n0nsensical

I don't think theres any doubt that MDMA causes damage in significant dosage (all drugs do), the question is whether the average human that uses it hits that level, and whether the damage is repairable. Some of them definitely do, but people using it sparingly (no more than a few times a year) in small doses? I would be surprised to find any cognitive defects in them. The science is far from certain on both of those questions. And it does indeed tend to be biased because governments usually fund the studies, guess what kind of result they're looking for? I loved Ricaurte's study that involved injecting gorillas with massive amounts of "MDMA" and watching half of them drop dead, and then it turned out the stuff wasn't even MDMA but methamphetamine which is considered much more hazardous to the brain by pretty much everyone. If ravers were dropping dead at that rate there would be none of them left.

In any case, dropping dead from taking it is highly, highly unlikely. Most people who die have some other complicating factor. No healthy people are ODing on this stuff and ending up in the morgue like with heroin and many pharms. It's been popular for 20 years (which amusingly corresponds precisely to the time period since it was banned; I'm sure drug dealers are thankful for the free publicity from the government) and probably in the range of billions of doses have been consumed (by, like, the entire youth population of some countries), so that puts the risk in perspective.