Soul Medicine: Ecstasy as Therapy

Charlotte writes to tell us about an article on MDMA from h+, and has a few thoughts to share:

A documentary maker reveals the startling history of Ecstasy. In the 1960s some psychotherapists were treating alcoholism and neurosis with LSD -- and in 1957 a Catholic church monsignor in Vancouver even wrote a prayer for LSD trips. ("We humbly ask our Heavenly Mother the Virgin, help of all who call upon her to know and understand the true qualities of these psychedelics...") But after LSD was made illegal, psychiatrists struggled to keep MDMA (Ecstasy) from suffering the same fate for the next two decades.

MDMA was promoted in the 1970s by a senior research scientist at Dow Chemicals, but in 1985 it was still declared a Schedule One drug -- illegal with no medical use -- though it's been shown to dramatically enhance psychotherapy, especially for post-traumatic stress disorder. It's even considered safe -- one professor wrote in the Journal of Psychopharmacology that "There is not much difference between the dangers of horse-riding and the dangers of ecstasy."

And according to the United Nations, the world already consumes 125 tons of Ecstasy each year...