ECSTASY FINDINGS PROVE A NO-BRAINER

Ecstasy - the recreational drug that makes the strobes shine brighter, the
music sound sweeter and dehydrates you faster than a weekend on Baffin
Island - may be warping your consciousness in ways you hadn't realized.

Researchers at the University of Toronto reported recently a link between
regular use of the drug and selective damage to memory. Neurologists
tracked and tested 15 Ecstasy users over a year, and found that (no
surprise) the drug was playing tricks with their wiring.

Specifically, clinical declines in two categories of memory retention were
traced back to Ecstasy use. The first category - episodic memory - is the
kind that lets you recall something heard or encountered earlier in the
day, like an episode of Friends.

The second - prospective memory - is what you use when you're making a
mental note to do something in the near future, like setting your VCR to
tape Friends.

"A significant proportion of users may effectively be at risk for long-term
neurotoxicological effects, particularly in the hippocampus (the lobe of
the brain that handles learning and memory retention)," said psychology
professor Konstantine Zakzanis, the chief researcher.

Ecstasy is, of course, the club kid's drug of choice. The reaction from
Edmonton's rave scene this week to the U of T's findings was a collective
shrug.

"The heavier users I know tend to be a bit 'sketchy', if you know what I
mean," said Mike Peebles, spokesman for Rave Safe. It's an Edmonton-based
group that distributes brochures to ravegoers, encouraging them not to
overindulge.

"Scattered, absentminded, you know? I'd say anybody using it weekly would
be a moderate to heavy user."

"I'm a drinker myself," said a local DJ who asked, in the interest of
escaping his parents' wrath, not to be named.

"Everybody goes through that period in their life when they try a little of
everything. Probably Ecstasy is not good for you. But I don't think the
drug's been around long enough for anyone to know for sure."

Even the researchers admit their findings might not be as solid as they
look. Zakzanis admits the "potential unreliability" in the subjects'
description of their drug habits and the wide variation in the quality of
street drugs could skew the results.

The real problem with tracking Ecstasy's effect on the brain, said Peebles,
is the fact that regular users almost never limit themselves to Ecstasy
alone. An Ecstasy user is almost certainly a pot user and might have a line
into harder drugs as well.

"The memory effects are probably due to poly-drug use," he said. "They did
a study like that in England, and I think the control group was using
cannabis. Well, we know (marijuana) affects the brain too." Peebles admits
he's dabbled with the drug in the past but outgrew it.

Most ravers do, he suggests; once they pass the magic age of 25 and start
getting real jobs, mates and car payments, they're less likely to enjoy a
drug that lets them dance for 14 hours straight without seizing up.

Many ravers seem to treat Ecstasy use with open scorn. One club-goer, who
will only answer to Scott, suggests media drum-beating over Ecstasy is
drawing attention away from far more dangerous club-scene drugs, such as
the harder amphetamines.

"Irresponsibility always bears consequences," he wrote me in an e-mail. "It
would be nothing but an exercise in self-delusion to be convinced that it's
possible to use a substance like Ecstasy without any consequences.

"It's ... a matter of personal choice." Another e-mail correspondent,
calling himself the Anti-Raver Raver, puts it more brutally: think of
Ecstasy abuse, he said, as the natural weekend habit of self-destructive
boneheads.

"Rave culture is stupid. Ecstasy is for morons," he wrote. "It is a poor
coverup for the fact that their scene is lacking any true 'meat.'

"I hope that you end up finding enough rats for your little experiment."