LABELING ERROR BLOWS STUDY

Scientific Journal Intends to Publish Retraction

WASHINGTON -- A prestigious scientific journal is retracting a study about
the effects of the drug Ecstasy on the brain because the animals used in
the research were given a different drug. The researchers blamed the error
on a labeling mix-up.

Previous studies had reported on the brain hazards of Ecstasy, and the
researchers said the problems with their study did not call into question
the earlier ones.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University reported in September 2002, that key
neurons in the brains of squirrel monkeys and baboons were damaged when the
animals were given doses of Ecstasy that mimicked those often taken by
users of the drug during all-night dance parties.

The researchers said the study raised questions about whether Ecstasy --
also known as MDMA -- might hasten the onset of Parkinson's disease, a
disorder triggered by the permanent loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells.
It was those nerve cells that were reported to have been damaged by Ecstasy
in the Johns Hopkins research.

In retracting the story, the journal Science said Friday that the
researchers discovered that labels on drugs supplied to them by an outside
company were incorrect and the animals had actually been given a different
drug, methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine would be expected to produce the brain damage seen in the
animals, the researchers said in their retraction.

Ecstasy is methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Both are forms of amphetamine but
with different added chemicals and chemical action, said researcher Dr. Una
McCann.

She explained that a bottle of MDMA and a bottle of methamphetamine were
delivered to the lab the same day, from the same supplier, for different
research purposes.

When the researchers had trouble duplicating some of their work they began
to suspect problems, she explained. They had the bottle labeled
methamphetamine analyzed by three labs and all reported it was pure MDMA --
and the brains of two animals that had died following the experiment were
found to contain methamphetamine, not MDMA.

"It's a difficult situation ... We pick up where we left off and see what
we can do to prevent this from happening again, and we correct the record,"
McCann said. She said the laboratory has developed a secure method in
future studies to ensure the using of the actual drug called for.