anabolic frolic

Ecstasy drains brain
Drug's temporary euphoria comes at cost, lecturer warns

ALLISON LAMPERT
Montreal Gazette


Saturday, March 16, 2002



Michael Faustini and Stephen Athanasoulias have never been to a rave. They've never tried the popular recreational drug ecstasy.

And after an hour listening to Elaine Waddington Lamont yesterday, the Grade 9 students at Loyola High School agreed they weren't missing much.

"It's a waste of money and time," said Stephen, 14. "It makes you do stupid things."

The drug's effect on the body goes far beyond the duration of an all-night dance party, noted Waddington Lamont, a PhD student at Concordia's Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology. Over the last few days, she's been warning students about ecstasy as part of Brain Awareness Week - a series of lectures organized by the Douglas Hospital.

"I don't think (teenagers) really think a lot about it," Waddington Lamont said. "They don't really realize that the euphoric effect they get from ecstasy has a bad effect on the brain."

For one thing, repeated use of ecstasy - chemically similar to the stimulant amphetamine - produces long-term and possibly permanent damage to brain cells, or neurons.

The drug depletes the brain of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the body's regulation of mood, sleep, pain, emotion and appetite. Animal research from the U.S. has shown that one 10-mg dose in rats can decrease serotonin levels for up to two weeks.

Waddington Lamont said it's important to raise awareness about the danger of ecstasy because many teens still believe it's just a fun party drug: "It feels good, so people keep doing it."

In Montreal, police have intercepted large quantities of ecstasy at Dorval and Mirabel airports since April 1 - cargo shipments with an estimated street value of more than $30 million and parcels seized from passenger luggage valued at more than $7 million.

- Allison Lampert's E-mail address is alampert@thegazette.southam.ca.

© Copyright 2002 Montreal Gazette

anabolic frolic

I posted this article as I found it amusing in its almost cliched approach to scaring kids off drugs.

thumpdaddy!

hehehe-kinda reminds me of the war against pot in the 80's

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I'll never regret anything i ever did, its just that i will never do some of them again....

mrmagoo

Resistance Is Futile!!!

~Jesse~

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In a row?!?!?!?!?!

cuggy

the only response i can think of to this article is "well DUH"

Phlux

I've read that doctors in Switzerland and The Netherlands say there is not enough research yet to make any conclusions about the long-term effects of Ecstacy.

I guess North American doctors are just smarter... They sure know how to say the right thing so they'll get that nice big fat research grant from the government next time they need one.

Brite

They never give us enough credit. Man, if they only knew...
What is scary is people KNOW this, and STILL do it

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Everybodies_Daddy

E kills brain cells?

Wow.

I wonder if Big Macs build fat cells?

Better write an article on that.

MCED

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Dirty Little Secrets

Hot + Dirty

ReLliK CaiDoZ

well its nothing new that drugs are bad, realy.. we all know it freaks you up and can lead to a life with less then normal brain power, thats why i dont do it.... i get the high from the music and the people around me.. the dancing freaks, we have no need for the drugs realy, cause we are all freaked with out the added ex.

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Am I evil? Yes I am, and dont give a damn.

Commander Keen

Yeah is is pretty sad that we have newspapers reporting the obvious, but it is necessary to print stuff like this to clarify fact from myth.

Apparently E screws up your spinal fluid... but I doubt that there is any scientific proof this myth (the myth is based on a study where spial fluid was tapped from a experimental group).

Move~Your~Stuff

You cant scare kids off.

ITS EXPERIMENTATION. Those kids who said that they wouldn't do the chemical, would probably give into curiosity and peer pressure with out thinking.

They should have Trip come to schools to warn kids of harmful effects, but also to inform them on how to reduce the risks.


www.echounderground.cjb.net

ThumpersGirl

A lot of parents are always worried about drugs and raves curupting their children and nieghbourhood, but people only focus on the negitive.
If there is only o.d's and muders put in papers what are people to think? (Which both of those things could happen any where, right?)
Maybe if there was media coverage on the great music at raves,all the fun and friends that you make there; us ravers wouldn't be looked down upon so much?!?!?!?!
Hulla's to me always seem like a great big cartoon filled with friends and smiles.

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tweeker591

but then again so does beer and any other drug for that matter

Technology

According to my professor, it does actually drain it, as because your core temperature rises, and you boil it off, so there is no direct manifestation of the loss. It can be prevented with keeping your temperature down (drinking water, being outside etc)

CandyGirl23

^^^and unless you're one of the individuals sensitive to ecstacy, the drug itself does not cause core-temperature rises... just the amount of dancing people do without taking breaks causes hyperthermia because E causes you to not realize you're overheating.

Phlux

Sorry but your professor is an idiot... Don't worry, I've got plenty of em' too. The above post is correct, Ecstacy does NOT drain your spinal fluid.

This is an urban legend apparently started because some pharmacological studies we're done by giving subjects MDMA, then withdrawing cerebrospinal fluid samples for analysis via spinal tap. It is "MDMA research", not "MDMA" that may drain your spinal fluid..

