Leading Scientists Suggest Ecstasy Side Effects Are Imaginary

Three leading psychologists have accused scientists of misleading the public over the dangers of ecstasy, claiming this week that the drug may well cause no long term damage at all.

Writing in leading scientific journal The Psychologist, Dr Jon Cole and Harry Sumnall from Liverpool University and Professor Charles Grob from California's Harbor/UCLA Medical Center, strongly criticised the methodology of most studies into ecstasy's effects, suggesting many studies were poorly devised and biased. They concluded that "the reported adverse effects of ecstasy could even be imaginary - due to the widespread belief that the drug causes long-term harm" (BBC).

Their report appeared four months after the New Scientist magazine suggested much research linking ecstasy with brain damage was anti-drug propaganda (issue 2339).

"Our investigation suggests the experiments are so irretrievably flawed that the scientific community risks haemorrhaging credibility if it continues to let them inform public policy," the highly prestigious magazine warned.

"It's an open secret that some teams have failed to find deficits in ecstasy users and had trouble publishing the findings. In the majority of tests of mental agility, ecstasy users perform just as well as people who don't use the drug."

While ecstasy has been connected with numerous fatalities almost all have been attributed to dehydration, the Guardian added.
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