OFFICIAL NAMES: Ecstasy, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)

STREET NAMES: E, XTC, X, Adam, lover's speed, hug drug, roll, bean, M, clarity, disco biscuits, Scooby snacks, bibs

DRUG CLASSIFICATIONS: Schedule I, stimulant with hallucinogenic properties

Overview

MDMA was developed in Germany in 1912 and patented in 1914 by the German pharmaceutical company Merck. It does not appear to have been specifically created for any particular use, but rather, resulted from another drug development procedure. There is practically no historical mention of the drug again until the 1950s, when the United States army experimented with it as an agent of psychological warfare. As a result of therapeutic drug experiments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, people began to use MDMA recreationally because they liked the feelings of well being and openness it produced, and by psychotherapists who gave the drug to their patients to enhance therapy as a "penicillin...