Being High on Drugs May Have Have Helped Attack Survivors

It's an intriguing finding, borne of tragedy. Researchers in Israel say attendees of a music festival who were high on drugs such as ecstasy when Hamas raided in 2023 appear to have recovered from the stress more easily, reports the BBC. The results of the study by scientists at Haifa University are currently being peer-reviewed ahead of publication. The outlet notes that it's believed to be the first such mass trauma event in which this kind of research was possible. About 3,500 mostly young adults were in attendance when Hamas militants stormed the festival, killing 360 and kidnapping dozens.

"We had people hiding under the bodies of their friends for hours while on LSD or MDMA," says researcher Roy Salomon. The latter is the formal name for ecstasy, also called molly. The scientists estimate that two-thirds of the attendees were under the influence of some kind of drug—but "MDMA, and especially MDMA that was not mixed with anything else, was the most protective," says Salomon. Researchers tracked 650 of the survivors and found that those on MDMA at the time of the attack were coping markedly better in the subsequent months, possibly because of hormones such as oxytocin triggered by the drug. (Read the full story.)