MAPS Forum #3 MAPS Forum #3 Greetings,

I have great appreciation and respect for the dedicated work that MAPS has done to support the decriminalization and rational use of the visionary medicines. The Autumn 1995 issue was very informative and valuable, as always. But I was deeply disturbed by the presentation of the MDMA test subjects' experiences. I find it difficult to comprehend how such a learned journal could present this text without any commentary on the obvious abuse of this most important compound by the contributing subjects.

Subject number one reported ingesting MDMA "two to four times a week" over a two year period. This pattern extrapolates out to something in the neighborhood of 300+ ingestions in two years! The second subject reported 200 ingestions over an undisclosed period of time.

I have been using and facilitating the use of visionary medicines for many years. I have always understood that MDMA should not be used more than once a month, which always seemed very level headed to me, especially given the lack of conclusive evidence regarding neurotoxicity vis a vis dosage and frequency of ingestion. Using this once a month model, these subjects have ingested enough MDMA to cover 20 to 30 years of (what I consider to be) safe and responsible use of this sacrament.

My advisors and mentors over the years are among the most well thought of and respected in the field, and are well known to MAPS, et al. While I don't want to criticize anyone's spiritual path, these reports need to be responded to firmly, to insure that no readers of the MAPS newsletter come to believe that such patterns of usage are appropriate or advisable under any circumstances. I don't believe any human can take these amounts of MDMA without developing a tolerance for the compound, whether it's toxic for them or not. (Quite frankly, I believe that future research will prove that MDMA is not toxic used intelligently rather than impulsively.) Tolerance is the first step towards physical addiction and overuse / abuse is always a desecration of the sacred nature of the medicines. These perhaps unwitting abusers, no matter how well intentioned, only create more problems for those of us who seek to bring these important medicines back into the mainstream of psychopharmacology. Please say something!!!!!

Editor's note:

You are right, the readers of the newsletter would have benefited from a statement in the Autumn 1995 issue indicating that such patterns are unusual and not recommended. Most supporters of the responsible use of MDMA for therapy or personal growth would agree with "less is more," and that an extended pattern of weekly (or more often) ingestion is unnecessary, possibly harmful and might constitute abuse. However, while such patterns are unusual and not recommended, we hesitate to label them as abuse without independently examining each individualÕs motivation and experience.

The ingestion of a psychoactive drug is a personal decision with unique consequences. The two individuals whose reported MDMA use seem to you to constitute abuse have as of yet not reported adverse effects, nor did the research reveal any harmful long-term functional or behavioral consequences. By volunteering for MDMA research, these two MDMA users have made a positive contribution toward the eventual acceptance of MDMA as a prescription medicine.