POPULAR CLUB DRUG SHOWN TO IMPAIR BRAIN FUNCTION

Ecstasy has been linked to memory loss and brain damage in the first human
studies of the popular party drug.

Long-lasting effects on animals' brains have been proven and these are now
starting to show up in preliminary studies of use by humans.

New Zealand experts are not surprised by the human studies' findings and
have repeated warnings about Ecstasy, which has become the country's third
most popular illegal drug after cannabis and speed (methamphetamine).

Ecstasy researchers in Canada checking memory impairment have found that
participants' test scores declined or remained static, but did not improve,
throughout a year-long study.

Their study, published in the journal Neurology, tested 15 people who took
Ecstasy on average 2.4 times a month.

A British study found the learning ability of the Ecstasy users was
impaired. Ex-users suffered memory impairment even a year or more after
giving up the drug, although this may have been due to underlying
differences in those people.

But lead researcher Professor Valerie Curran, of University College London,
said that when combined with animal studies the evidence of long-lasting
effects in humans was growing.

USA Today reports that a brain scan study at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory in New York found that people had a decreased blood flow to
their brains two weeks after taking a low dose of Ecstasy.

Detective Sergeant Tony Quayle, of New Zealand's National Drug Intelligence
Bureau, said yesterday that around 30,000 tablets and capsules of Ecstasy
had been seized in the past 12 months. Virtually all imported, the drug
cost $80 to $120 a tablet on the streets here.

Three people in NZ have died after taking Ecstasy and forensic tests will
determine whether an Auckland man who died last weekend had taken the drug.

Dr Les Galler, an Auckland Hospital intensive care specialist, said
long-term use of Ecstasy or other drugs that affected brain function,
including alcohol, would "start to rot your brain".

But the hospital was seeing more people suffering from the ill-effects of
Fantasy and related drugs than Ecstasy, he said.

This might be because Ecstasy was illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act but
Fantasy had not yet been outlawed.

Each weekend, the hospital treats about 10 users of Fantasy-type drugs,
some in a coma or suffering a seizure.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr Greg Finucane said Ecstasy was often thought of as
enjoyable and with minimal adverse effects, as long as users took
precautions such as drinking water.

"Certainly this sort of evidence [the human studies] shows that putting
anything into your brain that changes brain function over a long period of
time is going to have longer-term adverse effects on brain functioning."

Dr Finucane said he had seen patients at Auckland Hospital who had suffered
brain damage - causing symptoms including significant impairment of memory
and concentration - from drugs in the same class as Ecstasy, but they had
taken large doses.