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Dangers of Ecstasy (XTC, E)

A top British police officer recently claimed that ecstasy was no more dangerous than aspirin, and that all drugs should be legalised.

“Ecstasy is not a safe substance and I'm not suggesting that it is,” said Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom. “But it is much less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol.”

This kind of publicity reinforces the idea that the clubbers’ drug of choice is a mainstream activity with minimal health risks.

The figures do, to an extent, support this idea. An estimated 500,000 people take E every weekend in the UK, and the average number of related deaths is fewer than a dozen a year.

But figures can be misleading, and in this case they ignore a raft of medical evidence that says ecstasy can cause long term harm.

In February 2006 a study by the spectacularly named Gouzoulis-Mayfrank and Daumann was published in medical journal Addiction. It found that ecstasy was responsible for long-term memory loss and other psychological problems.

Ecstasy is neurotoxic, meaning it can permanently alter the chemical structures of the brain.

Neurotoxicity had already been shown to cause long-lasting alterations in the brain serotonin system in animal experiments.

Gouzoulis-Mayfrank and Daumann’s study found evidence that it also affected human brains, and could continue to do so for years after a person had stopped taking it.

“MDMA neurotoxicity in humans is not yet proven, but it is highly likely,” the report concluded.

Serotonin helps maintain the good-functioning of many body systems, such as sleep, emotional stability and cognitive processes.

Anything that alters serotonin levels is therefore likely to cause lasting psychological problems.

A 2005 investigation by the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf supported this.

“Ecstasy users, many of whom were defined as heavy users, suffered from a wide range of substance-induced cognitive, mood and anxiety disorders,” reported Addcition.

“Furthermore, 73% of them were diagnosed as having been clinically dependent on Ecstasy at some point in their lives.”

A former ecstasy addict, Gareth, summed up the dangers:

“One can kill you, the same as any chemical - illegal or prescription - you put in your body,” he said. “But I'm not condoning the use of it - there are other severe long term effects like memory loss.”