Two Good Slate Articles About Drugs

[Tony]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098109/ ...full article

Researchers at the University of Michigan started tracking the illicit drug habits of America's high-schoolers in 1975. Despite the inherent difficulty of conducting such surveys—kids are excellent liars and exaggerators—the Michigan team has established "Monitoring the Future" as the most reliable guide to drug-use trends in the United States.

MTF has documented the rise and decline of many drugs, but lead researcher Dr. Lloyd Johnston says the group has never seen such a dramatic drop in the use of an established illicit drug as they're seeing now with LSD. In both the 2000 and 2001 surveys, 6.6 percent of high-school seniors reported that they'd used LSD in the previous year. In 2002, the figure dropped to 3.5 percent. And in the most recent survey, from 2003, only 1.9 percent of high-school seniors claim to have dropped acid. (The standard error for this LSD survey is 0.25 percentage points.)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098128/ ...full article

Police in the United States and Canada have busted a massive, Toronto-based ecstasy ring, resulting in over 145 arrests. According to authorities, the criminal enterprise imported powdered ecstasy from the Netherlands, pressed it into pills, then smuggled it across the border. Why don't American drug enterprises simply synthesize their own ecstasy, rather than import it from abroad?

Partly because of America's tough drug-enforcement regime and partly because of simple economics. Though manufacturing ecstasy isn't child's play, most any serviceable chemist can make the drug, given the appropriate equipment and supplies. It's much easier to produce than LSD, for example. The problem in the United States is that law enforcement tends to monitor the purchase of the precursor chemicals required to synthesize ecstasy. Chemical-supply companies often tip off the Drug Enforcement Administration when a customer purchases, say, an unusually large amount of isosafrole or MDP2P, two critical ingredients in ecstasy recipes. DEA agents sometimes pose as chemical salesmen in order to bust suspected ecstasy cooks. Such a sting operation led to the 2002 arrest of four New England men who were later indicted on charges of manufacturing tens of thousands of pills in a Connecticut trailer.

 

[Cecil]

And another.

A year ago, hoping to dispel the postpartum gloom that had gripped me after I finished writing a book, I hiked into a forest near my home and pitched a tent under some pine trees. I spent that day and evening listening to the forest, scribbling in my journal, and thinking—all while under the influence of a psychedelic drug. The next morning I returned to my wife and children feeling better than I had in months.

What I did that day should not be illegal. Adults seeking solace or insight ought to be allowed to consume psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. U.S. laws now classify them as Schedule 1 drugs, banned for all purposes because of their health risks. But recent studies have shown that psychedelics—which more than 20 million Americans have ingested—can be harmless and even beneficial when taken under appropriate circumstances.

 

[KelvinG]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Primetime/Ecstasy_therapy_040401-1.html

For the first time in nearly two decades the U.S. government has authorized a human study, allowing patients to take Ecstasy under a doctor's direction for post-traumatic stress disorder.

I remember when I first took ecstasy I commented to some friends that there must be pratical medical applications for drug that works so wonderfully to enchance mood.
I knew that some psychotherapists used it in Germany, primarly for martial counselling, but it's nice to see researchers in the US are taking a look at it.

 

[Tony]

I remember when I first took ecstasy I commented to some friends that there must be pratical medical applications for drug that works so wonderfully to enchance mood.

Call me evil, but I also think it would be useful to interrogate terrorists and illegal combatants.

 

[KelvinG]

Call me evil, but I also think it would be useful to interrogate terrorists and illegal combatants.

Hmm, interesting idea. It certainly makes one more receptive to opening and expressing their true feelings.
However, you often have to go into the experience with the proper frame of mind. It a terrorist was resistant, would it really help? Hard to say.

 

[Tony]

It a terrorist was resistant, would it really help?

If you gave him the drug without him knowing about it, it would catch him by surprise and with his guard down. Furthermore, I have never known anyone (short of a hardcore and longtime user) who was resistant to the lovey-dovey open feelings you get on X.

