Pure Ecstasy Should be Legal - BC Health Chief Says

[JustJokinen!]

VANCOUVER — B.C.'s top health official says taking pure ecstasy can be "safe" when consumed responsibly by adults, despite warnings by police in Alberta and British Columbia about the dangers of the street drug after a rash of deaths.

Dr. Perry Kendall asserts the risks of MDMA - the pure substance originally synonymous with ecstasy - are overblown, and that its lethal dangers only arise when the man-made chemical is polluted by money-hungry gangs who cook it up.

That's why the chief provincial health officer is advocating MDMA be legalized and sold through licensed, government-run stores where the product is strictly regulated from assembly line to check-out.

Just like the growing chorus for marijuana legalization, Kendall believes crushing the dirty ecstasy-saturated black market and its associated violence requires an evidence-based strategy that revolves around public health.

"(If) you knew what a safe dosage was, you might be able to buy ecstasy like you could buy alcohol from a government-regulated store," Kendall said in an interview.

He posits that usage rates would decrease.

Several studies agree the pure substance is not so "ominous," including research by a Harvard psychiatrist that dispels more damning earlier work.

Kendall was asked whether ecstasy, after further study around correct dosage and in a setting involving strict controls, could be safe.

"Absolutely," he responded.

"We accept the fact that alcohol, which is inherently dangerous, is a product over a certain age that anybody can access.

"So I don't think the issue is a technical one of how we would manage that. The issue is a political, perceptual one."

He does not advocate promoting the drug for recreational use.

At least 16 people from B.C. to Saskatchewan have died since last July from a tainted batch of ecstasy they obtained from criminal dealers, the only way an average person can acquire the drug in Canada. It was laced with a toxin called PMMA.

Police say an average of 20 British Columbians who consume street ecstasy die each year.

Kendall and several other health colleagues liken the mutation of MDMA into a contaminated street drug to the wave of bootleg beverages during the 1920s prohibition era.

"Methyl alcohol led to huge rates of morbidity and mortality in the United States under alcohol prohibition because of illicit alcohol manufacturing," said Dr. Evan Wood, a lead researcher at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and internationally-recognized expert in drug addiction and related policies.

"PMMA is a natural and expected consequence of the prohibition on ecstasy."

The RCMP in B.C., who have a team dedicated to dismantling clandestine drug labs, maintain no amount of the substance is safe.

"We would view ecstasy as extremely dangerous," said Sgt. Duncan Pound, adding police don't distinguish between MDMA and the street drug in terms of enforcement or prevention strategies.

"Not only given the fact that it's very hard to determine what might be in any given tablet, but the fact that there's such an individual reaction to those tablets."

The medical literature says that MDMA -- technically 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine -- sends waves of serotonin flooding through the brain. The natural brain chemical makes people feel happy, social and intimate with others.

According to Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, MDMA carries a list of potential health affects that impact each user differently. They include teeth grinding, sweating, increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and convulsions, even at low doses.

The drug's letdown can include feelings of confusion, irritability, anxiety, paranoia and depression, and people may experience memory loss or sleep problems, jaundice or liver damage.

The deaths associated with street ecstasy, says the centre's website, usually result from dehydration and overheating when teens gulp down a pill and dance the night away.

It's also more likely to negatively impact people with other health problems and can interact with other medications people are taking, the centre said.

The medical establishment widely agrees MDMA is not addictive.

But new research suggests some of the drug's long-stated ill effects are exaggerated.

Using MDMA does nothing to impair cognitive functioning, found one U.S. government-funded study published in the journal Addiction in February 2011.

Dr. John Halpern, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor who led the research, said pure MDMA can change core body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure in the short-term, and decrease immune resistance for a few days.

"But barring that, it appears ... it can be safely administered, certainly through research," said Halpern, who has studied MDMA for 15 years and advocates for medical, prescription-based use of the drug.

