Developing a new national MDMA policy: Results of a multi-decision multi-criterion decision analysis (MD-MCDA)

Abstract

Background: MDMA (ecstasy, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has a relatively low harm and low dependence liability but is scheduled on List I of the Dutch Opium Act together (“hard drugs”). Concerns surrounding increasing MDMA-related criminality coupled with the possibly inappropriate scheduling of MDMA initiated a debate to revise the current Dutch ecstasy policy.Methods: An interdisciplinary group of eighteen experts on health, social harms, and drug criminality and law enforcement reformulated science-based the Dutch MDMA policy using multi-decision multi-criterion decision analysis (MD-MCDA). The experts collectively formulated policy instruments and rated their effects on 25 outcome criteria, including health, criminality, law enforcement and financial issues, thematically grouped in six clusters.Results: [WILL BE ADDED ON 2020-11-13]Conclusion: [WILL BE ADDED ON 2020-11-13]

Hazy memories

“…Examining false memory effects specifically resulting from the aforementioned drugs is particularly relevant as alcohol, cannabis, and MDMA are the most often recreationally-used drugs on a global scale (Winstock, 2019). Additionally, in light of the recent therapeutic and legal developments with cannabis and MDMA (e.g., Urits et al, 2019;van Amsterdam et al, 2020), evaluating the impact of these substances on false memory susceptibility and suggestibility is a pressing need.…”