May 11, 1999: Study approved by the Research Committee of the Hospital Psiquiatrico de Madrid.
July 16, 1999:Study approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Universitario "La Paz".
February 7, 2000: Study approved by the Agencia Espanola del Medicamento, Ministry of Health.
March 3, 2002: 2 people died at a rave in a sports center and the news was wide publicized. This started the first Spanish wave of anti-ecstasy campaigns in the press, radios, tv, etc. including interviews with the parents of the two young people who died.
March 5, 2002 The headline says: "The Malaga's macroparty 'rave' doubled the capacity permitted at the sports center".
March 8, 2002 Another death. The anti-ecstasy campaign continues: The headline says: "Another ecstasy death in Spain"
May 6, 2002 Favorable media reports regarding Jose Carlos Bouso's MDMA/PTSD study, in which six subjects have already been administered MDMA without persisting side effects(Press, National and Locals TV, National and Local radios).
May 7, 2002 Inspection from the Madrid Health Department. They have one month to send a report of the inspection but the report never arrives.
May 13, 2002 The Manager of the Hospital Psiquiatrico de Madrid sent a letter saying that he won't let us use the facilities of the Hospital anymore.
May 23, 2002 The Ethics Committee sent a letter saying that the study must be stopped because we don't have a hospital in which to conduct the study.
July 12, 2002 The Agencia Espanola del Medicamento sent a letter saying that the study must be stopped because we don't have a hospital in which to conduct the study.
October 8, 2002 Ricaurte comes to Spain at the invitation of the Spanish Antidrug Agency to speak to Spanish scientists and other professionals about his data from his supposed MDMA/multiple doses study which had just been published in Science, where he found dopaminergic neurotoxicity in his non- human primates.
October 9, 2002 Ricaurte presents his data to the journalists in a press conference attended by almost all the Spanish media. News about that press conference can be found at "Diario Medico" ("Medical Daily"), the most important Spanish newspaper for medical news. Almost all the Spanish doctors receive "Diario Medico" and it is quite widespread in all the Spanish hospitals and Health Centers. "Diario Medico" is also posted in the Internet and the article that covered that press conference can be found at:
In this article there is a picture of Ricaurte beside the Director of the Spanish Antidrug Agency.
April 24, 2003 Ricaurte participates in a Conference named "Violencia y Sociedad" ("Violence and Society") in the city of Alicante. He talked about the relationship between ecstasy neurotoxicity and violence (?). I could not found any news in the newspapers or the Internet regarding that conference.
April 28, 2003 A lengthy article in the prominent Spanish magazine, Interviu, reported on the controversy surrounding the MDMA/PTSD study and brought to light the fact that the Madrid Anti-Drug Authority actively pressured the Hospital to shut down the study. The original article can be seen in the original PDF format in Spanish and has also been translated into English.
May 19, 2003 An interview with Jose Carlos Bouso was included in a Spanish TV program about the consequences and treatment of survivors of sexual assault.
June 13, 2003 Ricaurte participates in a round table in Valencia, the 3rd Spanish city. The round table is named: "Intoxicacion por drogas de diseno: un nuevo paciente critico" ("Designer drugs intoxication: a new critical patient"). The round table is a part of the XV Congreso Nacional de la Sociedad Espanola de Medicina de Urgencias y Emergencias (15th National Conference of the Spanish Society of Emergency and Urgent Medicine). The news appeared in two sites. The first one on June 13 in a news web site. The news was released by the "Agencia EFE", the first news agency in Spain.
There is an interesting paragraph: "Preciso que el consumo de esta sustancia causa la destruccion de las zonas terminales de las celulas que originan la serotonina y tambien reduce los niveles de dopamina en el cerebro, por lo que el consumidor "corre el riesgo de desarrollar problemas como el Parkinson".
"He said that this substance [MDMA] cause destruction of cerebral areas that produce serotonin and also reduce the levels of dopamine in the brain, so the user is at risk of developing problems such as Parkinson's."
June 18, 2003 "Diario Medico" released a news report about that conference.
In that text, there are two paragraphs that I think that are important:
"El neurologo Jorge Ricaurte, de la Facultad de Medicina Johns Hopkins, en Baltimore, ha explicado que diversos estudios, tanto preclinicos como experimentales, en animales y algunos en humanos, "dan a entender que el Extasis, en dosis no muy diferentes a las que acostumbran a usar sus consumidores, tiene la capacidad de producir efectos toxicos muy selectivos sobre neuronas productoras de serotonina o dopamina".
