my comment = i always thought alcohol DID kill brain cells
www.dailytexanonline.com wrote:
Debunking drug folklore
By Ryan Ash and Elliott Ash
Alcohol does not kill brain cells.
Science has once again refuted a widely held belief, but popular fiction
has once again resisted replacement by unpopular fact. The human tendency
to accept society's traditional beliefs without checking the evidence
often leads to general trust in falsehoods, alcohol's neurocidal effects
being one of innumerable examples.
Questioning every piece of information with which one comes into contact
would make living difficult, and faith in common wisdom provides an
effective heuristic for functioning in most circumstances. Nevertheless,
it is the business of those in the public sphere to identify and defy
popular myths, and the realm of recreational drugs harbors many of them.
Both our laws and our public dialogue suffer from a serious ignorance of
the individual and societal effects of various drugs.
As mentioned, alcohol poses little danger to neurons. But it does pose a
considerable danger to our very lives. Among people ages 15 to 24,
alcohol-related automobile accidents are the number one cause of death.
While consumption of alcohol remains legal and accessible, use of far
safer drugs is prohibited by law and censured by public opinion. Mythical
beliefs about these drugs are popularly held despite scientific evidence
to refute them.
For instance, it is a common albeit false belief that smoking marijuana,
like smoking cigarettes, causes cancer. A 1997 study at UCLA concluded
that, in actuality, even heavy marijuana use does not increase the
likelihood of cancer. According to Dr. Robert Melamede of the University
of Colorado in Colorado Springs, pot's active ingredient THC counteracts
cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke. "THC turns down the
carcinogenic potential," he said.
Moreover, marijuana is not physically addictive. A 2001 report by the
National Academy of Sciences states that a mere 9 percent of marijuana
users become dependent on the drug. Compare this to tobacco, on which 32
percent of users become dependent, or alcohol, on which 15 percent of
users become dependent. In fact, marijuana is less habit-forming than
caffeine.
MDMA, popularly known as Ecstasy, does not cause brain damage, nor does it
have any long-term physiological effects. George Ricaurte, research
scientist at John Hopkins Medical School, retains a large amount of
responsibility for the propagation of this myth. His study suggested that
a single trip on ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage.
It turns out that his research was seriously flawed: Not only did he
administer his subjects (monkeys) exceedingly high doses, the drug he
administered wasn't even Ecstasy. Supposedly, the drug containers were
mislabeled and Ricaurte injected methamphetamine instead of MDMA.
Ricaurte also provided deceptive photographs for the National Institute on
Drug Abuse's anti-drug campaigns. One of the photos showed an Ecstasy
user's PET scan. Dark spots on the photograph were described as holes in
the brain, but the scans actually showed serotonin levels.
The modest reduction in serotonin levels recorded in the PET scans had
nothing to do with brain damage. Even more despicable, the photograph of
the "normal" brain, placed next to the photograph of the Ecstasy-user's
brain in advertisements, exhibited serotonin levels 50 times greater than
normal.
Subsequent studies have found no evidence of brain damage among users of
Ecstasy.
Meanwhile, nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes and other tobacco
products, is the most addictive substance known to science. Hundreds of
thousands of Americans prematurely die each year from cigarette-related
complications. Women who are light smokers lose an average of 14 years
from their lifespan; women who are heavy smokers lose 20.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, tobacco is
the leading cause of death in the United States. Somehow, use of tobacco
remains legal and acceptable. Nonetheless, the Journal's August 2000
survey reported that 46 percent of college students had used a tobacco
product in the last year.
Evidently, popular opinions on recreational drugs are plagued by trust in
false beliefs. To combat ignorance in the populace and guide our
government towards a reality-based reform of drug laws, we must do away
with these misconceptions. While the human practice of accepting
traditional beliefs will undoubtedly continue, dissemination of the
scientific facts can guide us toward objective truth.
Ryan is a Plan II psychology and biology senior. Elliott is a Plan II
government and philosophy senior.
me no friends 
