[nobbc][/nobbc]
EDM is my lifeblood and I've never used drugs to enjoy it more because I don't need to. Especially not MDMA, or any form of methamphetamine for that matter. That stuff forgets you up horribly.
Ooh, I really really hope this turns into another LSD thread. I kicked so much ass in that thread. Where do I start..
I guess I'll just go in order. MDMA is not a form of methamphetamine. It's full extended name-- Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-- does contain "methamphetamine" but they're two very, very different things. Methamphetamine doesn't even have a similar mechanism of action. Methamphetamine is a dopamine agonist, meaning it binds at dopamine neurotransmitter sites in between nerve cells. MDMA acts more like a key to releasing the body's own excess serotonin, a completely different neurotransmitter. This flood of serotonin is what you experience as a high, MDMA itself is not a neurotransmitter.
MDMA is also exceptionally safe. There are practically no negative long term effects. There are a number of rumors, all of them I can shoot down. The most popular one is that it puts holes in your brain, akin to swiss cheese. This is actually completely inaccurate, but the myth stems from two different studies. One study in rats, PCP mislabled as MDMA was administered to a rat in an exceptionally high dosage, producing olney's lesions in the brain which appeared as dark spots on an EEG of the brain. The second comes from blood pattern studies, which show that during usage, circular areas on the brain appear to receive less blood than normal. This, however, is not believed to be detrimental in any way.
I'll actually quote something from wikipedia to help me on that one.
"Another common legend that surfaced around the year 2000 was that ecstasy can put holes in the brain, akin to Swiss cheese, which are presumed to be permanent. Actually, no known drug is capable of creating physical holes in the human brain, though some substances (e.g., neurotoxins) can still do significant damage.[98] The possible neurotoxicity of MDMA is still not entirely known as several studies on the matter have been discredited as flawed by independent researchers.[99]
The concept of "holes" most likely comes from a misinterpretation of SPECT (and other) scans which show the levels of activity (or lack thereof) in certain areas of the brain, by measuring glucose usage, blood flow, and other proxies for activity. Such scans do not, however, show the physical structure of the brain. This misconception was likely popularized by an episode of MTV's True Life, "I'm on Ecstasy" (2000), which featured a former poly-drug user (including heavy use of MDMA) whose brain scan showed several areas of greatly diminished activity.[100]
Another possible source for the "holes in the brain" myth would be Olney's Lesions. These are actually tiny holes in the brain—they have been found in the brains of rats, not humans, who have been heavily dosed with PCP or ketamine, not MDMA."
One myth down. What's another one. Oh, the impurity of the drug. Yeah, that's pretty true. Pure MDMA isn't the easiest thing to come by, it's almost always cut by some other drug or filler. Hell, even my stuff is cut with 10% caffeine. What's not true, however, is that this information isn't readily available to people. As wikipedia says, " It is believed these 'impurities' are actually added to enhance effect, and terms like "speedy" (contains amphetamines) and "dopey" (contains opiates) are often used to describe different concoctions."
That one's pretty simple. Another one I actually had just heard about recently is that MDMA causes Parkinson's. This one I found ridiculous, and so did Wikipedia evidently. Parkinson's disease is caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain. As I said earlier, meth deals with dopamine, not MDMA. MDMA is pure serotonin, baby. There's no possible way to get Parkinson's from MDMA. "Ironically, it is now being investigated as a possible treatment for Parkinson's disease.[102][103]" (Wikipedia)
I'm not going to just paste blocks of text from Wikipedia anymore, you can read it yourself if there's any more confusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_myths#MDMA_.28ecstasy.29Also, any more ways you think it hurts you, feel free to post them. They're not true. I guarantee. The /ONLY/ valid argument against it is that it's metabolized into MDA. MDA is a very, very mild neurotoxin. Ethanol (drinking alcohol) is a more potent neurotoxin, and very little of it is even exposed to the brain because very little MDMA is required to achieve the effects. So even that one, while true, is kinda invalid.
Poll