It may sound like a hoax, but it’s true: Recent studies show that a modified form of ecstasy kills 100% of blood cancer cells. While patient application is still a long way away, in test tube studies, the modified ecstasy killed all of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells (as reported by the BBC).

Your doctor probably won’t be telling you to take two hits of ecstasy anytime soon, but this exciting discovery gives hope to those suffering with blood cancers and calls into question once again our country’s perilous relationship with drugs and the true reasoning behind the ongoing War on Drugs.

Ecstasy, aka MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a designer club drug that the mainstream usually associates with all-night dance parties known as raves where young people dressed in neon fur suck on pacifiers and rub each other in waves of ecstatic pleasure.

In reality, “E” is a popular life enhancer ingested a thousand times over each weekend by Americans in search of the powerful sensations it delivers: a feeling of euphoria, decreased anxiety and increased intimacy with others. At $10-20 bucks a dose, ecstasy is far cheaper than a night of drinking and much less hard on the body.

Once upon a time, MDMA did not have the evil stigma as it does now, and was even sold legally in the '80s in Texas, dubbed “penicillin for the soul.” That all ended in 1988, when the drug was permanently labeled as a Schedule 1 narcotic, and today ecstasy remains illegal – though that doesn’t stop the legions of party people who take it every weekend in powder or pill form.

MDMA is currently being reevaluated for its therapeutic benefits in psychology and cognitive therapy, and clinical trials are assessing the powerful drug’s use to treat post-traumatic stress disorder as well as anxiety associated with terminal diseases such as cancer. MDMA allows hurt and broken people to experience long-forgotten emotions like love and intimacy with an influx of oxytocin (the bonding neurochemical) and norepinephrine (the love neurochemical). While a pill could never replace true love or social bonding, in the continued absence of such feelings (as in the case of post-traumatic stress disorder), MDMA’s flood of happy-making brain chemicals can make a huge difference in recovery rates.

And today, researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Western Australia have shown that this demonized substance may actually contain the secrets that lead to a medical holy grail: A cure for cancer.

What looks like a satirical headline to be found on The Onion or as a Facebook joke is indeed true, and further proof that America’s drug laws need to be rehashed, revamped or thrown out. With prescription drug deaths now outnumbering traffic accidents as the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States, it is clear that the line between “medicine” and “drug” is blurrier than ever, and each of us must take responsibility for our health and what we choose to put into our bodies.

sources:

BBC

LA Times

image: tanjila