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Want To Be A Father? A New Study Says You Should Stay Clean

by Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If you want to be a dad, it might be a good idea to clean up your act.

Male offspring suffer when a dad does cocaine, according to the finding of a new local study.

"Learning and memory deficits in the sons of cocaine using fathers," explains Dr. Chris Pierce, professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

He admits his research is in rats, but says they're smart, and simple memory exercises are normally easy for them unless the dad was using cocaine, then they can't remember at all.

Oddly, this affects only the male offspring, and that's been a theme in his research.

"Every single thing that we've looked at thus far, if we find a change, it's only in the males," said Pierce.

And that needs further study.

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