MAPS: Anybody up for some MDMA neurotoxicity tests on humans?

["Little John" <saintjude2k@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

       That MDMA damages serotonin neuron's axons at some rather high
dosing regimens is well established in lab animals, making the real question
'does damage occur at sane human doses'?  (Say, in the neighborhood of 2
mg/kg.)    The exeriment we would love to do is the one experiment we can
never do:   Get brain scans of humans, put them on a regimen of MDMA, then
get a followup scan to measure damage.
     But...it *could* be done.    All you would really have to do is
recruit MDMA users.    Scan them, ask them to keep a detailed log of
dose/frequency of use, and ask them to come back in a year or two (or
however long you wished to followup.)     I would certainly be willing to
volunteer for such a study, and I think a lot of other people would as well.
      Such an 'in-field' study would have the dissadvantages of being
moderately expensive, reliant on self-reporting, and by the nature of
seeking volunteers would have at least somewhat atypical users.    On the
other hand, it wouldn't require DEA permits since the researchers wouldn't
be involved in the procurement/use of the MDMA itself, and would provide
that one holy grail of research:  A before-and-after picture of user's
brains.    The results, whether they showed damage or not, would be a
compelling piece of information in the debate.
       I can't do it?I don't have the funding or the qualifications to do
such a study.    But I'm betting somebody here could, or knows somebody who
could.   If anybody has the balls, this could be one of the most important
pieces of MDMA research to date, and could either confirm the government's
medical justification of the war on MDMA?or refute it.


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