He hopes Canada leads the way in crafting a "sensible" MDMA strategy.

"We've got to do something to make sure that the sanctity of life is protected," said Halpern, with McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. "It's certainly worthy of a healthy discussion."

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has also administered MDMA to more than 500 people in various FDA-approved clinical trials, and there has never been a serious adverse event.

"Meaning that nobody has ever required any medical attention whatsoever from overheating or from a heart attack or from a stroke or from blood pressure going up," said Rick Doblin, who has a doctorate in public policy from Harvard and founded the privately-funded organization in 1986.

The trials were conducted with pre-screened, healthy adults who did not use other drugs.

MDMA generally only produces the "peace-love" effect that users desire at low dosages, Doblin added.

He supports Kendall's proposal, but agreed applying it in the real world has major challenges.

"There are problems with criminalization, there are problems with legalization," he said.

"But the problems with criminalization are worse."

Kendall's harm-reduction approach flies in the face of long-standing drug laws. MDMA was criminalized in Canada in 1976 and in the U.S. 1985. It was recently boosted to the top of Canada's drug scheduling list under the federal government's omnibus crime bill.

Kendall argued the criminal designation is not based on pharmacology, toxicology, economic analysis "or even a really good analysis of what stops people using drugs."

MDMA ranked 17 out of 20 drugs when compared in terms of their harms, below No.1-rated alcohol, and other drugs including heroin, cocaine, tobacco, pot and steroids, according to a U.K. analysis published in The Lancet in 2010.

The research was conducted by Professor David Nutt, a former chief adviser on drugs to the British government, who asked drug-harm experts to rank both legal and illegal drugs on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society.

Nutt found the legal status of most drugs bears little relation to their harms.

Health Canada approved the protocol for a Vancouver-based study of MDMA as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder three years ago. However, researchers have hit multiple roadblocks getting necessary approvals for importing and storing the drug.

[AbbyNucksFan]

there was a story on this on news radio this morning.. he said his comments were taken out of context

[JustJokinen!]

there was a story on this on news radio this morning.. he said his comments were taken out of context

[LostViking]

Well MDMA would certainly be safer than the mystery brew people buy on the streets. I always laugh at my friends since some of them still do the stuff, everyone always manages to find a completely reliable, 100% pure MDMA source, and then of course they take it and there is something in it. I am always surprised how many people out there really believe they have the safe hookup.

So it would be great to have a source for pure stuff, all the ravers out there wouldn't have to worry so much. I still wouldn't trust the medical research that says MDMA is safe, I would probably want more research done to confirm that first. This stuff really does have a big impact on the brain, I can't imagine someone popping everyday and remaining normal.

[AbbyNucksFan]

i missed most of the story.. we were on our way down to the states to get some gas when the story came on..

[KoreanHockeyFan]

Unfortunately legalization of "pure" ecstasy is a long ways away, we haven't even legalized marjiuana yet. There have been so many preventable deaths that have resulted from tainted versions of the drug. I cringe everytime I see my friends taking it, especially with those deaths that occured in Alberta about a month or two ago.

Legalize it so people can consume it in a safer manner.

[JLumme]

All drugs should be legal and controlled. Why doesn't the government get this, when seemingly every expert on the subject does? Why are they so busy pandering to seniors and the fringe that they don't institute easy money and life saving policies? Our puritan prude society pales in comparison to most Western European nations.

[Thrill-House]

Unfortunately legalization of "pure" ecstasy is a long ways away, we haven't even legalized marjiuana yet. There have been so many preventable deaths that have resulted from tainted versions of the drug. I cringe everytime I see my friends taking it, especially with those deaths that occured in Alberta about a month or two ago.

Legalize it so people can consume it in a safer manner.

[Mr. Anderson]

Or you could simply not take drugs.

