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90 * CONCEPTION AND BIRTH of the tryptamine hallucinogen of abuse, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is also an endogenous hallucinogen." It was nearly two years later, on November 15, 1990, before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote to me, stating: "We have completed our review . . . and have concluded that it is reasonably safe to proceed with your proposed study." I already had some experience with the difficulties involved in giving an abusable, mind-altering drug to humans. This was from submitting a proto- col to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) several years before decid- ing to attempt a DMT study. The drug in this case was MDMA, popularly known as Ecstasy, a stimulant drug with mild psychedelic properties. In the early 1980s, a loose-knit network of therapists was giving this drug to their patients as an aid to psychotherapy. It was not illegal, and these psychiatrists and psychologists found that its effects were more re- liable and easier to use than those of LSD. To their dismay, this "wonder drug," like LSD decades before, soon became widely abused across col- lege campuses. In addition, scientific papers began reporting that MDMA caused brain damage in laboratory animals. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) placed MDMA into the most restrictive legal cat- egory for drugs, Schedule I, in 1985. Nearly all the therapists using MDMA tried to make the DEA reverse its opinion. I went a different route and requested permission to give MDMA within its new legal status. I submitted an application to the FDA in 1986. I proposed to give MDMA to human volunteers and measure its psychological and physical effects. When they sent me their standard "you may proceed if you don't hear from us in 30 days" letter, I thought to myself, "Great! I'll be able to start the research within a month!" However, like clockwork, the FDA called after twenty-nine days and said I couldn't begin yet. Soon a letter came detailing their concerns about the neurotoxic effects of MDMA. They didn't know when there would be enough information to allow me to go ahead. It might be quite a while. My MDMA application languished in the FDA files and never amounted