"The neurologist George Ricaurte, from the John Hopkins Faculty of Medicine, Baltimore, has explained that several studies, both pre-clinical and clinical, in animals and also some in humans, "lead us to think that ecstasy, at doses not very different than those taken by the users, has the capacity to produce very selective toxic effects to the producing serotonin or dopamine neurons."
In another paragraph, the text says:
"Respecto a los efectos sobre las neuronas que producen dopamina, cuya disminucion en el cerebro provoca la aparicion del Parkinson, tampoco se ha comprobado todavia si el consumo de extasis puede, a largo plazo, provocar la enfermedad. "Para ver sintomas de Parkinson se necesita bajar el nivel de dopamina en el cerebro en mas del 90 por ciento. Por lo que conocemos, los efectos de la droga no son bastante severos para que el nivel de la dopamina disminuya a niveles tan bajos". En el caso de un joven que ha tomado Extasis, ha indicado Ricaurte, "puede haber reducido su nivel de dopamina en un 50 por ciento, aunque esa reduccion no tenga consecuencias inmediatas".
"Regarding the effects [of MDMA] on the dopamine-producing neurons, whose reduction produces the appearance of Parkinson, it's not proven if ecstasy use can to produce the illness in the long term. "It is necessary to deplete the level of dopamine until 90% to see Parkinson symptoms. Based upon we know, the effects of the drug are not severe enough to deplete dopamine to that low levels." In the case that a young person who has taken ecstasy, Ricaurte said: "though we can not see immediate clinical consequences, he can have reduced his levels of dopamine by 50%".
July 23, 2003 Ricaurte participates in a Summer Course named: "Recreational Drugs". This course is 5 days long and Ricaurte had his seminar on July 23th at 16:30. The title of his speech was: "Synthetic drugs and cocaine".
The program of this summer course can be found here.
News about this conference was released by the "Agencia EFE". It is a bit difficult to find in the Internet. You can go to the following link.
At the top of the page there is a calendar. You should click on: 24-07-03 (24 of July of 2003), and then click on: "Un neurologo pide estudios..." and you will find the news.
This news is very interesting, because he doesn't say that ecstasy produces dopaminergic neurotoxicity. It seems that at this time he already knows that he has administered methamphetamine instead of MDMA to his primates. The article reports:
"Lo que se esta documentado, con experimentos de laboratorio en primates, es el dano que ejerce la metaanfetamina sobre la dopamina (...). En cambio, los conocimientos que se tienen sobre el extasis "son indirectos"
"What is well documentated with laboratory experiments in non-human primates is the harm that methamphetamine produces on dopamine (...). But the knowledge that we have about ecstasy [on dopamine] "is indirect"
"en estudios de laboratorio con metaanfetamina, habian comprobado "a largo plazo, despues de una lesion severa hay partes del cerebro que no se recuperan aunque en otras partes hay una presencia mas alta de serotonina de la normal". Esto es consecuencia de "la reorganizacion del sistema de neuronas que producen serotonina", explico Ricaurte, quien enalo que "sabemos que no se necesitan el 100 por cien de las neuronas para tener una funcion normal".
"In laboratory studies with methamphetamine, they have proven that "in the long term, after a severe harm there are some parts of the brain that never recover though there are other parts with more serotonin than in normal circumstances". This is a consequence of "the reorganization of the neuronal system that produce serotonin," Ricaurte explained, who said that "we know that it is not necessary that 100% of the neurons have a normal function."
In sum, at the June 13, 2003 Valencia conference, Ricaurte is ambiguous because he does not talk about MDMA destroying dopamine-containing neurons, but about reductions in the level of dopamine (in all conferences he talks about the destruction of serotonin-containing neurons). But at the July 232, 2003 Santander conference, he does not talk about Parkinson caused by ecstasy, but by methamphetamine. In any case, in neither of the two conferences in June and July 2003, does Ricaurte report that he could not replicate his dopamine research with oral and then with injected MDMA, studies which we suspect took place many months before at the end of 2002.
George's talks in Spain definitely have created an impression of the dangerousness of MDMA that has made it more difficult for my efforts to try to restart my MDMA/PTSD study. Perhaps once the MAPS-sponsored US MDMA/PTSD study is fully approved, it will be possible for me to obtain permission to restart my study.