 

[KelvinG]

If you gave him the drug without him knowing about it, it would catch him by surprise and with his guard down. Furthermore, I have never known anyone (short of a hardcore and longtime user) who was resistant to the lovey-dovey open feelings you get on X.

Well, I really can't say. I've seen a few people have bad trips on X, usually causing anxiety and feelings of paranoia. Of course, there is no guarantee that they took pure ecstasy. There could have been something else in it.

I would be interested in seeing how a person reacts after they take X without knowing it.

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

Have the studies suggesting that Esctasy can cause brain damage been refuted? I know at least one involving monkeys which was shown to be grossly flawed, but what about the ones that suggested it might trigger significant neural pruning in humans?

 

[KelvinG]

Have the studies suggesting that Esctasy can cause brain damage been refuted? I know at least one involving monkeys which was shown to be grossly flawed, but what about the ones that suggested it might trigger significant neural pruning in humans?

I've done a quick google search and found mostly studies that report brain damage in "heavy" users of ecstasy.
Not surprising really. I would expect any mood altering drug when used excessively to cause some damage to the brain. Alcohol comes to mind.

 

[Mycroft]

Have the studies suggesting that Esctasy can cause brain damage been refuted? I know at least one involving monkeys which was shown to be grossly flawed, but what about the ones that suggested it might trigger significant neural pruning in humans?

I remember that. IIRC about four or five months ago it was discovered that a chemical supply company supplied the wrong drug. The researchers thought they were studdying ecstacy when it was something else. Later the same company discovered it had made the same mistake with many studies on the same drug.

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

The key to these negative studies are all based on MASSIVE consumption with laboratory animals, any substance in large enough quantities will dis-able or kill, including water.

The clinical -anecdotal- side is that humans who consumed large quantities were impaired in certain ways. The effect seems to mimic the same syndrome that cocaine usage causes, that is a suppression of the dopamine response of the brain. Kind of a heightening of the neurochemical floor that normally exists in the brain.

Others more knowledgeable will know better then I. Third twin or Hopkins Med Stu.

I haven't tried X but the word on the street is that it makes males impotent ( during use ) , so the newest wrinkle is to use X in conjunction with Viagra. Man those clever humans!

 

[KelvinG]

I haven't tried X but the word on the street is that it makes males impotent ( during use )...

Yep.

 

[toddjh]

Yep.

Not always. I had the best sex of my life on e, twice. A lot of people have problems, though, which is why e and viagra are a popular combination at swingers clubs -- dangerous, because both can raise your blood pressure.

Jeremy

 

[Krandal2]

http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/litupdates/human/comparisons/03.03/buchert2003.html

Unlike the previous paper with McN5652, this report found reduced ligand binding only in current ecstasy users, and not former users. These study findings suggest that repeated, heavy ecstasy use (along with regular use of other substances) is associated with a temporary reduction in brain serotonin transporter availability. Changes in serotonin transporter availability may arise from downregulation of serotonin function, harm to serotonin axons or both causes, but effects are not permanent. However, effects on cortical areas cannot be measured with (+)-McN5652, and at least one study in non-human primates has found reduced brain serotonin 7 years after a repeated-dose regimen (Hatzidimitriou et al. 1999).

Mycroft

I remember that. IIRC about four or five months ago it was discovered that a chemical supply company supplied the wrong drug. The researchers thought they were studdying ecstacy when it was something else. Later the same company discovered it had made the same mistake with many studies on the same drug.

TillEulenspiegel

The clinical -anecdotal- side is that humans who consumed large quantities were impaired in certain ways. The effect seems to mimic the same syndrome that cocaine usage causes, that is a suppression of the dopamine response of the brain. Kind of a heightening of the neurochemical floor that normally exists in the brain.

In the studies mycroft mentioned (not to be confused with the one I qouted above) primates were given large doses of amphetamines, instead of ecstacy and showed a marked reduction in dopamine production as a result.
This led to the now discredited beleif that heavy ecstacy use can cause parkinsons.

 

[The Fool]

Call me evil, but I also think it would be useful to interrogate terrorists and illegal combatants.

or possibly when police are questioning you when they pull you over for speeding?