The 70's Research Paper

Words: 3729
Pages: 15

“What is the first word, thought, or image that comes to mind when you hear the word “psychedelic?” After I posted this question on the VCU Facebook page, over 200 students had replied by the following day. Answers ranged from “swirly mixed tie-dye”, “the Beatles and Woodstock”, “groovy hippies”, and “Acid”. Without question, though, the most popular response was “The 70’s”. It’s not surprising to read that most students’ answers refer back to the 70’s, a time period that was dominated by the counter culture movement and legal research experiments across the globe involving psychedelic drugs. Despite the common association students have the with 70’s, I expect that by the time the next generation of college students will be able to answer …show more content…
The psychoactive drug is found within a new drug class called empathogen-entactogens. American Psychologist Ralph Metzer defines the term empathogenic to mean a “chemical agent that induces feelings of empathy”. While chemists and pharmacologist David E Nichols, coined the term entactogenic to denote a substance that “generates a sense of touch within” (Nichols). Empathogen-entactogens produces experiences of “emotional communion, oneness, relatedness, and emotional openness”. In essence, it means to feel empathy and sympathy. A German chemical company patented MDMA in 1914 with intentions to market it as a diet pill. The company decided not to sell the drug, and subsequently, scientific interest in MDMA faded. In 1973, nearly 50 years after the patenting of the chemical compound, the first study mentioning MDMA was published. Around the same time, a group of researchers and therapists began exploring the therapeutic benefits of the drug. After observing no negative side effects, this group began administering MDMA to patients in conjunction with talk therapy. According to the National Institute of Health, “therapists and psychiatrists used MDMA assisted psychotherapy with thousands of patients suffering from terminal illness, trauma, marital difficulties, drug addiction, phobias, and other disorders. Though it was discreet, up until the ban of MDMA in 1985, there was a group of psychologists and psychiatrists that used MDMA assisted psychotherapy regularly with patients. MDMA, along with many other psychoactive drugs were banned in 1985 due to the controlled substance act. Although the street drug Ecstasy has been used recreationally for nearly thirty years, no formal studies have been conducted on the drug since it has been made illegal. According to the non-profit organization MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Institute