After being placed at the bottom of list of dangerous substances, we're finding more and more bits on the drug Ecstasy, otherwise known as the "party pill."

Researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia found out from a study conducted on rats that Ecstasy actually increases the oxytocin level, thus making a person more sociable. "It's very characteristic behaviour. They lie next to each other and chill out," Iain McGregor, researcher, notes of the rates on E.

Oxytocin is a hormone that supposedly is responsible for helping couples bond, and even mothers to their babies. The rats were given amounts of Ecstasy equivalent to two to three tablets for a human adult's intake. That much drug, and you're sure to get high. Apparently, the drug switched on neurons in the hypothalamus, which contained oxytocin.

This would then probably explain and affirm the reports from those who have taken Ecstasy that they feel more sensual rather than sexual after taking it in. Particularly, the rat study ties in with the fact that there is a massive surge of oxytocin in males after experiencing an orgasm. "It could be that raising oxytocin levels put them in that sort of post-orgasmic state where they're actually not very good at performing sexually but they feel really good about the person they're with."

The team would now want to find out what are the effects of drug abuse on the oxytocin in the brain. You just can't be too happy. You'll be doped up.

Some of us think that boozing and smoking is A-okay as long as you don't do drugs, but apparently this is wrong. Alcohol and tobacco has been found to be more dangerous than two known drugs: marijuana and Ecstasy, among others.

In a recent study made by Britain's Bristol University Professor David Nutt and his colleagues, a classification of harmful substances was made. This list ranks the said substances according to the actual risks they pose to the society.

Heroin and cocaine made it to the top of the list, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. What is compelling about the list is that alcohol made it to the fifth place, tobacco landed on the ninth place, Cannabis was at the eleventh place and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.

The researchers made their study in the hope that tobacco and alcohol use will eventually be regulated, considering their harmful effects to people. Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all the visits to hospital emergency rooms.

The experts agree that criminalizing tobacco and alcohol will be a challenge. They hope that the study will be used by the government to review the penalties imposed by harmful substances to reflect their actual risks and damages caused.