The Ecstasy Debacle

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The Ecstasy DebacleMarsha Rosenbaum, AlterNet

September 29, 2003

Earlier this month, with little fanfare, highly touted researchers from Johns

Hopkins University made a stunning announcement. Data from their experiments

with the now infamous drug, Ecstasy, published a year ago in the esteemed

journal, Science, turned out to be fatally flawed. It seems the vials had been

mislabeled, and the drug that killed 20 percent of the study's laboratory

monkeys and baboons was not Ecstasy at all, but a completely different

substance.

 

As a research scientist myself, having conducted the first federally funded

sociological study of Ecstasy users, I am happy about the recent news that one

dose of Ecstasy does not, as the widely publicized Science article had claimed,

cause irreversible brain damage leading to Parkinson's disease. What bothers me

is the turn of events that enabled our government to consistently use faulty

research to shape bad drug policy.

 

Ecstasy's story began nearly 30 years ago, when it was first used legally in the

1970s as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Psychiatrists were impressed with its

ability to help couples communicate, to enable trauma victims to heal, and to

soothe chronically ill patients facing death. MDMA (Ecstasy's chemical name)

crossed over into recreational circles in the early 1980s and shortly thereafter

became illegal. Its use remained relatively quiet until the early 1990s, when it

became associated with underground dance parties known as " Raves. "

 

Ecstasy became popular with growing numbers of young people, and at its peak in

2000, nearly 12 percent of high school seniors admitted to using it at least

once. As problems, largely associated with look-a-like pills, overheating and

dehydration, were reported, the frenzied print and electronic media ran 1,000

fear-producing stories.

 

At this point the Johns Hopkins team had released a study showing massive

changes in brain chemistry resulting from the use of Ecstasy. Though now

considered methodologically flawed and never replicated, the " brain damage "

claim resulted in panic.

 

The federal government couldn't move fast enough, quickly enacting anti-Ecstasy

legislation and promoting its $54 million educational campaign to alert young

people and their parents to Ecstasy's dangers.

 

While states enacted laws targeting users (such as in Illinois, where possession

of 15 pills resulted in a mandatory 4-year sentence in state prison), federal

legislation was initially stalled but subsequently pushed through as a tag-on to

the 2003 Amber Alert bill.

 

The RAVE (Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy) act held event promoters

liable for their patrons' drug use. Since the presence of medical staff and

other safety measures at dances or other gatherings constituted awareness that

drugs might be used there, sponsors faced an impossible dilemma. They could

eliminate " harm reduction " measures such as pill testing and chill-out rooms and

risk patrons' health, or maintain them and risk their own arrest and

prosecution.

 

As an educator, the credibility of the Ecstasy educational campaign had me

worried from its inception. Drawing from the Johns Hopkins " serotonin " research

(now refuted by a recently published, much larger and better controlled study)

web sites and television spots carried frightening " this is your brain " images

showing a normal brain alongside an obviously damaged Ecstasy user's brain.

Although those images turned out to be phony, the National Institute on Drug

Abuse director loudly proclaimed to worried parents and politicians that the

government finally had the science to show young people that Ecstasy could have

dire consequences.

 

So much for science, and so much for convincing young people that the government

is telling the truth. Indeed, the recent Science retraction is just another nail

in the coffin of credibility when it comes to what adults tell young people

about drugs. Although those " this is your brain... " ads (along with the

drug-use-equals-terrorism spots) have now been pulled, as my 25-year-old

daughter, a graduate of the DARE program, remarked when she heard the recent

news about Ecstasy, " Now I'm convinced that any information about drugs coming

out of the government is automatically suspect. "

 

The problem, of course, is much bigger than this one piece of research, and

bigger than Ecstasy. It provides just one example of the way in which science is

manipulated to promote partisan public policy. That's what ranking member of the

House Committee on Government Reform, Representative Henry Waxman, learned when

he began to investigate the administration's use of scientific information.

Regarding more than 20 issues, including substance abuse, his shocking report

concludes, " The Bush Administration has manipulated, distorted, or interfered

with science on health, environmental, and other key issues. "

 

As the mother of a teenager and a young adult, my main concern, like that of

most parents, is the safety of my children. It would help if, along with the

retraction of the faulty Ecstasy research, the policies that came in its wake --

the RAVE act and the " this is your brain " education campaign -- were retracted

as well. Indeed, NIDA's web site has now pulled some of its information on

Ecstasy and says it is being revised.

 

If young Americans are ever to believe what our government tells them about

drugs and other policy issues, we must be sure that our messages are based on

sound science rather than political ideology. Then, and only then, will young

people have the kind of trusted information they need to make sound health

decisions.

 

Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D. directs the Safety First project (www.safety1st.org) of

the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org) in San Francisco.

 

 

 

© 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

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