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Description
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Clandestine
laboratories operating throughout Western Europe, primarily the
Netherlands and Belgium, manufacture significant quantities of the drug in
tablet, capsule, or powder form. Although the vast majority of ecstasy
consumed domestically is produced in Europe, a limited number of ecstasy
labs operate in the United States. In addition, in recent years, Israeli
organized crime syndicates, some composed of Russian émigrés associated
with Russian organized crime syndicates, have forged relationships with
Western European traffickers and gained control over a significant share
of the European market. The Israeli syndicates are currently the primary
source to U.S. distribution groups.
Overseas ecstasy
trafficking organizations smuggle the drug in shipments of 10,000 or more
tablets via express mail services, couriers aboard commercial airline
flights, or, more recently, through air freight shipments from several
major European cities to cities in the United States. The drug is sold in
bulk quantity at the mid-wholesale level in the United States for
approximately eight dollars per dosage unit. The retail price of ecstasy
sold in clubs in the United States remains steady at twenty to thirty
dollars per dosage unit. Ecstasy traffickers consistently use brand names
and logos as marketing tools and to distinguish their product from that of
competitors. The logos are produced to coincide with holidays or special
events. Among the more popular logos are butterflies, lightning bolts, and
four-leaf clovers. |
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Effects
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Short-term
effects of ecstasy?
While it is not as
addictive as heroin or cocaine, ecstasy can cause other adverse effects
including nausea, hallucinations, chills, sweating, increases in body
temperature, tremors, involuntary teeth clenching, muscle cramping, and
blurred vision. Ecstasy users also report after-effects of anxiety,
paranoia, and depression. An ecstasy overdose is characterized by high
blood pressure, faintness, panic attacks, and, in more severe cases, loss
of consciousness, seizures, and a drastic rise in body temperature.
Ecstasy overdoses can be fatal, as they may result in heart failure or
extreme heat stroke.
Short-term effects
of ecstasy
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Nausea |
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Hallucinations |
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Chills & sweating |
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Increased body temp |
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Tremors |
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Muscle cramping |
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Blurred vision |
The effects start after about 20 minutes and can last for hours. These is
a 'rush' feeling followed by a feeling of calm and a sense of well being
to those around, often with a heightened perception of color and sound.
Some people actually feel sick and experience a stiffening up of arms,
legs and particularly the jaw along with sensations of thirst,
sleeplessness, depression and paranoia. Gives a feeling of energy. Some
mild hallucinogenic effects.
Many problems users encounter with Ecstasy are similar to
those found with the use of amphetamines and cocaine. They include
increases in heart rate and blood pressure, nausea, blurred vision,
faintness, chills, sweating, and such psychological problems as confusion,
depression, sleep problems, craving, severe anxiety, paranoia, and
psychotic episodes. Ecstasy's chemical cousin, MDA, destroys cells that
produce serotonin in the brain. These cells play a direct roll in
regulating aggression, mood, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to
pain. Methamphetamine, also similar to Ecstasy, damages brain cells that
produce dopamine. Scientists have now shown that ecstasy not only makes
the brain's nerve branches and endings degenerate, but also makes them
"re-grow, but abnormally - failing to reconnect with some brain areas
and connecting elsewhere with the wrong areas. These reconnections may be
permanent, resulting in cognitive impairments, changes in emotion,
learning, memory, or hormone-like chemical abnormalities
Long-term effects of ecstasy?
The effects of long-term ecstasy use are just beginning to
undergo scientific analysis. In 1998, the National Institute of Mental
Health conducted a study of a small group of habitual ecstasy users who
were abstaining from use. The study revealed that the abstinent users
suffered damage to the neurons in the brain that transmit serotonin, an
important biochemical involved in a variety of critical functions
including learning, sleep, and integration of emotion. The results of the
study indicate that recreational ecstasy users may be at risk of
developing permanent brain damage that may manifest itself in depression,
anxiety, memory loss, and other neuropsychotic disorders.
Ecstasy stimulates the release of the neurotransmitter
serotonin from brain neurons, producing a high that lasts from several
minutes to an hour. The drug's rewarding effects vary with the individual
taking it, the dose and purity, and the environment in which it is taken.
Ecstasy can produce stimulant effects such as an enhanced sense of
pleasure and self-confidence and increased energy. Its psychedelic effects
include feelings of peacefulness, acceptance, and empathy. Users claim
they experience feelings of closeness with others and a desire to touch
them. Because ecstasy engenders feelings of closeness and trust and has a
short duration of action, some clinicians claim that the drug is
potentially valuable as a psychotherapeutic agent. However, ecstasy is
classified by Federal regulators as a drug with no accepted medical use. |
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