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Octopuses Get Strangely Cuddly On The Mood Drug Ecstasy

The drug makes the usually antisocial creatures much more interested in friendly contact with other octopuses. It's one more sign that the chemistry of social behavior has deep evolutionary roots.
Friend or foe? A California two-spot octopus (<em>Octopus bimaculoides</em>) gives observers the eye at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

The psychoactive drug known as ecstasy can make people feel extra loving toward others, and a study published Thursday suggests it has the same effect on octopuses.

Octopuses are almost entirely antisocial, except when they're mating, and scientists who study them have to house them separately so they don't kill or eat each other. However, octopuses given the drug known as (or ecstasy, E, Molly or a number of other slang terms) wanted to spend more time close to other octopuses and even hugged

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