Editing MDMA (section)

===Media attention and scheduling===
====United States====
[[File:Federal Register notice of planned MDMA scheduling.pdf|thumb|27 July 1984 Federal Register notice of the proposed MDMA scheduling]]

In an early media report on MDMA published in 1982, a [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] (DEA) spokesman stated the agency would ban the drug if enough evidence for abuse could be found.<ref name="Beck & Rosenbaum"/> By mid-1984, MDMA use was becoming more noticed. Bill Mandel reported on "Adam" in a 10 June [[San Francisco Chronicle]] article, but misidentified the drug as [[MMDA (drug)|methyloxymethylenedioxyamphetamine]] (MMDA). In the next month, the World Health Organization identified MDMA as the only substance out of twenty phenethylamines to be seized a significant number of times.<ref name="Eisner" />

After a year of planning and data collection, MDMA was proposed for [[Controlled Substances Act|scheduling]] by the DEA on 27 July 1984, with a request for comments and objections.<ref name=Eisner/><ref>{{cite journal|title=Schedules of Controlled Substances Proposed Placement of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine in Schedule I|journal=Federal Register|date=27 July 1984|volume=49|issue=146|page=30210|url=http://maps.org/research-archive/dea-mdma/pdf/0194.PDF|access-date=15 January 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002700/http://www.maps.org/research-archive/dea-mdma/pdf/0194.PDF|url-status=live}}</ref> The DEA was surprised when a number of psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and researchers objected to the proposed scheduling and requested a hearing.<ref name="exploration"/> In a [[Newsweek]] article published the next year, a DEA pharmacologist stated that the agency had been unaware of its use among psychiatrists.<ref>{{cite news |vauthors=Adler J, Abramson P, Katz S, Hager M |title=Getting High on 'Ecstasy' |url=http://www.maps.org/research-archive/hmma/Newsweek4.85.pdf |access-date=1 February 2015 |work=Newsweek Magazine |date=15 April 1985 |location=Life/Style |page=96 |archive-date=20 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420122637/http://www.maps.org/research-archive/hmma/Newsweek4.85.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> An initial hearing was held on 1 February 1985 at the DEA offices in Washington, D.C., with administrative law judge Francis L. Young presiding.<ref name=Eisner/> It was decided there to hold three more hearings that year: Los Angeles on 10 June, Kansas City, Missouri on 10–11 July, and Washington, D.C., on 8–11 October.<ref name=exploration/><ref name=Eisner/>

