MDMA is on the brink of becoming medicine

2024 was supposed to be the year MDMA, perhaps better known as “ecstasy” or “molly,” got its big break. 

Until this summer, it was on track to rise out of the underground and into mainstream mental health care. Amid a lack of novel treatments for PTSD and staggering rates of veteran suicide, results from late-stage clinical trials seemed promising and advocates were hopeful the FDA would approve the drug for medical use. 

Then, an FDA advisory panel raised red flags about trial methodology, bias, and potential data suppression, which could imperil the future of medicinal MDMA. Now, the psychedelic drug is at a make-or-break point, with the FDA scheduled to make an announcement this month on whether it is ready to move forward as a PTSD treatment. 

In a three-part series, Today, Explained’s Haleema Shah reports on the promise and precarity of MDMA. Starting with the rogue chemist and therapists in the 1980s who believed it could change psychotherapy, the series traces the decades-long effort to make a dancefloor drug medicinal, journeying through the war on drugs, the rave era, and the psychedelic renaissance to explain how a once-maligned drug became an emblem of healing — and how, no matter what the FDA decides, therapy will never be the same.

Listen to the first episode below or wherever you find podcasts. The second and third episodes of the series are scheduled to publish on Friday, August 2, and Thursday, August 8.