New Scientist Journal Challenges Ecstasy Brain Damage Link

Most of the research linking ecstasy use with brain damage is seriously flawed and could simply be anti-drug propaganda, according to a detailed report in the latest New Scientist magazine.

"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 influential scientific journal warned.

While the magazine confirmed that short-term side effects such as mid-week comedowns were reasonably well proven, they also suggested that many research projects which had uncovered zero negative effects had been sidelined..

"It's an open secret that some teams have failed to find deficits in ecstasy users and had trouble publishing the findings," they reported.

"In the majority of tests of mental agility, ecstasy users perform just as well as people who don't use the drug."

http://www.newscientist.com
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