Article on ecstasy for leukaemia

[therev55]

Just read a post on msn about giving ecstasy to octopuses ,it says some research says it could help blood cancers , anyone know anything about this ?

[Newdawn Administrator]

Reading this research made me feel very uneasy because it smacks of gratuitous manipulation of mammals using human parameters to judge behaviours. Seemingly the ecstasy made the octopuses ‘cuddly’ and ‘sociable’. This is an observation from the study;

At first, when they received a little too much MDMA, they breathed erratically and turned white. But on lower doses, one animal “looked like it was doing water ballet,” swimming around with outstretched arms.

(Why are they surprised...the same phenomenon is observed in clubbers high on this substance!).

Getting sea creatures high for observation purposes doesn’t sit well with me I’m afraid. I appreciate it’s wider purpose is looking at serotonin transporters but using a small sample of 7 octopus for this purpose when the results may not translate well to humans seems ‘off’. Octopus have brains more akin to snails than humans apparently.

I could see no reference to blood cancer however. Do you have the link to this? There’s much on the net about the ecstasy study. Here’s one;

telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0...

Regards,

Newdawn

[therev55 in reply to Newdawn]

Hi sorry im not very good on computers so don't know how to link things ,it was just on msn news thing that comes on when I switch internet explorer on , that was all it said there were no details or links ,sorry I cant help anymore just thought someone might know something about it.

[Hidden in reply to Newdawn]

Newdawn

I felt the same way as you did when I read the article. The whole Ecstasy "Molly" thing has been proven to show some benefit to depression and schizophrenia I think...but giving high doses to Octopi and laughing cause "they freaked out" left me feeling like that test was run by frat boys.

Octopi are proven one of the smartest animals on the planet, equal or greater than chimps, dolphins, etc. Just cause they look really strange is no reason to abuse them.

As for MDMA I never even saw it let alone tried it. I'll ask Renee...she might of in her younger days....supposedly makes you all lovey dovey and kissing...which honestly, I can't say I find much wrong with in concept.

[Hidden in reply to Newdawn]

Oh, Octopus have like half a dozen different brains. The whole Squid/Octopus thing apparently is one of the furthers branches away from the rest of us (Insects, lizards, mammals, birds, etc...everything else). They are extremely smart...here

scientificamerican.com/arti...

[Psmithuk in reply to Newdawn]

I saw it and agree with you Newdawn. It seemed to me they were anthropomorphising (sp?) the octopuses' behaviour - not very scientific!

[SeymourB]

Well, I'm sure there's a few people out there looking for an excuse to indulge in a psychoactive drug now that they have cancer.

So I asked the Google Bird about MDMA and leukemia, and she came back with links from 2011:

healthland.time.com/2011/08...

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

When I went to PubMed, I didn't find much newer info. So I think it was the sort of study that web sites and magazines love to post - click bait.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click...