Next time the drug nannies sound the alarm about a recreational drug like ecstasy, telling you users are at great risk of horrible calamity, you might remember this.
Seems a highly touted study found that 20% of monkeys and other primates injected with ecstasy dropped dead after just one dose, and survivors suffered severe neurological damage.
Oops. Now we know the substance wasn't ecstasy at all. The researchers 'mistakenly' used a much more poisonous substance in the study. Ecstasy doesn't do those sorts of things at all. This faulty research was used to pressure congress to pass the abominable "Rave Act." Do you think congress will now change its mind?
Link via TalkLeft.
Update: Arthur Silber has already commented on this story, quoting from the Washington Post:
The error has renewed charges that government-funded scientists, and Ricaurte in particular, have been biased in their assessment of ecstasy's risks and potential benefits.
And adding:
Government-funded scientists biased? No! Say it isn't so!
Posted by Walter at September 6, 2003 06:23 PMThe main danger of ecstasy is exactly what the scientists encountered. There's a lot of crap out there sold as ecstasy that's either totally misidentified or tainted with who knows what. I've never done it myself (me and drugs don't get along well), but I have several friends who have suffered from (fortunately) temporary, serious adverse reactions to "bad ecstasy". My ex however, an avid runner in prime physical condition, died of a sudden heart attack at age 49. I have a strong suspicion that it was a result of bad ecstasy.
If they'd just legalize it and regulate it, along with other recreational drugs, things would be a lot safer. It seems right up the Republican's alley, being in bed with the very drug companies that would likely produce the stuff. But no, Nixon's drug war is far more important to them.
Posted by: Michael Ditto at September 6, 2003 10:43 PM