Question:
I haven't ever done this before, I was wondering about Ecstacy and Acid, I wanted to know if they screw your body up internally, ie. organs and stuff. This is from the perspective of just taking it a couple of times, not on a regular basis. Is it also true that Ecstacy trashes brain cells?

Answer: Actually, Opiates are not show to cause any organic damage whatsoever (except for the synthetic - Demerol). Used in non-lethal doses with healthy administration and nutrition, they do not appear to degenerate one's health, or decrease life expectancy. To the countrary, users of opium in opium producing countries exhibit excellent health and longevity.

Wanna talk brain cell destruction, talk alchohol. Premature aging or decreased life expectancy, look no further than the cigarette rack. If everyone were to switch to pure H with clean needles now, and give up the currently legal vices, hospital beds would go unfilled at a rate unacceptable to the AMA.

If what you mean by "brain damage" is cell death, then there really aren't any poupular drugs of abuse that do this -- with the exception of alcohol in _large doses_ over a _long period of time_, and inhalants. Sure, if you OD on coke and have a stroke, or OD on heroin to the point where oyour brain is deprived of oxygen, you'll lose some cells, but that's not due to the neurotoxicity of the drug.

If what you mean by "brain damage" is more subtle alteration of nervous tissue, then virtually all of these drugs cause brain damage. Reductions/increases in numbers of receptors, increases/decreases in the size of cells -- neurons adapt to exposure to drugs in numerous ways. Most of these processes are reversible, some may not be.

The latter definition is meaningless, however, if those alterations do not result in functional deficits. It's not really "damage" unless it hampers your ability to _do_ something.

But if you want to kill brain cells, there just aren't many drugs that are going to oblige.