In 2023, it was estimated that around *** million people in the United States had used ecstasy, also known as MDMA or Molly, in the past year. MDMA is a synthetic drug that produces feelings of pleasure and emotional warmth, as well as increased empathy, energy, and sense of well-being. MDMA may also cause negative effects such as nausea, jaw clenching, chills, and disorganized thoughts, but deaths from MDMA overdose are rare. MDMA use in the United States As of 2023, around **** million people in the United States had used MDMA at some point in their lifetime. Furthermore, around *** thousand people reported using MDMA in the past month. Although MDMA gained popularity as a club drug, it is now used by a wider range of people for different reasons. However, it’s use among high school students is still relatively rare. As of 2023, only *** percent of U.S. students in grades 8, 10, and 12 reported that they had used MDMA in their lifetime. In comparison, around **** percent of students said they had used marijuana in their lifetime. MDMA as therapy In recent years there has been increased interest in using psychedelic drugs such as MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin to treat mental disorders. The use of these substances for mental health treatment is known as psychedelic therapy. Clinical trials are now being run to investigate the use of MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder. From 2000 to 2022, there were ** clinical trials worldwide in phase two involving MDMA to treat PTSD.

In 2023, around 22.3 million people have used MDMA in their lifetime. This statistic shows the number of people in the U.S. who have used MDMA, or ecstasy, in their lifetime from 2009 to 2023.

An estimated 3.53 million people consumed ecstasy in Europe at least once in 2021. In general, Asia has the highest number of people consuming ecstasy. This statistic shows the estimated number of ecstasy consumers worldwide from 2010 to 2021, by region.

In 2023, approximately 471 thousand people in the United States used MDMA in the past month. This statistic shows the number of people in the U.S. who used MDMA, or ecstasy, in the past month from 2009 to 2023.

In recent years, ecstasy trafficking has grown in complexity and tablets has been commonly sold containing different contents of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or even other psychoactive substances. In contrast, identification and quantification of drugs of abuse is still a challenge, once the access to drug standards is very restricted in Brazil. In this work, ecstasy tablets seized by the Brazilian Federal Police have their chemical composition identified and quantified by gas chromatography and quantitative 1H nuclear magnetic resonance based on an internal standard approach (IS-1H-qNMR). Both methods were validated and showed suitable results for the figures of merit. IS-1H-qNMR shows excellent results of accuracy (relative error < 5%) and precision (relative standard deviation (RSD) < 2%). Comparatively, IS-1H-qNMR is more efficient and versatile than gas chromatography to accomplish in a single analysis the identification and quantification of target analytes. Since the method does not require a specific reference material, it is cost effective and provides agility to routine forensic analysis.

This statistic presents the percentage of college students in the U.S. that had used MDMA for a select number of days during the past 30 days as of fall 2018. According to the data, 3.8 percent of students had used MDMA but not within the past 30 days.

The lowest median number of days of MDMA use in the Nordic countries in 2019 was in Sweden, where the number was three. The other Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, all had a median of four days.

Street prices of cannabis, heroin, cocaine and amphetamine are provided in euros per gram, of LSD in euros per unit/dose, and of ecstasy in euros per tablet. Data on prices come from a range of different sources, the comparability of which is not always known. Data on the potency of cannabis products and the purity of heroin (white and brown), cocaine products (cocaine and crack) and amphetamine are presented here. In addition, data on the MDMA content (weight in ecstasy tablets) is provided.

There are over 100 statistical tables in this dataset. Each data table may be viewed as an HTML table or downloaded in spreadsheet (Excel format).

