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Re: Does Ectasy Cause Brain Damage and Depression? » alohashirt

Posted by SLS on September 30, 2005, at 11:06:22

In reply to Re: Does Ectasy Cause Brain Damage and Depression?, posted by alohashirt on September 29, 2005, at 22:54:04

Hi.

> Scott - look at the numbers. In the US we have between 75,000 and 100,000 annual deaths attributed to alcohol related causes. Thats about 750 deaths per million. At the same time we have between one and seven deaths per million attributed to ecstasy. There is a tremendous amount of panic and rhetoric about the dangers of substance A or B (think ecstacy, Ritalin, steroids, ...) that just isn't backed up by data. If (any of these) are as dangerous as the worry-mongers suggest, where are the bodies? We know where the bodies of alcohol and nicotine related deaths are - I bet you could find one right now at your local ER if you went there. But vested interests and well-intentioned people ignore the elephant in the living room and focus on polishing the table leg caps


From what I can see, your statistic regarding fatalities produced by toxic amounts of the MDMA compound itself is accurate. In the US, between the years 1999 and 2001, a total of 102 drug-induced fatalities were declared by coroners. This translates to about 8 fatalities per million people in the general population. In addition, the study I cite here demonstrates a steep increase in toxic fatalities over this 3 year period. I wonder what it would be for 2004. Importantly, however, is that this statistic does NOT represent 8 fatalaties per million MDMA USERS. It represents fatalaties amongst the entire population. The true question is how frequently do fatalities occur among MDMA users.

http://www.aemj.org/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/208

Of course alcohol is going to be implicated in the behavior of more people in the general population! The number of alcohol users are orders of magnitude higher than users of MDMA. Additionally, there is a problem with the statistic you cited. It includes all alcohol-RELATED fatalities, including the deaths of all people killed in auto accidents. It does not represent the number of deaths produced by alcohol toxicity.

"Alcohol-induced mortality

In 1999 a total of 19,171 persons died of alcohol-induced causes in the United States (table 21). The category ‘‘alcohol-induced causes’’ includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of alcohol but also accidental poisoning by alcohol. It excludes accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use as well as deaths due to fetal alcohol syndrome."

Alcohol toxicity = 68 deaths per 1,000,000.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/erratas/nvsr49_08p10.pdf

If we move away from the issue of toxic fatalities and towards that of the potential toxic effects MDMA might have amongst the living, I think this would be more relevant to those considering its use.


- Scott

 

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