cannabisnews.com: Even Small Dose of Ecstasy Affects User's IQ





Even Small Dose of Ecstasy Affects User's IQ
Posted by FoM on May 17, 2000 at 07:37:28 PT
By Emma Ross, Associated Press
Source: Austin American-Statesman
Even light weekend use of the party drug Ecstasy might harm intelligence, a study suggests. German scientists report that weeks after partying, those who used Ecstasy along with marijuana performed worse on intelligence tests than people who just smoked marijuana or took no drugs at all. Their results are reported this week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 
Previous studies have suggested Ecstasy can cause a long-term decrease in a brain chemical involved with thought and memory. Other research has indicated Ecstasy can impair brain function, but that research mostly focused on people who used it often or with other drugs. "If your brain is getting zinged, then you ought to have some kind of deficit in cognitive ability, and here it is," said Alan Leschner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "There is this misconception that it's a benign, fun drug, and it's not." The latest research, by scientists at the University of Aachen in Germany, involved 28 Ecstasy users in their mid-20s recruited off the dance floor of a nightclub. They also smoked marijuana, but didn't get drunk often and did not regularly take other drugs. "Because almost every Ecstasy user smokes cannabis, it was impossible to recruit a reasonable number of exclusive Ecstasy users," the study said. The researchers therefore compared the group with two others of the same size, age range and education level -- one consisting of drug-free people and another of people who smoked about as much marijuana as the Ecstasy group but did not take any other drug. Ecstasy users abstained for about three weeks and everybody in the study passed urine tests for traces of other drugs. The subjects were given general knowledge tests to make sure one group wasn't naturally more intelligent than the other. They then spent three hours taking psychological tests that evaluated everything from immediate memory to logical thinking. The Ecstasy group performed just as well as the other two on simple tests of alertness, but worse in more complex tasks of attention, in memory and learning tests, and in tasks reflecting aspects of general intelligence. The more Ecstasy they used, the worse they performed on the tests, but their scores still were in the "normal" range. Those who only smoked marijuana performed no differently from those who were drug-free. "These were not heavy Ecstasy users. On average, they took four tablets a month -- that's one every weekend," said Euphrosyne Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, the neurologist who led the study. London: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 © Copyright 2000 Related Articles:Bingeing on Ecstasy - Newsweek Internationalhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5583.shtml60 Minutes Of Ecstasy (Not)http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5550.shtmlReaction to 60 Minutes II Hit Piece on Ecstasy - DrugSensehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5539.shtmlEcstasy Spreads - CBS Newshttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5511.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by dddd on May 18, 2000 at 19:01:47 PT
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Kap brings up the term;"DrugWar mafia".This term is all to accurate.The WoD has created a legalized syndicate of criminals........dddd 
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on May 18, 2000 at 08:32:20 PT:
Funding. Always the funding
'Maybe it is the case that the farther cannabis research is from American politics, the more accurate it becomes?'Another nail hit squarely on the head. I'm sure many of us have noticed that when we receive reports in the news here concerning other countries' cannabis research, by and large the reporting is balanced. It offers both sides a chance to represent themselves... whereas here, the reporters seem content to lap up regurgitated DrugWar agitprop. A dissenting voice is usually not given the last word.The same with the 'groves of academia'. How many American universties are funded with grants by NIDA, ONDCP, and the other arms of the Federal DrugWar mafia? Most of us know that in the early 80s, many research programs designed to scientifically determine the medical feasability of cannabis had been asked by NIDA to cease their efforts. Unless, of course, their stated (!) goals were to prove *toxicity* of cannabis, a la the laughably biased works of such 'luminaries' as Gabriel Nahas.The closer you are to Washington DC, either geographically or financially, the more likely you are to be affected by Federal DrugWar hysteria. My own home State of MD is a perfect case. We recently had the issue of MMJ come up at the State House. The place was *packed* with MMJ supporters, not just ordinary citizens, but doctors, lawyers, researchers, etc. There were eloquent pleas made for sanity in an otherwise insane situation... that fell on surprisingly receptive ears. But at the end of the day, the legislators, who *we* pay, who are beholden to *us* and responsible to *us alone*, said that they couldn't see Maryland going up against Federal law. Even when many of those legislators would have quite happily let the sick and dying have their cannabis, they feared Federal reprisals. Because of all the Federal funds doled out to the State would be cut off, as was threatened in Alaska not too long ago.Money, money, money... while people are dying. Sometimes I am ashamed to be an American.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 17, 2000 at 13:21:07 PT
Did they slip? 
Hi observer! That's the sentence that made me so very happy!
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Comment #1 posted by observer on May 17, 2000 at 12:50:36 PT
Oops!
"Those who only smoked marijuana performed no differently from those who were drug-free."Hey ... who said that?That's not what (American drug war) NIDA "scientists" find, is it?"German scientists report. . ."Maybe it is the case that the farther cannabis research is from American politics, the more accurate it becomes?
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