Amazing Retraction! Dr. George Ricaurte retracted his paper published in Science on Sept. 27, 2002. He originally claimed that MDMA caused severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates injected with a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA, and suggested that Ecstasy users could develop Parkinson’s. Dr. Ricaurte now reports that his research team administered methamphetamine instead of MDMA to his monkeys, a mistake which came to light after he failed to replicate his findings after the oral administration of MDMA of even higher doses of MDMA to additional monkeys. Dr. Ricaurte’s claims were challenged by MAPS in an exchange of letters in Science in June 6, 2003. Those letters, and a series of media articles about today’s retraction can be found here.