MDA

MDMA is a classical entactogen substance of the amphetamine class. It is the most well-known and widely-used member of the entactogens, a diverse group that includes MDA, methylone, 4-MMC, and 6-APB. It produces its effects by promoting the release of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in the brain.

Sass, Sassafrass, Sally, 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine, Tenamfetamine

MDA produces long-lived entactogenic, stimulant, and mild psychedelic effects that include stimulation, anxiety suppression, enhanced feelings of empathy, affection, and sociability, and euphoria when administered. While MDA is similar to MDMA, users report that MDA has more stimulant and psychedelic qualities and less intense entactogenic effects than MDMA. MDA is also considered to be less predictable than MDMA, with effects varying greatly from person to person.

MDA was first synthesized in 1910 by G. Mannish and W. Jacobson, but its psychoactive effects were not discovered until Gordon Alles’s self-experiments in 1930. Between 1939 and 1941, it was explored as a potential Parkinson’s Disease treatment. The United States Army then experimented with the drug, code-named EA-1298, while working to develop a “truth drug” or incapacitating agent. As a result, a man named Harold Blauer died in 1953 after being intravenously injected with 450 mg of MDA. From 1949 to 1957, more than 500 people were given MDA in an investigation of its potential use as either an antidepressant or anorectic. By 1958, it was successfully patented as a cough suppressant and ataractic, and later released as an anorectic under the trade name “Amphedoxamine”.

Oral