Pubdate: Sat, 29 Dec 2012
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: David P. Ball

CANADA ALLOWS USE OF ECSTASY IN STUDY

Banned Since 1976

To Research Drug's Usefulness In PTSD Therapy

VANCOUVER * Exactly a century after ecstasy was first patented, Health
Canada has approved the drug's import for the first Canadian study
using the illegal substance in trauma survivors' therapy.

The decision to allow two Vancouver therapists to import nine grams of
MDMA from a laboratory in Switzerland - one of only two such permitted
facilities worldwide - will kickstart the first experiment with the
euphoria-and-empathy-producing drug in B.C. on Jan. 1, according to a
Health Canada email obtained by the National Post, dated Nov. 23.

"I don't know if we'll have to wait until the MDMA is actually in our
hands, but we've got a whole list of people who want to come to do
it," Dr. Ingrid Pacey, one of the researchers, told the Post. "There's
a part of me that still doesn't quite believe it. When the MDMA
arrives from Switzerland ... when it finally lands on Canadian soil,
then I'll be certain."

The B.C. study follows U.S. research by Medical University of South
Carolina psychiatry professor Michael Mithoefer and wife Ann
Mithoefer, a nurse. In the Journal of Psychopharmacology, they
reported that more than 83% of several PTSD patients treated with MDMA
and therapy had completely recovered, "without evidence of harm." A
follow-up study published last month found that the patients still had
virtually no symptoms two years later.

"What the MDMA does, because of the physiological effects, it means
you are in a present, fearless state - able to look at those events
without being re-traumatized, and healing in the present what was the
trauma of the past," Dr. Pacey said.

For her research partner, psychologist Andrew Feldmar,
ecstasy-assisted therapy's benefits are obvious.

"It brings you into the present," Mr. Feldmar said. "You don't worry
about the past or the future. It opens your heart; you don't feel any
shame.

"Something horrible is done to you, and an alarm starts ringing. You
just don't know how to turn it off. Even though the war is over, or no
one is torturing you, or no one is hurting you, the alarm is still
ringing. With the help of MDMA and good therapy, good connection and
good company, the alarm can be stilled."

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall said the local MDMA study
is "good news" for treating trauma. He drew controversy in June by
suggesting that pure, unadulterated ecstasy may not be harmful, and
that punitive drug policies were not effective.

"If it's a successful intervention, then I think it deserves broader
application," he said in a telephone interview. "What the
psychiatrists are saying is that in controlled doses, with a
pharmaceutically known product in a safe environment, it can be safely
used as an adjunct in therapy.

"PTSD is clearly an issue - and clearly an issue for returning
veterans.... Anything that would add a useful addition to any
therapeutic armamentarium - particularly one that maybe we lack
effective interventions for - would be welcomed here."

Mr. Feldmar acknowledges that the use of such drugs in therapy is
controversial.

The tall, bearded therapist grins, shrugging when the National Post
asks if he has tried MDMA.

"That remains a mystery," he said. "I can't say that for the
record.

"I already have enough trouble going to the States. I'm just hoping to
get a waiver so I can go to the MAPS [Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies] international conference and talk about all
this."

Vancouver's experiment will involve 12 patients with severe PTSD -
such as terrifying nightmares, flashbacks, severe anxiety and a loss
of trust. Each will take ecstasy in the counsellors' company, followed
by eight hours of psychotherapy. After a supervised overnight stay,
more therapy follows the next morning.

Ideally, Dr. Pacey said, the research staff will be able to try MDMA
to understand its effects. Has she tried it herself ?

"I took it before it was made illegal," she said. "I remember my first
MDMA experience: it was magic; it was fabulous. It really did alter a
lot of how I saw the world and myself .... It was beautiful - magical,
even."

MDMA was first patented on Dec. 24, 1912 by Merck pharmacologist Anton
Kollisch. Canada banned the drug in 1976.

In November, it was upgraded from a Schedule III to a Schedule I
substance, meaning that mandatory minimum sentences - and up to life
in prison - would face those caught trafficking or producing it.

"Under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, authority is given to
the minister of health to grant all authorizations to use a restricted
drug for scientific research or other purposes," Health Canada
spokesman Gary Holub told the Post. "To undertake a clinical trial
using a restricted drug in Canada, certain regulatory requirements
must be met.

"If the design of the clinical trial does not put the participants'
safety at undue risk, then Health Canada allows the use of the study
drug." Dr. Pacey said the approval of the Vancouver research offers
great hope to those psychologically scarred from trauma.

"A lot of my work has been with women - and some men - who had
significant trauma, particularly sexual abuse, as children," she said.

"Initially, my work was mostly psychotherapy, with some use of
traditional psychiatric medications. I found that "I would work up to
a certain point, but then make no progress. The deeper underlying
fears and physiological changes are very difficult to change.

"My feeling is that the completion of therapy does require something
that moves the person beyond their everyday reality. MDMA is a very
effective way to really do that last piece of work, that traditional
talk therapy and medication does not do."

Mr. Feldmar adds that there's no evidence that ecstasy is even
addictive. "Some people consider it a sacrament," he said.

"You ask, ' Can you get addicted to it?' Do Catholics get addicted to
the sacrament?

"One can get devoted, but that's not an addiction."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D