Liquid ecstasy is at present one of the most consumed drugs by the young due to its euphoric effects (which can remain for about an hour), its reasonable price and because it is easy to get. Its unhibitor nature can favour pregnancy in teenagers, a circumstance that opens a new study channel for researchers, who must observe not only the effects in consumers, but also in the embryo or foetus in the short and long term. A team of scientists of the Universidad de Granada is precisely working on the determination of such consequences, who have already achieved their first results through their experimental work in the laboratory.
The coordinator of the study, María Teresa Pascual Morenilla, explains some of them and maintains that “the obtained data point out that this drug affects significantly the development of eyes, cranium parameters and the embryo’s encephalic weight”. “Such harmful effects are strengthened if liquid ecstasy is consumed with alcohol”, the researcher adds.
The study has based on laboratory experiments with a group of fertilized eggs which were injected, in an air camera, with different of liquid ecstasy. Another group of embryos was treated with ecstasy associated with an alcohol solution in order to observe the consequences produced by the drug isolated or associated with alcohol. The effects after fifteen days of incubation and in newborn chickens have been studied and during the analysis the cranium, encephalic and eye parameters were measured, comparing them with a witness group.
The importance of this study, in which the researchers of the Universidad de Granada José Arcadio Roda Moreno, Miguel Guirao Piñeyro, Miguel López Soler, Francisco Arrebola Nacle, Olga Roda Murillo and José Francisco Robles Garzón have participated too, resides in the fact that it reveals the need of pulling drug consumers up, not just for its danger, but also for the possible risks for the child in case of pregnancy.
Ecstasy and alcohol
On the other hand, the coordinator of the research work warns of the easiness with which liquid ecstasy can dissolve in any drink without the consumer noticing it, as it is an odourless substance, slightly savoury and soluble in water. it is advisable, especially for the young, to make sure of what they consume and demand always that the drink is emptied in their presence.
She also adds that the effects of liquid ecstasy associated with alcohol in embryos and foetus had not been studied by means of a detailed experimental analysis and he considers that this research line is a precedent for its possible study in humans.
Reference
Professor María Teresa Pascual Morenilla
Dpt Anatomy and Human Embryology
Phone number. 958 243 532 / 958 243 535.
E-mail: mtpasc@ugr.es
