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July 27th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) — Street drugs called “bath
salts” have a similar effect in the brain as cocaine and carry the same
risk for abuse and addiction, a new study in mice has found.
Bath salts are synthetic stimulants that have become increasingly
popular among recreational drug users in recent years. (The substances
have nothing to do with the crystals you might sprinkle in a bathtub.)
In the new study of adult mice, University of North Carolina
researchers found evidence that the effects of the bath salt mephedrone on
the brain’s reward circuits are comparable to similar doses of
cocaine.
The mice were implanted with brain-stimulating electrodes and trained
to run on a wheel in order to give themselves a reward, which was direct
stimulation of the brain pathways involved in reward perception.
The technique, called “intracranial self-stimulation” has been used in
experiments since the 1950s, according to researchers. Prior intracranial
self-stimulation studies have shown that one of the characteristics of
addictive drugs is to make self-stimulation more pleasurable.
The researchers measured the rodents’ wheel spinning efforts before,
during and after they were given various doses of cocaine or mephedrone.
Like cocaine, mephedrone made intracranial self-stimulation more rewarding
for the mice.
The study was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming
print issue of the journal Behavioural Brain Research.
The findings support the idea that mephedrone and other bath salts may
have a significant addiction risk, said study leader Dr. C.J. Malanga, an
associate professor of neurology, pediatrics and psychology at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
“The effects of mephedrone on the brain’s reward circuits are
comparable to similar doses of cocaine,” Malanga said in a university news
release. “As expected our research shows that mephedrone likely has
significant abuse liability.”
On July 9, President Barack Obama signed a law banning bath salts
containing mephedrone or another stimulant, MDPV, in the United
States.
Experts caution that while animal studies may be useful, they often
don’t reproduce the same results in humans.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about bath salts.
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