Movie Review: The Case of the Frozen Addicts

(This was a long time ago...I watched the movie version of The Case of the Frozen Addicts at Berea College, before I'd read the book. Most of the movies, even documentaries, screened there were options on the checklist of cultural enrichment events to attend. This specific film was required for a class and, perhaps for that reason, the final section wasn't shown.) 

The part I wrote in 1991:

Several “frozen” drug addicts were admitted to hospitals in California after using a designer drug. The identity of the drug designer was known, but police had been unable to arrest him under existing laws. He had claimed that he was using acetone and ethyl alcohol to manufacture hand lotion or Sno-Cones. Since no other proof beyond the folly of these alleged experiments was found, the drug designer continued to manufacture new recreational drugs, not yet ruled illegal . Severe brain damage was found in the frozen addicts, producing lack of muscle control and inability to communicate.

The frozen addicts showed a pattern of brain damage also found in Parkinson’s Disease—a lack of dopamine in the substantia nigra of the brain. A similar pattern had been found in a student in Bethesda, Maryland, who had been trying to synthesize a substance called MPPP at home. The substance he produced destroyed his substantia nigra and produced symptoms like those of Parkinson’s Disease. MPPP was found to cause “freezing” effects in rats, but the “freezing” was only temporary. It was then hypothesized that the student had inadvertently made MPTP, which has no effect on rats. Traces of MPTP were found in analysis of the MPPP synthesis. The student had collected documents relevant to the manufacture of MPPP and MPTP. Research found that MPTP induces symptoms similar to Parkinson’s Disease in monkeys, though not in rats. Following these findings, the price of MPTP leaped from $11 to $9,000; a drug known to be deadly to humans even in small doses became much more valuable to drug users.

About one out of forty North Americans today may develop Parkinson’s Disease. Symptoms begin with muscle tremors and progress to paralysis caused by lack of dopamine in the brain. Experimental patients were given L-dopa to help replace dopamine in their brains. This was not an ideal solution; some patients had to take the drug every two or three hours, and some became more disabled by side effects including involuntary muscle movements and hallucinations.

Symptoms resembling Parkinson’s Disease appeared in monkeys and in humans who inhaled or even had skin contact with MPTP. However, the F.D.A. did not require that new drugs be tested on monkeys—only on rats—and MPTP had been distributed as a cure for Parkinson’s Disease.

The cause of Parkinson’s Disease remains uncertain. No genetic component for the disease has been found. Exposure to manganese can lead to Parkinson’s Disease, suggesting that the cause is environmental. All Parkinson’s disease patients show a depletion of cells in the substantia nigra of the brain. About 80% of these cells are dead when patients display symptoms. Some brain cells die naturally with old age; most patients are elderly. It is believed that, in patients who develop Parkinson’s Disease, additional cells have been destroyed by chemicals in the environment. These chemicals may come from conversion of other substances to something similar to MPTP as these unknown other substances are metabolized from the patients’ diet.

Researchers found that MPTP itself is harmless until it is metabolized, as it is in humans and monkeys but not in rats, into a chemical called MPP+. MPP+ has also been commercially marketed—as an herbicide called Cyperquat, a name influenced by its chemical similarity to another herbicide called Paraquat. In Quebec, a map of the incidence of Parkinson’s Disease was identical with a map of the use of these herbicides and of pulp and paper ills. It is possible that the MPTP-like substance that promotes Parkinson’s Disease is absorbed from foods and drink and/or from cigarettes.

Researchers in San Francisco found that the chemical that converts MPTP into MPP+ is the natural biochemical MAO (monoamine oxidase). Dopamine-receptor stimulants such as pargyline block this effect of MAO. MAO inhibitors such as deprenyl are sometimes used to slow the progress of Parkinson’s Disease, but are known to have undesirable side effects, especially in combinations with other medications or even foods.

Current research (as of 1991) has found that PET scans may help identify Parkinson’s Disease at an earlier stage, before symptoms develop. It is believed that either replacement of dopamine-producing cells, or use of MAO blockers, may be used to prevent the development of symptoms.

The doctor who first identified the source of the “freezing” effects in the frozen addicts is working on a “designer drug bill” to make it illegal to synthesize dangerous new drugs.

The California drug designer was arrested for possession of PCP, and has developed early symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

This documentary film moves at the pace of a popular movie, and contains enough drama and irony to appeal to anyone interested in neurochemical research. The suspected link between pesticide use, pollution, and Parkinson’s Disease suggests that a happier ending may someday be written...whenever North Americans are willing to put human life ahead of commercial convenience. Insecticides have in some cases helped humans survive long enough to get ahead of more immediate threats to human life, but since plants are easy to remove from places where humans don’t want them, and removing plants is in most cases merely a matter of convenience or potential profit, one thing Frozen Addicts may inspire viewers to do is stop using any kind of herbicides.

A follow-up note after I'd read the book: 

At the time of writing, author Oliver Sacks saw fetal tissue transplants as the most promising source of treatments for Parkinson's Disease. Christians might have told him that this hope was likely to be disappointed. Though fetal tissue is widely available, healthy fetal tissue is obtainable only by extreme violence, since healthy women do not willingly surrender healthy fetuses. Experiments showed no benefit that could justify even the use of voluntarily aborted fetal tissue in medicine.

Prevention still seems to be the best cure for Parkinson's Disease. We need to ban all outdoor spraying of any chemical more toxic than water.  Since cyperquat and paraquat don't kill enough humans fast enough to be useful in war, a ban on all production or use of these and any similar chemical would probably be a good idea.