Mormons as a control group for MDMA studies
Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 4:16 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jun/27/i-feel-love-history-of-mdma-ecstacy-molly wrote:It wasn’t all club kids using [MDMA--a.k.a. Molly and ecstasy]. Nuwer’s book charts a few unlikely subcultures that used MDMA, starting with the Mormons. Even though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prohibits its members from drinking alcohol, a Mormon doctoral student told the drug activist Rick Doblin in 2003 that he’d personally taken MDMA more than 1,000 times. As he put it, molly was a common substance used by his friends in the faith.
“They were these Mormon kids who were otherwise straight-edgers going out to raves and partying all night,” Nuwer said. “I think they were doing some mental gymnastics to get around the rules, thinking it was fine to just try MDMA if they weren’t drinking.”
These Mormons became a key control group for MDMA researchers, Nuwer explains, as they could study the effects of the drug on them and know for certain they were not using any other substances.