We're picking up on an emerging trend. Hallucinogenic mushrooms are easing the symptoms of cancer survivors. Smog and pollution cause significantly more heart attacks than cocaine. And everyone's heard from some glassy-eyed Californian about the palliative effects of weed. The New Scientist adds ecstacy to the list today of drugs that might not actually be that bad for you. Has the scientific establishment been hijacked by a band of rogue ravers?

Apparently some researchers at this place called Harvard Medical School--yes, the famous one--came out with a study arguing that reports linking ecstacy use to memory loss and depression were flawed because they didn't take into account "rave behavior." Harvard's team found "no significant differences in cognitive performance between the two groups even when they compared non-users with heavy users of the drug," according to the New Scientist. The common denominator for both groups was "a history of all-night dancing."

You hear that? It may actually be dancing-induced sleep-deprivation and dehydration that are causing your memory loss. You might want to take that into account the next time you step on a dance floor--that is if you can even remember this, you crazy dance-fiend, you.

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Eli Rosenberg