Um, this thread makes baby jesus cry. In fact, I think a mod should get in her quick smart. Because I've got two hours to kill, lets do a little liturature review to clear the urban myth air shall we?
Cocaine: Well, there is some evidence out there that cocaine might be neurotoxic to perinatal animals (
1) but it seems unlikely that it is neurotoxic in adults (
2) even though there is some evidence that persistance cocaine use does fuck people up a little (
3,
4).
LSD: I've looked before, and there is no evidence that LSD, or any of the hallucinogens studied, are neurotoxic (though sometimes I wonder about AMT, but there is no research there).
Benzos: Well I Couldn't find any evidence of anyone even looking for it. Which is because there is no reason for it to be neurotoxic.
Opioids: I found some evidence that opioids might make potential neurotoxins worse (
5), but only a little that it mediates proper neurotoxicity(
6). Sure it changes some neurons around in the Nucleus Accumbens, but that's not neurotoxicity.
Nitrous: Well, its two fold. There is the classic peripheral vit b12 deficency myeloneuropathy, but that only happens if your vegan and/or you take shit loads of bulbs for a long time. There's also the evidence that it is an NMDA antagonist and causes "Olneys lesions". (
7).
NMDA antagonist neurotoxicity (NAN): What do I think of NAN/Olneys lesion? I think it is shit. I can't understand, that in a community that rips Ricaurte apart, listens to Olneys ideas. For one, he always uses those shitty "vacuoles" as his dependent measure, when as far as Im awear, there is no evidence that they are actaully deletrious to nerves health or action. Also, the doses he uses are MASSIVE. In article 7, I cited above, ketamine doesn't show a robust neurotoxicity till about 50-60mg/kg. He uses Sprauge Dawley rats, which are usually a bit sensitive to neurotoxicity anyways. Now, 50-60mg/kg... well in humans, anaesthetic doses of K are more like 2mg/kg. So even if we do the slightly dodgey 'surface area/volume' correction, (which is usually divide rat dose by 5-10) that is still 3-6 times higher than the ANAESTHETIC dose, let alone 6-12 times your average k-hole, and a 15-30 times your regular K trip.
And the evidence that MDMA and amphetamine are neurotoxic, with responsible use, is thin on the ground too...
*sigh*