Pubdate: Wed, 11 Apr 2001
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Doug Beazley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

ECSTASY FINDINGS PROVE A NO-BRAINER

Ecstasy - the recreational drug that makes the strobes shine brighter, the 
music sound sweeter and dehydrates you faster than a weekend on Baffin 
Island - may be warping your consciousness in ways you hadn't realized.

Researchers at the University of Toronto reported recently a link between 
regular use of the drug and selective damage to memory. Neurologists 
tracked and tested 15 Ecstasy users over a year, and found that (no 
surprise) the drug was playing tricks with their wiring.

Specifically, clinical declines in two categories of memory retention were 
traced back to Ecstasy use. The first category - episodic memory - is the 
kind that lets you recall something heard or encountered earlier in the 
day, like an episode of Friends.

The second - prospective memory - is what you use when you're making a 
mental note to do something in the near future, like setting your VCR to 
tape Friends.

"A significant proportion of users may effectively be at risk for long-term 
neurotoxicological effects, particularly in the hippocampus (the lobe of 
the brain that handles learning and memory retention)," said psychology 
professor Konstantine Zakzanis, the chief researcher.

Ecstasy is, of course, the club kid's drug of choice. The reaction from 
Edmonton's rave scene this week to the U of T's findings was a collective 
shrug.

"The heavier users I know tend to be a bit 'sketchy', if you know what I 
mean," said Mike Peebles, spokesman for Rave Safe. It's an Edmonton-based 
group that distributes brochures to ravegoers, encouraging them not to 
overindulge.

"Scattered, absentminded, you know? I'd say anybody using it weekly would 
be a moderate to heavy user."

"I'm a drinker myself," said a local DJ who asked, in the interest of 
escaping his parents' wrath, not to be named.

"Everybody goes through that period in their life when they try a little of 
everything. Probably Ecstasy is not good for you. But I don't think the 
drug's been around long enough for anyone to know for sure."

Even the researchers admit their findings might not be as solid as they 
look. Zakzanis admits the "potential unreliability" in the subjects' 
description of their drug habits and the wide variation in the quality of 
street drugs could skew the results.

The real problem with tracking Ecstasy's effect on the brain, said Peebles, 
is the fact that regular users almost never limit themselves to Ecstasy 
alone. An Ecstasy user is almost certainly a pot user and might have a line 
into harder drugs as well.

"The memory effects are probably due to poly-drug use," he said. "They did 
a study like that in England, and I think the control group was using 
cannabis. Well, we know (marijuana) affects the brain too." Peebles admits 
he's dabbled with the drug in the past but outgrew it.

Most ravers do, he suggests; once they pass the magic age of 25 and start 
getting real jobs, mates and car payments, they're less likely to enjoy a 
drug that lets them dance for 14 hours straight without seizing up.

Many ravers seem to treat Ecstasy use with open scorn. One club-goer, who 
will only answer to Scott, suggests media drum-beating over Ecstasy is 
drawing attention away from far more dangerous club-scene drugs, such as 
the harder amphetamines.

"Irresponsibility always bears consequences," he wrote me in an e-mail. "It 
would be nothing but an exercise in self-delusion to be convinced that it's 
possible to use a substance like Ecstasy without any consequences.

"It's ... a matter of personal choice." Another e-mail correspondent, 
calling himself the Anti-Raver Raver, puts it more brutally: think of 
Ecstasy abuse, he said, as the natural weekend habit of self-destructive 
boneheads.

"Rave culture is stupid. Ecstasy is for morons," he wrote. "It is a poor 
coverup for the fact that their scene is lacking any true 'meat.'

"I hope that you end up finding enough rats for your little experiment."
- ---
MAP posted-by: GD