The Other Press and it costs more.... Cocaine deadlier th by HUGH WESTUP Canadian Science News An experiment at Concord- ian University in Montreal indicates that cocaine is more dangerous than is widely be- lieved and is more harmful than heroin. The experiment was per- formed on two groups of lab- oratory rats, one of which was continually supplied with co- caine, the other with heroin. Each rat was able to secure doses of the drug simply by pressing down a lever in its cage, and within a couple of days most of the animals were habitual drug users—addicts. A short time later, a re- markable difference showed up between the two groups. The heroin-addicted rats re- mained in good health and returned to the lever for further doses at evenly- spaced intervals, like the beats of the metronome. However, the cocaine- addicted rats behaved errat- ically. ‘‘They would take lar- ger quantities of cocaine for several hours and_ they might not take any for a day,’’ says sychologist Dr. Michael - r th, one of the researchers. The eoke-addicted rats also neglected to groom them- selves and displayed ‘‘stereo- typed’’ actions. ‘’They would gnaw at the bottom of the cage over and over, or they would Yepeatedly bob their heads up and down, up and down,”’ Dr. Bozarth says. Some cocaine-addicted rats suffered convulsions similar in appearance to what we know as grand mal epileptic seizures. ‘‘The convulsions would last from 30 seconds to five minutes,’’ says Dr. Boz- arth. ‘‘Immediately after a seizure the rat would head straight back to the lever for a dose of cocaine.’’ Finally, there was a_ pro- nounced deterioration in the health of the coke-addicted rats: they lost weight and con- tracted infections, most often a bronchial malady marked by a chronic wheezing. By the end of two weeks, 60 per cent of the rats taking cocaine had died, while only 9 per cent of the rats on heroin were dead. After a month, 90 per cent of the cocaine group had died, compared to only 36 per cent of the heroin users. The difference between the surviving rats in the two groups after 30 days was like ‘‘night and day,’’ says Dr. Bozarth. Dr. Bozarth believes that the weight loss brought on by the cocaine was a_ contrib- uting factor in the rats’ deaths, though not the only | one. He notes that when rats ~ are put on a starvation_diet: they are able to survive long- er than the cocaine-addicted — rats, whose weight loss was at less-than-starvation levels. Dr. Bozarth suspects that some other effect of the drug brought on the deaths of the animals. ‘’Recent studies shows that cocaine affects the body’s blood clotting pro- cess,’ he says. ‘‘Perhaps the cocaine produces a blood clot Transexual salmon y HUGH WESTRUP reprinted from Canadian Science News Thousands of partially ster- ilized and transsexual salmon have been released into the Pacific Ocean by the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Senior scientist Dr. Edward Donaldson says the derpart- ment’s researchers are alter- ing the sexual nature of sal- mon in the hopes of produc- ing larger harvests and better tasting fish. The experiments are noth- ing if not ingenious. The transsexual salmon are fish that have undergone a sex change at a research station in West Vancouver, Dr. Don- aldson says. The sex change is carried out by keeping lyoung salmon in water laced with male hormones. The male hormones are ab- sorbed by young female sal- mon, interfering with their normal development and turning them into males. They look and act exactly like males, and they even have male sex organs that produce potent sperm. SNS), “Actually, sex just isn’t that important to me.” which travels to the heart and to have a--much, he says. ee ew heart attatk. ae Dr. Bozarth says the results ‘of his experiment should be heeded especially by those cocaine users who, like the fats, have an unlimited sup- ply of cocaine and are heavily dependent on the drug. Casual users of cocaine may not be in the same kind of danger, he says. Many people are casual users simply These transsexual female- to-male salmon are males in every respect, their genetic make-up, fixed before birth, remains female. The fish look like males, but their chromosomes are fe- male. The truly ingenious part of this experiment is that these false males. with the female genes produce sperm with female chromosomes. When this ‘female’ sperm fertilizes salmon eggs (always female), only female salmon are pro- duced. Dr. Donaldson says the purpose of the project is to increase the number of fe- male salmon, which will in turn increase the salmon pop- ulation. (A female salmon lays an average of 4,000 to 6,000 eggs.) The experiment is being carried out on the big Chinook, or King, salmon, except that. because cocaine costs so But now many. drug en- forcement officials are pre- dicting an immiment drop .in the price of cocaine, due to the expected maturation this year of an unusually large crop of coca plants, from which cocaine is derived. Dr. Bozarth expects that many more deaths from addiction to the drug will follow. He points out that deaths from which is relatively rare in B.C. In a second project, Dr. Donaldson and his colleagues gave a sterilization treatment to salmon which were releas- ed into the ocean in the springs of 1983 and ’84. A total of 75,000 coho slamon were treated before being put into the water. The purpose of the steriliz- ation is to produce more good-tasting salmon several years down the road. When young salmon first enter the ocean, they swim many miles away from land—some travel as far as the International Date Line—and live in the open ocean for a couple of years. During this time they grow bigger and juicier. When they start maturing, young salmon eventually move back to coastal waters, where they are caught by fishermen. Unfortunately, the same hormonal surges that an Heroine Dave Watson Photo cocaine addiction have al- ready jumped-by-400:per-cent in the last three years. Dr. Bozarth collaborated in this study with Dr. Roy Wise, another psychologist at Con- cordia University. Their re- search was funded by the Medical Research | Council, the Natural Sciences and En- gineering Research Council and the U.S. National Insti- tute on Drug Abuse. drive them back to land also darken their skin and cause their flesh to lose its colour and oil content, making it less desirable to eat. (The salmon one buys in the market is from fish that haven’t fully matured.) The scientists working with Dr. Donaldson gave the fish the sterilization treatment in the hope that when the sal- mon begin to mature they will have enough hormonal drive to return to coastal fishing waters, but not enough to undergo a significant change in their flesh. The scientists expect they will soon see whether their experiment was a success, as the salmon which were releas- ed in 1983 and ’84 are sched- uled shortly to return. ‘‘It’s a bit of a long shot; the salmon may just head out into the Pacific Ocean and keep on going, never to return,’’ Dr. Donaldson says.