Francisco. They found 150 grams of N-methylated MDA (MDMA). She shared very little MDMA and 1.7 kg of 3,4-methylenedioxy-beta-methyl- about the experience, but implied that it was quite beta-nitrostyrene, a synthetic intermediate that needs emotional, and that there had been a basically good just one step to be converted into MDMA. Additional reaction from all three of them” (Shulgin and Shulgin precursors (412 gr Piperonal, 1000 ml Methylamine) 1991, 69; Shulgin 1960–1976, 186). Shulgin’s self-trials were also found (Drug Control Section DEA 1984,21). began on 8 September 1976 with a small oral dose of In 1977, another street sample was found in Martinez, 16 mg. An 81 mg p.o. dose on 27 September 1976 led to California, and a street seizure of 1,730 grams of MDMA an “alcohol-like intoxication,” and after taking 100 mg was made in New York City on 10 August 1977 (Drug on 5 October 1976, Shulgin simply noted “fine control” Control Section DEA 1984,17). (Shulgin Lab Book I, 186). The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) issued On 21 and 22 December 1976, Shulgin and Nichols its first report on MDMA in the second quarter of 1977. mentioned MDMA at a National Institute of Drug DAWN is a U.S. public health surveillance system JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS 5

sponsored by NIDA that monitors drug-related visits to Shulgin and Nichols’ presentation at a 1976 NIDA hospital emergency departments and drug-related conference was published in the conference proceed- deaths. Data are collected by retrospective review of ings in 1978 (Shulgin and Nichols 1978). Additionally, medical records from a non-random sample of emer- Shulgin made other scientific presentations and publi- gency rooms and medical examiners throughout the U.S. cations in 1978, and these contributed to the widening Four mentions followed in 1978 and one in 1979 (U.S. knowledge about MDMA’s effects (Shulgin 1978; Department of Health and Human Services 1984,20). Shulgin, Braun, and Braun 1978; Anderson et al. 1978). In 1977, non-federal forensic labs reported samples It seems very clear that Shulgin’s interest began to of street drug seizures of MDMA from North Carolina focus more on MDMA only after 1977. As a member of and Texas (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 18). a new pharmacological class of psychoactive agents, PharmChem labs registered three samples of MDMA later named “empathogens” (Metzner 1983)or“entac- in submissions from San Francisco and Livermore, togens” (Nichols 1986), these substances differ from the California, and Eugene, Oregon (Renfroe 1986). hallucinogens in that they produce virtually no sensory After neighbors informed the police about chemical alterations and result in minimal cognitive changes. On smells coming from a nearby apartment, on 10 October the pharmacological level, there is a distinction between 1977, the San Mateo police discovered a functioning these agents and LSD-type hallucinogens as well as the MDA laboratory in Redwood City, California. The amphetamines. The clearest indication of this is the fact owner of the lab, the notorious underground drug that it is the S-(+) isomer of MDMA that is more active, chemist William Leonard Pickard, had produced while it is the R-(-) isomer of MDA and other substi- MDA, but “he knew the law, and rather than brazenly tuted amphetamines that is the more active isomer break it, Pickard tried to skirt it. . .. To get around the (Nichols 1986). This fact led to a few systematic trials fact that [MDA] was illegal, Pickard fiddled with the of the two enantiomers of MDMA in humans in 1978 formula and came up with a chemical cousin, MDMA” conducted by the Nichols/Shulgin group (Anderson (Wilkinson 2001, 115). According to Alan Johnson, the et al. 1978; Nichols 2013). chief inspector of the Santa Cruz district attorney, In 1979, PharmChem received 12 submissions of Pickard’s later interrogations implied that “this fellow street samples containing MDMA (Pharm Chem was trying to change the MDA to make it legal” Laboratories 1985, 5). DEA labs detected MDMA in (Wilkinson 2001, 115). This points again to the fact street samples from Eugene, Oregon (0.30 g), Arvada, that underground drug chemists were searching for Colorado (5.10 g), and Washington, DC (0.461 g) “legal MDA alternatives.” (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 17). In early 1979, In mid-1977, Alexander Shulgin handed over some the DEA wrote letters to 15 non-federal forensic labs MDMA to one of his long-term acquaintances, the requesting information on MDMA. In response, the psychotherapist Leo Zeff, who by the late 1960s had Oregon State Crime Laboratory Division reported become the “secret chief” of a circle of underground 5–10 street samples containing MDMA in the first therapists using psychedelics in psychotherapy. Zeff’s months of 1979. The California Laboratory located in response to MDMA was enthusiastic, and he postponed San Mateo County, CA, analyzed three MDMA exhibits

Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016 his retirement plans to disseminate knowledge about in 1979 (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 18). MDMA among hundreds of fellow psychotherapists (Stolaroff 2004). Summary In 1978, the DEA reported finding huge amounts of MDMA, especially in California. In May 1978, 1,811.5 g Before the first appearance of MDMA as a psychoactive of pure MDMA was found at the San Francisco airport, drug, the chemically related substance MDA appeared 1,813 g in Redwood City, California, on 30 June 1978, as a street drug. Even after MDA was scheduled in and 2,258 g in San Rafael, California, on 10 August 1970, it never disappeared from the drug market. It 1978 (Drug Control Section DEA 1984, 17). can be assumed that continuing demand for a drug The well-known drug guru Timothy Leary took “like MDA” in parts of the drug culture led to the his first MDMA trips in 1978 on the East Coast. search for “legal alternatives”; i.e., molecularly changed Apparently he did not immediately go public with variants of MDA that were not yet illegal. One of these his enthusiastic response to this new “empathy- “alternatives” was MDMA, which can be produced with generating drug.” His description was published relative ease from MDA. much later (Leary 1985), but Leary served to widen Although first synthesized in 1912 (and sporadically distribution of MDMA through his personal con- resynthesized thereafter for some pharmacological test- nections (Forte 2013). ing), MDMA as a street drug was a “designer drug” in 6 T. PASSIE AND U. BENZENHÖFER

the sense that it was intentionally produced in the on both U.S. coasts. The first confirmed detection on 1970s to circumvent the law as “a slightly altered mole- the West Coast dates back to November 1975, fol- cular variant of a controlled psychoactive substance lowed by an increasing number of forensic detections with similar pharmacological effects” (Kau 2008, 1078). in street samples and 23 submissions collected by Looking at its typical psychopharmacological effects, PharmChem from 1976 to 1979. In 1977, two labs it was clear early that MDMA induces a more “positive” capable of producing large amounts of MDMA were drug experience than MDA. MDMA produces a stable seized in San Francisco and Redwood City, California. and benign euphoria without sensory alterations or Apparently undetected was a larger MDMA lab estab- diminished cognition. Its shorter duration reduces the lished in 1976 in Marin County, California, which, “hangover” on the next day, another well-known according to Kirsch (1986,80),operatedforfive adverse effect of MDA (Richards 1971). Possibly, this years. It appears that from 1975 onward the West “empirical finding” of more positive and fewer negative Coast became the second “hot region” for the use side-effects contributed to MDMA’s initial popularity. and distribution of MDMA. According to the literature, MDMA was first intro- The chemist Alexander T. Shulgin played a signifi- duced as an underground drug at the end of the 1960s cant, if often exaggerated, role in the history of MDMA. (Kirsch 1986; Siegel 1986). There is no solid proof of According to Shulgin, he had sent instructions for the this claim yet. Forensic detection in a street drug sam- synthesis of MDMA to a West Coast chemist in 1970, ple was reported in Chicago in 1970. From 1970 to who then informed a “pharmacologist/psychologist” 1974, MDMA was found in additional street samples from the Midwest (Shulgin 1997, 102). This may be from the Midwest (Figure 2). Thus, the Midwest true, but provides no clear evidence that the rise of became the first “hot region” for MDMA as a street MDMA in the Midwest in 1970–74 had anything to drug in the U.S. Outside of this region, one street do with Shulgin. But Shulgin surely played a role in sample of MDMA was found in 1974 in Aspen, popularizing MDMA in the second half of the 1970s. Colorado, and some were detected during the same He mentioned two encounters in 1975 with people year in Ontario. In 1973, a large clandestine MDMA expressing interest in MDMA. In mid-1976, a student lab was seized in Cedar Hill, Tennessee, which is near related to him a very positive experience with MDMA. the border with Illinois. In 1976, a large MDMA lab Shulgin’s own self-trials with MDMA began in was seized in Ontario (western Canada), which lead to September 1976, and he presented psychopharmacolo- the indexing of MDMA in Canada on 11 June 1976. gical findings on MDMA at a NIDA conference in From 1975 to 1979, the use of MDMA spread December 1976. In mid-1977, he handed over some throughout the U.S. (Figure 3). An increasing number MDMA to psychotherapist Leo Zeff, later a proselytizer of street samples were detected in Virginia, Texas, and of MDMA in psychotherapy on a national scale. In Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:03 05 March 2016

Figure 2. Geographical Distribution of MDMA in 1970–74 According to DEA Data (Seizures, Lab Raids, Street Buys and other Data) and PharmChem Data. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS 7

Figure 3. Geographical Distribution of MDMA in 1975–79 According to DEA Data (Seizures, Lab Raids, Street Buys and other Data) and PharmChem Data.

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