This week the two are at it again. Ricaurte has just published research in the journal Science indicating that one night’s worth of ecstasy also kills the brain cells that produce dopamine, possibly putting even casual users at risk for Parkinson’s disease later in life. Grob’s response? “This just reinforces my concerns.” Ricaurte’s new study simulates the effects of a rave, where partygoers may take several tabs of ecstasy. Injecting monkeys and baboons with small amounts of MDMA three times in nine hours, he produced the same effects he’d seen in his original study, which used more gradual doses. Ricaurte also found something new: two thirds of the dopamine neurons had frayed at the ends, possibly because the quick doses had poisoned the brain with too much MDMA at once. Dopamine deficiency is linked to cognitive and psychiatric problems, which may partially explain why users feel sad and sluggish after a night out. More troubling is the fact that Parkinson’s is caused by the death of those same dopamine-producing neurons. “Obviously you can’t compress 40 years of depletion into a week,” says Ricaurte, noting that in Parkinson’s more than 95 percent of the cells die. But in a few of his drugged-up monkeys, Ricaurte chemically simulated the decline in dopamine that comes with age. The animals, he says, became “slow.”
If Ricaurte is right, Grob wonders, why don’t more aging ravers have Parkinson’s? “I am aware of only one report of a patient like that, and it’s problematic,” he says. Grob is also frustrated that Ricaurte’s research coincides with the Senate’s impending vote to crack down on rave promoters. “He’s got a lot of money from NIDA and a very high profile,” he says. “What I’ve got are the facts.” But as the beat goes on, it’s not clear if anyone really does.
