Cocaine and Ecstasy Cause DNA Mutation

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-RTO-romta&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20031205%2F154957733.htm&sc=romta&photoid=20031205PAR01D

Cocaine and Ecstasy Cause DNA Mutation -Italy Study


ROME (Reuters) - Cocaine and ecstasy not only cause addiction and raise the risk of cancer but also provoke genetic mutations, Italian scientists said Friday.

"Cocaine and ecstasy have proved to be more dangerous than we had imagined," said Giorgio Bronzetti, chief scientist at the National Center for Research's (CNR) biotechnology department.

"These drugs, on top of their toxicological effects, attack DNA provoking mutations and altering the hereditary material. This is very worrying for the effects it could have on future generations," he said.

The use of ecstasy, a drug popular at all-night dance parties, increased by 70 percent between 1995 and 2000 according to a United Nations report published in September.

Ecstasy and amphetamines have overtaken cocaine and heroin as the fastest growing global narcotics menace, the study said.

The CNR report, which took more than three years to complete, said animal tests had shown a direct relationship between ecstasy and cocaine intake and the effects on DNA.

"In other words, the longer the time frame of drug consumption, the greater the damage to DNA," Bronzetti said.


discuss

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/science/02ECST.html

you know, i saw this article yesterday and realized that they don't pinpoint the exact "mutation" and what sort of weirdness it is supposed to cause. what if the mutation is some sort of superhuman power or maybe an invisibility gene. the possibilities are endless.....

With these powers.... I will become... SPEEDY-EMPATHY-MAN!

shit, thats no good...

Yep... drugs are good mmmkay?

maybe the kid comes out with some sort of permanant candy necklace type thing around their neck-kind of like a birthmark. then when you put the pacifier in it's mouth......rad.

[Edited on Dec 06, 2003 by ava]

and drugs cost 20 dollars too.

I think this study is shit.

Everybody knows that the real cause behind these genetic mutations is listening to bad Techno and Rick Springfield's 'Jessie's Girl' one too many times.

*starts taking mass amounts of ecstacy......purely for research reasons*