9781422270530

distributed more widely. In 1985, the US Drug Enforcement Administration declared that MDMA was a dangerous drug and placed it on Schedule I of banned drugs, along with LSD, heroin, and cannabis. How Is Ecstasy Made? Drugs with a similar chemical structure to ecstasy are called phenethylamines. In the lab, drug chemists start with a basic material. When Merck scientists first created MDMA in Germany in 1912, they used a chemical called safrole, a colorless, oily liquid (although impure samples can appear slightly yellow). Safrole comes from the sassafras plant, which gives root beer its characteristic sweet flavor. Safrole is also found in cinnamon and basil. It isn’t toxic or harmful when it’s found in plants that we consume for food or seasoning, but by the time it’s concentrated in oil, it can be dangerous. Concentrated safrole, and even sassafras tea, have been banned because safrole in high concentrations can be toxic. Not only is safrole—the basic starting chemical for MDMA—potentially poisonous, the lab procedures to make ecstasy include materials like hydrobromic acid and formic acid. Ecstasy is an illegal substance, so the labs that make it are also illegal or “underground.” One of the methods used to make ecstasy is called “reductive amination.” This process removes oxygen atoms from the original substance and adds an amino group of atoms. Although ecstasy is chemically similar to methamphetamine, the main difference between the two is the chemical manufacturing process, which adds a mescaline ring, a chemical structure that also occurs naturally in cactus and other similar plants. The combination of the amphetamine ring and mescaline ring creates MDMA’s combined stimulant and psychedelic effects. MDMA is also similar to another drug, MDA

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The Young Adult Drug Library: Ecstasy