STUDY OF CLUB DRUG ECSTASY WAS BUNGLED

Research Used 'Speed' By Mistake; Researchers Blame Mislabeled Vials

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University who last year published a controversial
report suggesting that a single evening's use of the illicit drug "ecstasy"
could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson's disease are retracting their
research, saying the drug they used in their experiments wasn't Ecstasy after
all.

The retraction, to be published in next Friday's issue of the journal Science,
has reignited a smoldering and sometimes angry debate over the risks and
benefits of the drug, also known as MDMA.

The drug is popular at all-night raves and other venues for its ability to
reduce inhibitions and induce expansive feelings of openheartedness. But some
studies have indicated that the pills can at least temporarily damage neurons
that use the mood-altering brain chemical serotonin. Some users also have
experienced high fevers, which rarely have proven fatal.

Last year's research, involving monkeys and baboons, purported to show that
three modest doses of ecstasy -- the amount a person might take in a one-night
rave -- could cause serious damage to another part of the brain: neurons that
use the brain chemical dopamine. Advocates of ecstasy's therapeutic potential,
including a number of scientists and doctors who believe it may be useful in
treating post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric conditions,
attacked the study. They wondered why large numbers of users weren't dying or
growing deathly ill from the drug, as the animals did, and why no previous link
had ever been made between ecstasy and Parkinson's despite decades of use and
many studies.

The answer to at least some of those questions became clear with the
retraction. Due to a mislabeling of vials, the scientists wrote, all but one of
the animals were injected not with ecstasy but with methamphetamine, or "speed"
- -- a drug known to damage the dopamine system.

The researchers said they discovered the mistake when follow-up tests gave
conflicting results, and they offered evidence that the tubes were mislabeled
by the supplier, identified by sources as Research Triangle Institute of North
Carolina. A spokesman for the company said he did not know if the company had
erred.

Una McCann, one of the Hopkins scientists, said she regretted the role the
false results may have played in a debate that was going on last year in
Congress and within the Drug Enforcement Administration over how to deal with
ecstasy abuse.

But she emphasized Friday that the retraction hadn't changed her feelings about
the danger of taking ecstasy: "I still wouldn't recommend it to anybody."