Technology

YAR

That [testing] drains your spinal fluids, not the actual drug.

But I'm saying that because a majority of the human body is water, when you take lots of the drug, it increases your body temperature.

Water is basically boiled off throughout the body.
Which means a small portion of that is proably brain/spinal fluids. This also means that because of the nature of the human body, water is replenished (as is fatty tissues which may be broken down through extreme heat)

It can be halted and reversed through keeping yourself properly cooled and hydrated.

Thats what I'm saying

MadChemist

I was under the impression that a full human dose was rarely more than 80mg or so... Isn't giving 10 mg to a rat REALLY going a little too far?

I don't know too many people who weigh only 8 times more than a lab rat.


Any comments?

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MadChemist

shuko_x

u know whats funny is all these scientists pumpin out flashy words like "drained" and "over-heated" and "Kills brain cells".

Shit everything in this world can kill u if u Overdose....

But thats not the point. My philosophy on drugs is if its organic then your body can react to it alot better and bets on overdosing won't kill u ( ie Pot or Shrooms) .....

E, Meth, Speed..mmmmm let me think ...uhhhh

THESE ARE CHEMICALS PEOPLE,
synthesized products like drano and shit. Of coarse if u ingest a chemical drug it will fuck u up beyond repair.

Any idiot knows that. If u don't then thats your problem. Stop bashing the rave scene for E and anything else. Just cuz we are having a good time and the rest of the world is too fucked up to deal with don't rain on our parade

I mean if see a bottle with a skull and crossbones on it do u think...."Oh candy drink...yum...yum"...... Fuck No

Well what do u think chemical drugs like E are made from.....

So scientists go cure cancer, or aids or something we can't avoid gettin eventually. And stop trying to piss us off cuz u need money to proove common sense!!!

~*Blueberrie*~

As much as that sentence just gave me a headache, that's a valid point. The government spends loads of money on this research, if kids are stupid enough to put illicit things in their mouths, then they are apparently stupid enough to deal with the consequences. However there is thousands of people sick and dying everyday with wicked diseases, which deserve all the research they can get.

Vicks Kills

5-HTP

owns my soul.


that is all

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funshine

HONESTLY

this article is nothing but fluff

if ecstacy really does kill brain cells, this article doesnt mention any evidence or proof to such an effect.

all it says is that ecstacy depletes seretonin in rats for 2 weeks.

in RATS?????

lets say that the study was done on one MASSIVE rat, weighing in at one pound.

lets say that the average raver weighs... say... 150 pounds?

and it was a 10mg dose of ecstacy. so... um... that means it would take 1500 mg(10 X 150) of ecstacy to have the same effect on the average human. i dont know mow many mg the average pill weighs... but im pretty sure its far less then 1500mg.

and besides that, a 2 week, temporary depletion of seretonin levels in the brain is HARDLY permanent brain damage.

regardless, i dont do chemicals, so really it doesnt matter all that much to me. but the propaganda-packed scare tacticts employed in this article really make me question the credibility of this random reject from Concordia.

Adam McT

...but if you talk shit about Prozac/SSRIs, Eli Lilly/UofT will have you canned in the blink of an eye... (even though there's an estimated 50 000 successful suicides directly caused by Prozac alone, meaning that the total for all SSRIs will be drastically higher) It's about vested interest, not information.

From what I've read, MDMA isn't itself toxic to brain cells. Damage occurs when serotonin is completely depleted and dopamine is broken down by monoamine oxidase (MAO). This is prevented by (a) not taking more than an "average" dose (one semi-pure pill), (b) eating food or taking supplements that boost your serotonin (5-htp), and (c) consuming anti-oxidants like vitamin C. Also, give your body time to replenish what's been used. If you're doing MDMA more than every other week, you're likely causing damage.

The thing about body temperature is bullshit. Serotonin does raise body temperature, but it does so while you're running and dancing, too (MDMA high resembles an exaggerated runners high). It only becomes a problem if you don't consume water, or if you're on a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI), which prevents the breakdown of serotonin, leading to serotonin syndrome. It would also cause a problem if you're susceptible to malignant hyperthermia.

More dangerous than drugs is the policy of "just say no". It keeps facts buried and myths circulating; it prevents us from assessing and addressing real risks. That this misinformation is consistently printed is more reason to support and get involved with local, independent media.

Newspapers are run by advertisers. Advertisers don't want their products shown beside neutral drug articles that can be construed as pro-drug (as they most certainly would be).

Technology

See I'm not saying actual spinal tissue/fluid is being lost, I'm saying that the water portion of that tissue/fluid can be boiled out if your body gets too hot. I'm also saying that its replaceable because its water based, making it not a problem at all to your body if you're properly hydrated and cooled down. (Its not going to kill you at all, chances are your brain will be boiled (hyperthermia) before any problems arise out of your spinal fluids.