Orzack added that the research measures the abuse potential of new drugs by comparing responses gained from testing them to results gathered from administering drugs already known to be abused.

Each testing session lasted four and a half hours. The subjects were kept about two hours longer to ensure that they were well enough to ensure that they were well enough to go home and were then sent home by taxi.

Over the weeks of the tests, participants said. McLean researchers were careful to follow up.

"They seem to be really concerned about how the drug is affecting you in the long run," said one student involved in the study. "They always ask questions like, 'Have you been keeping up your personal appearance lately?'"

Confidentiality is another concern of McLean Hospital, as students are admitting to having taken drugs illegally by participating in the institution's research.

Some participants have other reasons for wanting to keep secret the nature of their employment. "My mother thinks I have a regular job," said one student involved in the research. "I think she might get worried if she knew what I was doing."

As for the pizza and Trivial Pursuit, establishing a recreational setting for the drug research is something. Orzack and her collages have done in all the tests done over the past six years. She said, however, that the results of their tests have been almost the same as the results of studies conducted in non-recreational settings.

The Harvard students who took part in the most recent test enjoyed the "recreational" part of their job. "I would hate it if they just put your in a hospital room by yourself and gave you drugs," said one participant. "I really like the people I do the testing with and we have a fun time."

Another student seconded that opinion, saying. "We're all planning on getting together and having a little party of our own sometime."