California doctors to treat dying patients with ecstasy drug


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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Federal Drug Administration is allowing a team of San Francisco Bay Area psychotherapists to prescribe ecstasy to treat dying patients.

KNTV in San Jose reports (http://bit.ly/1KokGax) Wednesday that ecstasy, or MDMA, is a recreational drug that brings on feelings of "loving and caring," says Dr. Phil Wolfson, who is leading the 15-month experiment.

The federal government currently considers the recreational drug to have no therapeutic value, the stations reports.

Wolfson will conduct a clinical trial of 18 patients using the drug in conjunction with a number of intense therapeutic sessions.

Wolfson says he knows firsthand that ecstasy is effective in easing extreme anxiety. He says he used it when his son way dying from leukemia.

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Information from: KNTV-TV.

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