MDMA is often called ecstasy. It is an illegal drug frequently taken at parties, raves or music festivals. You may believe that MDMA is a ‘safe’ drug, but it can have harmful short- and long-term effects. It is even possible to die from complications that arise from using it.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has long been used non-medically, and it is currently under investigation for its potential therapeutic benefits. Both uses may be related to its ability to enhance empathy, sociability, emotional processing and its anxiolytic effects. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these effects, and their specificity to MDMA compared to other stimulants, are not yet fully understood. Here, using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigated the effects of MDMA and a prototypic stimulant, methamphetamine (MA), on early visual processing of socio-emotional stimuli in an oddball emotional faces paradigm. Specifically, we examined whether MDMA or MA enhance the processing of facial expressions, compared to placebo, during the early stages of visual perception. MDMA enhanced an event-related component that is sensitive to detecting faces (N170), specifically for happy and angry expressions compared to neutral faces. MA did not affect this measure, and neither drug altered other components of the response to emotional faces. These findings provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of MDMA on socio-emotional processing and may have implications for the therapeutic use of MDMA in the treatment of social anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.

Four placebo-controlled, within-subject studies were pooled, including in total 63 polydrug ecstasy users (S-group, N= 48; L-group, N= 15) receiving MDMA 75 mg and placebo on two separate test days. Mood was assessed by means of the Profile of Mood States. The aim was to investigate the role of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in MDMA-induced mood effects.

In 2018, 92 people died as a result of MDMA/ecstasy use in England and Wales, this was by far the highest amount of recorded deaths in the 25-year period shown, while 79 deaths were recorded as a result of MDMA in 2023. Since the turn of the century, the number of deaths has remained relatively high apart from a drastic fall in 2010 and 2011 before subsequently rising again. Seriousness of MDMA offencesIn the United Kingdom (UK) MDMA is categorized as a class A drug which means it carries the most severe penalties for both possession and supply. In 2021/22, police in England and Police carried out almost 2.5 thousand seizures of ecstasy. This is approximately 70 percent fewer seizures compared to 2006/07. Comparisons with the EUThe Netherlands had the highest prevalence of ecstasy use in the EU at almost five percent admitting to using in a the last year as of 2022. The UK's closest neighbor, Ireland, ranked as having the second-highest reported use at 2.7 percent.

MDMA is often called ecstasy. It is an illegal drug frequently taken at parties, raves or music festivals. You may believe that MDMA is a ‘safe’ drug, but it can have harmful short- and long-term effects. It is even possible to die from complications that arise from using it.

Overall mean of the log-transformed data throughout the seven day week.*Difference: mean of the log-transformed data (weekend) minus mean of the log-transformed data (weekdays).Pearson correlation coefficients between FPC scores for the ecstasy (MDMA) loads and simple summary measures.

Annual number of deaths registered related to drug poisoning in England and Wales by sex, region and whether selected substances were mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, with or without other drugs or alcohol, and involvement in suicides.

Protein-Protein, Genetic, and Chemical Interactions for Bogen IL (2003):Short- and long-term effects of MDMA ("ecstasy") on synaptosomal and vesicular uptake of neurotransmitters in vitro and ex vivo. curated by BioGRID (https://thebiogrid.org); ABSTRACT: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is a commonly abused drug which has been shown to be neurotoxic to serotonergic neurons in many species. The exact mechanism responsible for the neurotoxicity of MDMA is, however, poorly understood. In this study, the effects of MDMA on the synaptosomal and vesicular uptake of neurotransmitters were investigated. Our results show that MDMA (0.5-20 microM) reduces both synaptosomal and vesicular uptake of serotonin and dopamine in a dose dependent manner in vitro, while the uptake of glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) remains unaffected. Ex vivo experiments support the importance of the monoamines, with predominant dopaminergic inhibition at short-term exposure (3 x 15 mg/kg; 2-h intervals), and exclusively serotonergic inhibition at long-term exposure (2 x 10 mg/kg per day; 4 days). This study also compares MDMA and the structurally related antidepressant paroxetine, in an attempt to reveal possible cellular mechanisms for the serotonergic toxicity of MDMA. One important difference between paroxetine and MDMA is that only MDMA has the capability of inhibiting vesicular uptake of monoamines at doses used. We suggest that inhibition of the vesicular monoamine transporter-2, and a following increase in cytoplasmatic monoamine concentrations, might be crucial for the neurotoxic effect of MDMA.

