Quote:
Originally posted by Vick@Feb 19 2005, 11:02 PM
Don't know if I can believe this story of X being given to returning soldiers
Not saying you're BSing Joe, the story just seems way out there
Also X can fuck up your Serotonin receptors causing more long term problems that the short term benifits
http://mdma.net/serotonin/serotonin-syndrome.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/mdma.html
Effect of MDMA on serotonin neurons in the monkey brain.
Am sure Red can explain this better than I
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Since I've never done X I can't comment from personal experience, but maybe I can explain why the long term effects could be damaging.
A neuron (nerve cell) consists of the cell body, one axon and many dendrites. The axons carry nerve impulses away from the cell body along the neural pathway towards the target cell and dendrites carry the impulses back to the cell body.
neurons do not touch one another, there is a space in between them called a synaptic gap. In order for the nerve impulses to move from one neuron to another they must jump the gap. This is done through hormones the body produces that are neuro transmitters. Serotonin is one of them. What happens when the impulse hits the axon terminals is the release of serotonin. The impulse jumps the gap and the serotonin gets pulled back into the nerve body. (re-uptake)
Extacy prevents the re-uptake which causes a depletion of serotonin levels in the nerve cells. The long term effect of this would be nerve impulses not traveling to their target cells. The effects of this could range from muscle spasms to complete loss of muscle control.
I'm not surprised the government is trying it though. There was success with LSD in the 50's for psychological and addiction problems. The only thing that worries me about it is the psychological dependence. They are giving them the drug under controlled conditions. the drugs are made in a controlled laboratory and the soldiers are being monitored. Now what happens when they are pronounced "cured?" There will be a percentage of them that will want to continue taking it, not because they feel they need it, but because they like it. (Let's face it, people continue to take extacy because they like it. ) Chances are they will be getting street quality so there is a danger in that along with the neurological repercussions.