Modified ecstasy 'attacks blood cancers' | Hacker News Reader

Modified ecstasy 'attacks blood cancers'

bbc.co.uk

54 pointsColinWright17 comments

Someone finally realized we can have our medicine and have fun too. One day we will not have to wade through three pages of possible side effects to get the treatment we need. Instead, it may have side benefits.

Do you really think that common recreational drugs have no side effects?

No, that's not what I was saying. I'm saying that the future of drugs should include positive side effects, benefits. Right now anything positive in a drug is considered recreational and avoided completely. Hence the perfect drug in this day and age eliminates disease but is otherwise completely neutral.

Kind of strange that they only used the street name exclusively when referring to the drug.

It's MDMA, BBC.

It's the BBC. You have to speak appropriately for your audience.

Not to say the BBC's audience is a bunch of ecstasy addicts, but they aren't all chemistry PhD's either. Most people know drugs by their street name.

Although my daughter and her friends call it MDMA - ecstasy is what old people from the 20th century (like me) call it.

MDMA usually means in pure/cystal form, ecstasy usually in pills.

They talk about MDMA tablets though. I guess it's just each generation putting a stamp on it - like I would say "draw" instead of "pot"

Actually, at least in the US and UK, "ecstasy" usually refers to pills of MDMA which have been cut with some amount (50% or so) of meth or a similar upper. Pure MDMA (much safer) is more commonly referred to as molly to avoid confusion. The two formulations are very different.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.

That sounds like a nod to Mitch Hedburg's line about fixing one of his jokes...

I really would appreciate if they'd SHOW what those modifications look like.

Alternatively, link to the study(ies) and let me see for myself.

PubMed is your friend:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21850491

Thank you.

How will the Daily Mail react: "Ecstasy Cures Cancer" headline seems unlikely.

WHAT WOULD DIANA THINK? BOFFINS ANNOUNCE NEW CANCER DRUG THAT CAN BE ABUSED BY RAVE YOBS!

"Asylum Seekers" will be involved somewhere.

First line:

"Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers, according to scientists."

Role. Haha.

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