Sensational media attention was given to the proposed criminalization and the reaction of MDMA proponents, effectively advertising the drug.<ref name=exploration/> In response to the proposed scheduling, the Texas Group increased production from 1985 estimates of 30,000 tablets a month to as many as 8,000 per day, potentially making two million ecstasy tablets in the months before MDMA was made illegal.<ref name=comprehensive>{{cite book| vauthors = Holland J | veditors = Holland J |title=Ecstasy: the complete guide; a comprehensive look at the risks and benefits of MDMA|date=2001|publisher=Park Street Press|location=Rochester, VT|isbn=978-0-89281-857-0 |chapter=The History of MDMA}}</ref> By some estimates the Texas Group distributed 500,000 tablets per month in Dallas alone.<ref name=rising/> According to one participant in an [[ethnographic]] study, the Texas Group produced more MDMA in eighteen months than all other distribution networks combined across their entire histories.<ref name="Beck & Rosenbaum"/> By May 1985, MDMA use was widespread in California, Texas, southern Florida, and the northeastern United States.<ref name="Siegel 1986"/><ref name="New York Times"/> According to the DEA there was evidence of use in twenty-eight states<ref>{{cite web|title=MDMA – FDA REPORT, 1985|url=https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_law3.shtml|website=Erowid|publisher=Food and Drug Administration|access-date=11 August 2015|date=1985|archive-date=11 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811142554/https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_law3.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> and Canada.<ref name="Siegel 1986"/> Urged by Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]], the DEA announced an [[Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984|emergency Schedule I classification]] of MDMA on 31 May 1985. The agency cited increased distribution in Texas, escalating street use, and new evidence of MDA (an analog of MDMA) neurotoxicity as reasons for the emergency measure.<ref name="New York Times">{{cite news|title=U.S. will ban 'ecstasy,' a hallucinogenic drug|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/01/us/us-will-ban-ecstasy-a-hallucinogenic-drug.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=29 April 2015|date=1 June 1985|agency=The Associated Press|archive-date=24 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524161818/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/01/us/us-will-ban-ecstasy-a-hallucinogenic-drug.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|vauthors=Baker K|title=DEA To Ban "Ecstasy" – The Drug MDMA|url=https://apnews.com/26214cd32a8b4c05e361158df14715b0|access-date=7 August 2015|agency=The Associated Press|date=30 May 1985|archive-date=31 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831174744/https://apnews.com/26214cd32a8b4c05e361158df14715b0|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|vauthors=Corwin M|title=U.S. to Ban Use of Drug MDMA : Street Abuse Cited; Used by Psychiatrists|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-31-mn-14566-story.html|access-date=11 August 2015|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=31 May 1985|archive-date=17 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117032749/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-05-31/news/mn-14566_1_street-drugs|url-status=live}}</ref> The ban took effect one month later on 1 July 1985<ref name=comprehensive/> in the midst of [[Nancy Reagan]]'s "[[Just Say No]]" campaign.<ref>{{cite news|vauthors=Weber B|title=Alexander Shulgin, Psychedelia Researcher, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/alexander-shulgin-psychedelia-researcher-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|access-date=28 August 2015|work=The New York Times|date=7 June 2014|archive-date=5 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905200423/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/alexander-shulgin-psychedelia-researcher-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|vauthors=Vastag B|title=Chemist Alexander Shulgin, popularizer of the drug Ecstasy, dies at 88|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/chemist-alexander-shulgin-popularizer-of-the-drug-ecstasy-dies-at-88/2014/06/03/19fd9580-eb34-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html|access-date=28 August 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|publisher=WP Company LLC|date=3 June 2014|archive-date=5 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150805104454/http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/chemist-alexander-shulgin-popularizer-of-the-drug-ecstasy-dies-at-88/2014/06/03/19fd9580-eb34-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a result of several expert witnesses testifying that MDMA had an accepted medical usage, the administrative law judge presiding over the hearings recommended that MDMA be classified as a [[Controlled Substances Act#Schedule III controlled substances|Schedule III]] substance. Despite this, DEA administrator [[John C. Lawn]] overruled and classified the drug as Schedule I.<ref name=exploration/><ref name=Harpers>{{cite news|title= Ecstasy has its pros and cons|newspaper= Kokomo Tribune|location= Kokomo, Indiana|date= 23 November 1985|page= 6|url= https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/Robert_Thomas/clipnumber/34618/|agency= Harper's Bazaar|via= newspaperarchive.com|access-date= 9 September 2017|archive-date= 28 August 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210828153542/https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/robert-thomas-512557/|url-status= live}} {{free access}}</ref> Harvard psychiatrist [[Lester Grinspoon]] then sued the DEA, claiming that the DEA had ignored the medical uses of MDMA, and the federal court sided with Grinspoon, calling Lawn's argument "strained" and "unpersuasive", and vacated MDMA's Schedule I status.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lester Grinspoon, M.d., Petitioner, v. Drug Enforcement Administration, Respondent, 828 F.2d 881 (1st Cir. 1987) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/881/368975/ |website=Justia Law |publisher=US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit |access-date=9 October 2021 |archive-date=9 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009212855/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/881/368975/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Despite this, less than a month later Lawn reviewed the evidence and reclassified MDMA as Schedule I again, claiming that the expert testimony of several psychiatrists claiming over 200 cases where MDMA had been used in a therapeutic context with positive results could be dismissed because they were not published in medical journals.<ref name=exploration/> In 2017, the FDA [[#Research|granted]] [[breakthrough therapy]] designation for its use with psychotherapy for PTSD. However, this designation has been questioned and problematized.<ref name="Halvorsen 1689–1690">{{cite journal | vauthors = Halvorsen JØ, Naudet F, Cristea IA | title = Challenges with benchmarking of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy | journal = Nature Medicine | volume = 27 | issue = 10 | pages = 1689–1690 | date = October 2021 | pmid = 34635857 | doi = 10.1038/s41591-021-01525-0 | s2cid = 238636360 | url = https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03414583/file/Halvorsen%20et%20al%20-%202021%20-%20Challenges%20with%20benchmarking%20of%20MDMA-assisted%20psychotherapy.pdf | access-date = 9 May 2022 | archive-date = 22 May 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220522022351/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03414583/file/Halvorsen%20et%20al%20-%202021%20-%20Challenges%20with%20benchmarking%20of%20MDMA-assisted%20psychotherapy.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref>

====United Nations====
While engaged in scheduling debates in the United States, the DEA also pushed for international scheduling.<ref name=comprehensive/> In 1985, the [[World Health Organization]]'s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence recommended that MDMA be placed in Schedule I of the 1971 United Nations [[Convention on Psychotropic Substances]]. The committee made this recommendation on the basis of the pharmacological similarity of MDMA to previously scheduled drugs, reports of illicit trafficking in Canada, drug seizures in the United States, and lack of well-defined therapeutic use. While intrigued by reports of psychotherapeutic uses for the drug, the committee viewed the studies as lacking appropriate methodological design and encouraged further research. Committee chairman [[Paul Grof]] dissented, believing international control was not warranted at the time and a recommendation should await further therapeutic data.<ref>{{cite book|title=WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence: Twenty-second Report.|date=1985|publisher=World Health Organization|location=Geneva|isbn=978-9241207294|url=http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO_TRS_729.pdf|access-date=29 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019192225/http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO_TRS_729.pdf|archive-date= 19 October 2014|pages=24–25}}</ref> The [[Commission on Narcotic Drugs]] added MDMA to Schedule I of the convention on 11 February 1986.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CND/Drug_Resolutions/1980-1989/1986/CND_Decision-1986-07_S-IX.pdf |title=Decision to place MDMA into Schedule I |publisher=Commission on Narcotic Drugs |date=11 February 1986 |website=UNODC |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=22 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922000603/http://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CND/Drug_Resolutions/1980-1989/1986/CND_Decision-1986-07_S-IX.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>