Researchers blame RTI for agony over Ecstasy.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

A year ago, researchers at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine reported that even light use of the recreational drug Ecstasy, popular for its ability to foster empathy among people, could cause lasting brain damage. The study was groundbreaking. It was controversial. It was wrong. In September, the research team issued an embarrassing retraction.

How did a study of Ecstasy end so miserably for one of the nation's most famous medical centers? The researchers blame a weak link in the supply chain: Their Ecstasy connection--Research Triangle Park-based Research Triangle Institute--dealt them speed instead.

After researchers published their original findings, they tried to reproduce their results but couldn't. They tested the drug they were using, which came from a different batch than that used in the original experiment. It turned out to be methylene-dioxymethamphetamine--MDMA--the scientific name for Ecstasy.

Then they noticed that the Ecstasy they thought they had used in the published study was ordered the same day as a batch of methamphetamine. Ten grams of each drug were processed by RTI and delivered to Johns Hopkins in the same package but in separate bottles bearing different labels. Suspecting a mix-up...