Molly

This being prompted by receipt of one of the occasional newsletters put out by the group called NeuWrite West, a group of neuroscientists interested in making neuroscience more widely accessible to the public at large. They are to be found at reference 1.

There seems to be a growing consensus that while excessive use of cannabis can cause more or less permanent damage, there are circumstances where it is clearly helpful. This leaving aside its recreational value, considerable recreational value if the number of users is any guide.

It seems that something of the same sort may also be true for Ecstasy, better known as Molly in the US, with a selection of what is available there being snapped above. The story at references 2 and 3 seems to be that PTSD, an affliction with a lifetime prevalence of around 7-8% in the US, is strongly associated with abuse of alcohol and of other substances. And that the use of Ecstasy, in combination with therapy, can usefully reduce that abuse. So quite apart from the merits of these particular reports, further evidence that we are starting to take a more grown-up attitude towards these 'softer' drugs.

So young people tampering with their consciousness by means not available to us when we were young is not necessarily the work of the devil - while making illegal things that lots of people want to do does make lots of work for the devil. Particularly in and around Central America.

I am reminded first of an anecdote from Tooting, at the height of the Ecstasy craze, to the effect that the number of Ecstasy related fatalities was very small, considering how popular the stuff was, relative to the number of alcohol related fatalities. Yet we persisted in making the stuff deeply illegal, rather than trying to control its use and abuse in less punitive ways. Second of the nineteenth century craze for ether parties, then perfectly legal, noticed at reference 4.

References

Reference 1: http://www.neuwritewest.org/.

Reference 2: Molly Talk Therapy: How MDMA-assisted therapy can be used to help reduce alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking in people with PTSD - Sarah Izabel, NeuWrite West - 2023.

Reference 3: The effects of MDMA-assisted therapy on alcohol and substance use in a phase 3 trial for treatment of severe PTSD - Nicholas, Christopher R., et al - 2022.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-staff-of-life.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-day-in-life-of-brain.html. The Greenfield book which was the prompt for reference 4.