Replies

Just last month there was a bust in Houston of an international Ecstasy ring that involved Israelis and drug manufacture in the Netherlands.

This trio were idiots for making such a large move with the increased heat.

One of the brothers in the Houston ring is still at large (reportedly last seen in Spain trying to expand markert share).

Stop persecuting these people! They've suffered enough!

They were going to use the proceeds of these illegal drug sales to open a Holocaust Museum in Antarctica.

good post.

Some apologosts herein would like you to believe that this is just a harmless act and that these people meant no harm to America's young people....just some harmless shady business to make a little money. 'Ecstasy' Drug Damages Brain

WASHINGTON, June 14, 1999

Ecstasy, a so-called designer drug favored by club-goers, can cause long-lasting damage to the brain, researchers said Monday.

Experiments on monkeys showed that as little as four days of using Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, can cause damage lasting six to seven years later.

"People who take MDMA, even just a few times, are risking long-term, perhaps permanent, problems with learning and memory," Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study, said in a statement.

MDMA, used at "rave" parties and other large gatherings, has a stimulant effect. Users report a sense of euphoria and well-being, but it has been associated with some deaths -- some of them immediately after use.

It affects serotonin, an important brain signaling chemical associated with mood, among other things.

"The serotonin system, which is compromised by MDMA, is fundamental to the brain's integration of information and emotion," Leshner said.

George Ricaurte and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore gave either salt water or Ecstasy to some squirrel monkeys twice a day for four days.

Two weeks later, they looked at the brains of half of the monkeys, and found damage to neurons associated with serotonin.

Areas particularly affected, they reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, were the neocortex, the outer part of the brain which is associated with conscious thought, and the hippocampus, associated with long-term memory.

Six to seven years later, the scientists examined the rest of the monkeys' brains. Richaud said they had not recovered from the damage.

"Some recovery of serotonin neurons was apparent in the brains of the monkeys given MDMA previously but this recovery occurred only in certain regions and was not always complete," Richaud said.

"Other brain regions showed no evidence of recovery whatsoever."