Abstract Evaluating the effects of ecstasy on CYP2E1 activity is of great concern, mainly due to growing trends in abuse and co-administration of MDMA with ethanol and the dominant role of this isoenzyme on ethanol metabolism. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of MDMA on CYP2E1 activity. A total of 24 male rats were selected and divided into three groups. The first and second groups consisted of 12 rats and were employed to optimize the perfusion method, and the third group was employed for studying the alteration of CYP2E1 activity after liver exposure to MDMA (300 and 600 ng/ml). The amount of chlorzoxazone and 6-hydroxy chlorzoxazone in a sample obtained from liver perfusion before and after exposure to a buffer containing MDMA was determined by HPLC-FL. The enzymatic activity of rat CYP2E1 decreased after liver perfusion with a buffer containing 600 ng/ml of MDMA. However, no significant changes were observed in chlorzoxazone and 6-hydroxy chlorzoxazone concentration in perfusate before and after liver perfusion with a buffer containing 300 ng/ml of MDMA. Our findings suggest that the activity of CYP2E1 in rats might decrease only after administration of MDMA at a lethal dose. However, further animal and human studies are needed to confirm our assumption.

The web survey "Web survey on drugs" coordinated by the EMCDDA ( European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction ) provides an overview of the use of various substances, the ways of use and acquisition, and the socio-demographic background of the user. The study covers cannabis products, cocaine, ecstasy/MDMA, amphetamine, methamphetamine, new psychoactive substances and fentanyl in depth.

In Estonia, the study is carried out at the same time as in several other European countries. This makes the study particularly valuable, because it is possible to compare Estonia's situation with other countries.

Participation in the online survey is anonymous, voluntary and depends on the respondent's interest in participating. The target group of the study is at least 18-year-old people living in Estonia who have used drugs at least once in their lifetime. The questionnaire is available in Estonia in three languages: Estonian, Russian and English.

Themes

• lifetime and past 12 months and/or 30 days substance use
• frequency of substance use
• ways of using the substance
• quantities used
• methods/sources of obtaining drugs and quantities obtained
• price of drugs
• purpose and expected effect of using new psychoactive substances
• the socio-demographic background of the respondents

The EMCCDA online survey is repeated at 2-3 year intervals. The survey was carried out for the first time in 2016. Estonia participated in data collection for the first time in 2018. The next survey, in which Estonia also participates, will be conducted at the beginning of 2021.

In total, more than 15 European Union countries have participated in the survey in different years. Estonia participated in the 2018 data collection, and Estonian data is comparable to the other countries that participated in the study, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Poland.

EMCCDA Online Survey International Website

According to the World Drug Report 2020, cocaine and ecstasy are the most consumed stimulant drugs, with 19 and 27 millions estimated users in 2018. Unsurprisingly, large efforts are being made to design fast and cost effective analytical methods to track and monitor the distribution networks of these synthetic drugs. Here we share two datasets of ecstasy pills seized in the north-east of Switzerland between 2010 and 2011. The first contains 621 forensic grade images of pills, while the second one consists of 486 mIR spectra. While both sets are not covering the same seizure, both provide high quality data with orthogonal information to evaluate clustering and dimension reduction methods.

Between 2008 and 2022, the average price of ecstasy has more than doubled. In 2022, a pill of ecstasy was sold on average for around 4.40 euros, or about half the price of a gram of amphetamine that year. Cannabis was slightly more expensive, at around ten euros, but buying cocaine was by far the most expensive, at 50 euros per gram.

 Ecstasy use on the rise 

Since 1997, the Trimbos Instituut monitors drugs use among teenagers and adults in the Netherlands. Their survey results indicate that in the last 20 years, ecstasy use more than tripled. Whereas in 1997, 2.3 percent of respondents stated to have used the drug at least once, by 2020 this had increased to nearly ten percent. The share of regular users also increased in this period, peaking in 2019 at 1.2 percent. In 2020, 0.8 percent of survey participants answered to have used ecstasy in the past month.

Ecstasy popular among young

According to the most recent survey, ecstasy use was especially popular among the younger generation. Of 20 to 24 years old, over 12 percent had taken a pill in the past year. Among 25-29 years old, this was 8.7 percent. By comparison, only 0.5 percent of the respondents 65 years and older had experience using ecstasy in their lifetime.