Term paper on Effects Of Mdma

Free Effects Of Mdma papers

Euthanaisa
Euthanasia Euthanasia is, according to Webster dictionary, the act of killing an individual for the reason of mercy. This paper will examen the issue of active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is an intervention that would cause death to take place when it would not otherwise happen. Passi

Dementia
Dementia What is Dementia? Dementia is an organic brain syndrome which results in global cognitive impairments. Dementia can occur as a result of a variety of neurological diseases. Some of the more well known dementing diseases include Alzheimer's disease (AD), multi-infarct dementia (MID), and H

Ecstasy: Invading the Youth

The War on Drugs is a lost cause. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives. The result is any adult or child with a couple measly dollars can purchase any existing illegal drug almost anywhere in the country (Greer 6/24/98). The emergence of a new designer drug (a combination of two existing drugs) “ecstasy,” which is the most common street term for the illicit drug MDMA (+/-3,4Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), has brought a fatal blow to the War on Drugs. The “love drug,” as MDMA is sometimes referred to, has spread from its previously isolated dwellings within the darkness of the “rave” scene (a rave is an all-night illicit dance party), into high schools across the United States and Canada. “Police say the manufacture, smuggling, and availability of ecstasy are booming” (Oh 4/24/00). The tremendous increase of ecstasy use is due to its escalating social acceptability, the perceived safety of the drug, and the influence of peer testimonies. This dramatic proliferation of the use of “X” is something that urgently needs to be addressed.

A succinct application of existing drug enforcement venues would aid in the curtailing of this profound drug. The application should be the integration of education about “E” into elementary and middle schools, reaching children as young as the fifth grade. To provide a general perception of the dramatic increase in the drug’s use, here is a statement from one of the top drug enforcement directors in the United States: “The White House’s drug policy director, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey…warned that [E] was posing a particularly serious threat to children. He cited a nationally recognized survey showing a sharp rise in the number of high school seniors who said they had used ecstasy in the previous month from 1.5 percent in 1998 to 2.5 percent in the following year. [He followed by saying] ‘The use of ecstasy has skyrocketed,’” (Hernandez 8/2/00). To put those numbers in real terms: if last year 3 of every 200 high school seniors ate at least one E pill each, last October, then this year 5 out of 200 high school seniors ate at least on E pill each, this October. Keep in mind that some rural schools have much lower numbers, while schools near big cities (especially on the coasts) have much higher numbers. From a personal vantage point, I would say that about 25 out of my class of 150 at least experimented with the drug, and probably 15 or so were regular users (regular, meaning on a monthly basis).

You may be asking yourself: “Why is an illicit drug spreading at such a rapid rate?’ This is a very legitimate question. The answer lies in the opinions of young people. Experts say, “…It is difficult to say exactly how many people are experimenting with the drug (Hernandez 8/2/00).” As a young person, I will tell you that it is not difficult to say. If you think that drug use is uncommon in most high school environments then you are dead wrong. I went to a private high school, and had friends who went to two different public high schools, and if a student at one of these schools did not use any type of drug him/herself then he/she certainly knew peers who did. In high schools, among people who use drugs, there is an unwritten social acceptability rule. In other words there are the drugs that users brag to their friends about getting “high” off of, or whatever, and there are the drugs that even other users look down upon. The most socially acceptable are alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, psycobin mushrooms, and LSD or lysergic acid diethylamide, in that order (yes, marijuana is becoming more socially acceptable than nicotine). The least socially acceptable drugs are (starting with the least) are heroin, GHB/Rohypnol (date rape drugs), crack cocaine, cocaine, and speed/methamphetamines. The acceptability of these drugs proceeds in a somewhat structured order: the most accepted is the least harmful, and the least accepted is the most harmful. Ecstasy is the catch 22, if you will. It falls somewhere between tobacco and “magic” mushrooms on the acceptability list; yet, its danger lies somewhere between methamphetamines and LSD. A researcher, Dr. Ricaurte from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, says, “Our immediate concern is that people who use MDMA recreationally are unwillingly putting themselves at a risk of developing brain injury” (Radford 10/30/98). Does it make sense? No. But, I am not fabricating this information to scare or confuse anyone; I am merely conveying what I have witnessed.

Additionally, another prominent reason for the tremendous spread of ecstasy use is its presumed safety. Because MDMA is so new, research is in its infancy and the side effects are relatively unknown. But compared to heroin, cocaine and other “harder” illicit drugs, “It causes relatively...

Fields

Gary and Donna Leinwand. “Customs-trained Drug Dogs Sniff Out Ecstasy at Airports.” USA Today. April 19, 2000

Greer, Mark. “Letters to the Editor: Prohibition is Immoral.” The Wall Street Journal. June 24, 1998.

Hernandez, Raymond. “In New Drug Battle, Use of Ecstasy Among Young Soars.” New York Times. August 2, 2000.

Oh, Susan. “The Dark Side of Ecstasy.” Maclean’s. April 24, 2000

Radford, Tim. “Ecstasy ‘Injures Brain for Life.’” The Guardian. October 30, 1998.