How did MDMA come to be known as “Ecstasy”?
Beginning in 1976, a small number of psychotherapists on both coasts began to utilize MDMA in their practices. Careful, purposeful use of MDMA by the therapeutic community was the dominant use until the early 1980s. By the mid-80s, a slowly expanding population of recreationally oriented users was turning on to MDMA, and the media began to take note. A group of distributors saw an opportunity for expansion and profit. Acknowledging that the drug would be more aptly named “empathy,” they gave the drug the more populist name “Ecstasy” and increased production.
