MDMA, known on the street as ecstasy, gets a network news treatment from Peter Jennings on this special edition of ABC's Primetime Thursday. The broadcast traces the drug's history from its early use in therapy sessions to its spread through raves and mainstream nightlife, and it takes direct aim at the U.S. government's public health warnings about the drug, questioning whether the claims of brain damage and lasting harm hold up. Jennings cites a striking projection: if trends of the time continued, 1.8 million Americans would try ecstasy for the first time in 2004, a number topped only by marijuana among drugs attracting new users. The film treats that growth as evidence of something drug regulators had not planned for, positive word of mouth spreading faster than official warnings could counter it. Interviews and reporting move between users, researchers, and officials, laying out the case for and against the drug's danger without settling it. It plays as a network newsmagazine's attempt to explain why a chemical banned since the 1980s kept finding new believers.