[KoreanHockeyFan]

Or you could simply not take drugs.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

Findings

MCDA modelling showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and metamfetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug (overall harm score 72), with heroin (55) and crack cocaine (54) in second and third places.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext#article_upsell

Figure 2

Drugs ordered by their overall harm scores, showing the separate contributions to the overall scores of harms to users and harm to others

The weights after normalisation (0–100) are shown in the key (cumulative in the sense of the sum of all the normalised weights for all the criteria to users, 46; and for all the criteria to others, 54). CW=cumulative weight. GHB=γ hydroxybutyric acid. LSD=lysergic acid diethylamide.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673610614626/images?imageId=gr2&sectionType=red&hasDownloadImagesLink=true

[JLumme]

    Findings

MCDA modelling showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and metamfetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug (overall harm score 72), with heroin (55) and crack cocaine (54) in second and third places.

http://www.thelancet...#article_upsell

Figure 2

Drugs ordered by their overall harm scores, showing the separate contributions to the overall scores of harms to users and harm to others

The weights after normalisation (0–100) are shown in the key (cumulative in the sense of the sum of all the normalised weights for all the criteria to users, 46; and for all the criteria to others, 54). CW=cumulative weight. GHB=γ hydroxybutyric acid. LSD=lysergic acid diethylamide.

http://www.thelancet...ImagesLink=true

[Tortorella's Rant]

Or you could simply not take drugs.

[Gurn]

Woah it's just a chart ,maybe you should take a pill and chill out.

Anything and everything should be allowed.As long as it hurts nobody else.

[Hyzer]

Or you could simply not take drugs.

[JustJokinen!]

I don't think those rankings are fair, or logical. No one can say with a straight face that using alcohol is more dangerous than using heroin or crack. Most people drink alcohol at some level, but very few people use herion or crack, while most people who drink alcohol are fine and live normal and productive lives, where most people who use crack and or heroin definitely don't live normal or productive lives. It just seems like a very meaningless ranking.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

I don't think the aim of the study is to find which substance you can use and still be a functional person. It's only about the harm that you can cause to yourself and others while using the drug.

Some of the rankings don't make sense to me either though. I don't see how pot could be so high, or how meth causes so little damage to the user.

[JustJokinen!]

MCDA modelling showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and metamfetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively)

I agree about pot, unless they are considering others being affected by the pleasant aroma.

[key2thecup]

B.C. health officer denies advocating legal MDMA

B.C.'s top health official is denying reports that he advocates the legalization of ecstasy, but stands by his position that the drug is much safer in its pure form.

Dr. Perry Kendall made national headlines on Thursday when a Canadian Press article cited him asserting that the risks of pure MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, are overblown and the drug should be regulated and sold through government-run stores.

But speaking to CTV News, the Provincial Health Officer said the story was a "complete misrepresentation of the views that I gave in a rather lengthy interview."

"I was asked that if certain psychoactive drugs were to be regulated and not prohibited, what kind of regime would I envisage being in place to limit the misuse of drugs," Kendall said.

"I'd just like to clarify that I am not advocating for the legalization of ecstasy or its distribution from government liquor store-type outlets."

But the doctor did not deny that MDMA is most dangerous when the man-made chemical is mixed with other substances by drug dealers and gangs trying to turn a profit.

"As the RCMP will tell you, most of the samples of what is passed off as MDMA on the street is of really unknown quality, unknown purity, unknown dose and is almost guaranteed to be contaminated with a variety of other drugs like PCP, ketamine or methamphetamines. So it's potentially dangeorus, overdoses do happen."

Kendall further clarified that he does not advocate using the drug for recreational purposes in any form.

But he does believe the prohibition regime imposed on various psychoactive drugs, particularly marijuana, has allowed criminal enterprises to flourish and reap substantial profits.

"It's time for a conversation on how we regulate some drugs and prohibit others," he said.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv...BritishColumbia

[Jägermeister]

Small steps people.

I cannot see any recreaction drug being legalized before marijuana, and sadly I think we are a long way from that still.