Exclusive sex parties fueled by psychoactive drugs are apparently how the tech world elite like to get down in Silicon Valley, according to an excerpt from the Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang's new book, "Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley."

Chang wrote that the events, in which women can feel pressured to participate yet be stigmatized for doing so, are common enough that they're not much of a secret.

MDMA — also known as Ecstasy or Molly — has been a party drug since the psychopharmacologist Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin synthesized and tested it on himself in the 1970s.

Shulgin, known as the "godfather of Ecstasy," was entranced by his testing. He began to advocate MDMA's use in clinical settings, but it soon started turning up in clubs, leading to a widespread ban in 1985.

Once Ecstasy developed a reputation for being adulterated with more dangerous chemicals, people starting asking for "Molly," something they saw as a pure form of the drug.

Here's what we know about what MDMA does to your body and brain.