Melb Herald Sun Newpaper artcile from yesterday

This is an article that was in the Herald Sun yesterday.
Regular ecstasy users face the risk of permanent brain damage, a study has
found.
New research suggests party goers who take the so called "disco bikkies" could be damaging their memory and ability to think quickly.
The British findings build on previous research linking the drug with
brain impairment.
National drug and alcohol research centre spokesman Paul Dillon said the
latest research should help prove to users that the drug was dangerous.
"(Users) think ecstasy is free of harm and while we don't know how great
the risks are, we do know that they exist", Mr Dillon said.
Scientists at Edge Hill College of Higher Education in Lancashire
recruited 30 men and women aged 18 to 25, putting them through tasks to
test their working memory and information processing ability. Scientists
found that the drug impaired memory and the ability to think quickly.
Former users who had not taken ecstasy for six months did just as badly as current users, implying that the damage was long term or even irreversible.
Tanya Taylor

6 months of pharmaceutical grade MDMA in the name of research...SIGN ME UP

i think you hit the wookie on the head there the thing with this study is they didnt give these kids pharma grade MDMA, they just picked people who had used "ecstacy" and were probably poly-drug users...
doesnt really prove much about MDMA, but still i'll read the whole report before i bag it any further...
still, i think i'll use the chewbacca defense at all times...

Me ME!!! *hamlet puts his hand high up* TEST THE DRUGS ON ME!!! I VOLUNTEER *grins wildly as the scientists pump him full of MDMA* MORE! I WANT MORE!!! - he exclaims. And so the wonderful tests continue until hamlet peaks like he never peaked b4. Next week he FORGETTS he took pills the week b4 so he does it again, and again, and again and lives happily ever after...i think...i can't remember for sure
I mean really it's just a bit of a memory loss, that's all. And yes I call myself Hamlet cos I forgott my real name ...hehehe...
princehamlet

IT WAS THE SIMULTANEOUS (man that's hard to spell) POST THAT DID IT. SIMULTANEOUS (I cut and pasted that time...hehehe) POST I TELLS YA!!!

Ummm, hey. I don't know if anyone has read the MAPS info on MDMA, but almost every study on MDMA confirms there is lasting memory damage from MDMA. Check it out, it freaked me out!
www.maps.org
So it looks like the truth, as much as it hurts, is that MDMA is quite bad. I wish we could just induce the feeling whenever we wanted. But I guess that is what the purpose of family, friends and society are for, to give motivation to certain states of mind and conciousness. But I guess if you really want something you will get it. I mean I REALLY wanted an out of body experience, and I got it. I also REALLY wanted to feel wierd without taking drugs and I did, but it wasn't the same, because I had to try really hard to force myself into a certain state of mind, drugs just put you there. Anyway, enough of my waffle! Actually, waffle sounds YUM! BYE!!
LOVE TO EVERYONE!

The question is of course what level of brain damage are we talking about.
Don't forget that western societies favorite drug, alcohol, also causes
brain damage!

oh right, so that's why Dr Alexander Shulgin is such a doddering old fool....
oh hang on he's not, he's in his 70s and is one of the sharpest intellects you'd ever meet, and he's had more MDMA, and pretty much every sort of drug you could ever imagine, than you've had hot dinners...
personally i reckon pot smoking has a lot to do with all this memory loss, we all know that sends the short term memory to hell...

if you would like to check out the full original article (before it was edited to fit hysteria mode) then check out the thread 'a pragmatic article(?)'
as regards brain damage it is not a question of level more of type...alcohol causes brain damage but you have to drink an awful lot over a very long time for the cumulative damage to cells to become noticable in behavior.
The damage caused by long term and regular (and unprotected by pre/post rolling regimes it should be stressed!!!) is aimed more specifically at memory functions. Research has only just discovered that the hippocamphus (sp?) has the ability to physically grow and restructure if exposed to demanding stimuli over time...i.e. we have the ability to learn how to remember more. So obviously there is a great deal to be learnt about not only the effects of MDMA but also about the hardware of memory itself.
BUT you only get one brain so look after it...pre-load, post-load etc etc

Haha thats kinda funny.
When I was playing cricket in England last year, I stayed at a place called Ormskirk in Lancashire, and I walked past Edge Hill College everyday (even picked up an EH chick at a club once). Maybe they were secretly testing me and I didnt know it.
I always wondered why there was heaps of free beans left under my doorstep

I was wondering has there ever been any proper studys on the use of 5htp for pre and post loading.

there was also a similar article in the Age on the same day. (i don't know if it was based on the same British research cos i don't have access to the article right at this moment but it sounds like it)
This article maintained that the main damage related to learning ability and the ability to absorb and process information. from memory, it stated that it had tested users who had taken ecstacy once to twice a week.

wow smurf...you were in Ormskirk and Edge Hill...they are near where i'm from...heheh...fukking grim up north isn't it

only problem is none of the people surveyed could remember how much E they had had duh aaahhh the perils of a youth well spent