JOURNAL RETRACTS ECSTASY STUDY; WRONG DRUG HAD BEEN TESTED

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.

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 yesterday that the
researchers discovered that labels on drugs supplied to them by an
outside company were incorrect and that the animals had actually been
given a different drug, methamphetamine. That drug would be expected
to produce the brain damage seen in the animals, the researchers said.

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