MDMA is a Schedule I drug in the United States and a Schedule I drug in Canada. Effectively, these classifications identify MDMA as having no medical use and the potential for harm and abuse. We will soon learn that MDMA has a low harm score and abuse potential compared to other legal substances.
Review the map below by selecting Canada, the United States, and the regions within to identify where MDMA is legal and for what purpose.
MDMA is illegal for recreational and therapeutic consumption (Schedule I) (Canada, 2022). In 2022, Health Canada reinstated MDMA to its Special Access Programme which allows medical doctors to apply to prescribe MDMA for patients with treatment-resistant depression via MDMA-assisted therapy. The Special Access Programme is a Health Canada program intended to provide access to as-yet unapproved pharmaceutical drugs to treat serious, treatment-resistant, or life-threatening conditions for which other treatments have failed, are unsuitable, or are unavailable (Canada, 2022).
Alberta is in the process of regulating psilocybin, MDMA, and peyote for the purposes of psychedelic-assisted therapy (French, 2022).
MDMA is illegal (Schedule I) (DEA, 2022); however, the United States FDA, and reciprocal regulatory agencies in Canada, Israel, and Great Britain have made an exemption for its use in clinical trials in combination with a program of psychotherapy for treating PTSD (Kupferschmidt, 2017).
Canada (2022). Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Relating to Restricted Drugs (Special Access Program): SOR/2021-271. Canada Gazette, Part II, 156 (1). https://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2022/2022-01-05/html/sor-dors271-eng.html
Canada (1996). Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-38.8/index.html
DEA (2022). Ecstasy Or MDMA (also Known As Molly). https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/ecstasy-or-mdma-also-known-molly
French, J. (2022). Alberta to be 1st province to regulate psychedelics for therapy, government says. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-to-be-1st-province-to-regulate-psychedelics-for-therapy-government-says-1.6607497
Kupferschmidt, K. (2017). All clear for the decisive trial of ecstasy in PTSD patients. Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/all-clear-decisive-trial-ecstasy-ptsd-patients
Numinus (2022). Other Programs. https://numinus.com/services/other-programs/