Cultural Causes of Ecstasy Use

You hear about Molly everywhere these days. It seems to have become the staple drug of today’s music festival scenes and you can be sure it’s being referred to in at least one song from any top 40 list since 2012. Though the very name “Molly” is supposed to be short for molecule, and supposed to mean it is pure MDMA, its purity is starting to become somewhat of an issue. Some batches have been found to not have any MDMA in it at all. Sometimes these are batches of meth posing in disguise as Molly to inexperienced concertgoers who are none the wiser. With two people having died in the summer of 2013 at New York’s Electric Zoo music festival and four others hospitalized, we have to wonder if Molly might be one of the most insidious drugs to hit the scene for Generation Y.

There seems to be a flagrant correlation between dance music and MDMA use. Over the span of the last three decades, starting in the 80’s when this drug was popularly referred to as Ecstasy as opposed to Molly, whenever dance music seems to surge in popularity there is MDMA right along with it. It’s as if the two go hand in hand, a cultural pairing that is just as predictable as it is dangerous. Molly’s chemical make up has changed into whatever seems to be the most convenient way to make the most profit for dealers these days. It’s not always pure MDMA, though it’s very name is a type of false advertising strategy that says so. Maybe at one time it was pure MDMA, but that purity level has since plummeted by a long shot. Now it’s pretty relative, and dealers have little regard as to what they’re putting into a batch before they sell it. A lot of times, they’re priority is to put in whatever adulterants will increase the volume of this drug. A number of things have been found in what is supposedly pure MDMA (“Molly”). Sometimes it’s meth, sometimes caffeine, other times LSD has been found in the drug. Given that the general consensus is that this drug isn’t harmful and most young adults who take it have a nonchalant attitude about it, this poses a problem of magnitude.

People in the music festival scenes seem to be unjustifiably accepting of Ecstasy and what it can do. The drug itself seems to be a big part of this culture. Apparently per a majority of this common festival-goer scene if you aren’t “rolling” while dancing to the electronic dance music then you aren’t doing it right. The term rolling refers to being high on this drug. The high is often described as a huge wave of euphoric warmth, pleasure and energy. A lot of people say that the drug intensifies feelings of empathy and a strong sense of openness. The high is repeatedly reported as a very social drug. The combination of this drug’s psychedelic and simultaneously stimulant effects keeps teens and young adults coming back for more.

The Circumstantial Dangers of Ecstasy Use

The rising popularity of electronic dance music is the catalyst to a scene that is made up of these sweaty crowds of people dancing in the glow of strobe lights with alcohol in one hand and Molly in the other. This can be a recipe for hyperthermia, because not only is the environment increasingly hot with the body count and hours of dancing, but when people are high on this drug they tend to forget to drink enough water and are oblivious to the warning signs of overheating.

Another danger to using ecstasy is the risk of taking from a batch that contains harmful adulterants or a harmful interaction between adulterants. You never know just how your body is going to react and respond to a certain combination of these adulterants. Another aspect to this is that due to the fact that a lot of batches have low purity of MDMA, this can increase some user’s chances of overdosing. The reason for this is that if they think their usual MDMA purity is in fact higher than it actually is, because a drug dealer lead them to believe it, and then they go ahead and come across a batch with higher purity they might end up taking their usual amount and hence overdose. This makes it likely dangerous especially with inexperienced users but also with experienced users as well. It really only takes one bad pill or one instance of misjudging how many pills to take in order to lead someone into a corner like this.

The Lack Of Stigma

The lack of stigma with ecstasy is a huge problem while in the process of informing people on what this drug really does and how it can affect somebody, including the dangers of using it and the high risk involved. So few people are aware of the truth about this drug and this has a lot to do with the way “Molly” is portrayed in pop culture and current culture in general. It’s mentioned with a casual air in the lyrics of many popular songs and then this nonchalance in attitude is therefore spread amongst the scenes of people who absorb mainstream music. So now it’s two genres of music that seem to promote taking Molly: mainstream pop music and electronic dance music. This is compounded by the fact that electronic dance music is on its way to becoming very mainstream as well. The underground ambience to this particular crowd is becoming increasingly lost and this means that younger and younger people are becoming a part of this growing scene.

As with most street drugs, teens and younger people regard this drug with an approach that’s way too laid back for the risk involved in taking it. This is unfortunate that people aren’t conscientious because there are negative side effects involved with taking it. Some of these side effects include:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Confusion
  • Insomnia
  • Lack of appetite

These side effects can go on for months, sometimes longer. It really can take a toll on someone’s well-being, a fact that too many users are ignorant of. The unconscientious approach is getting out of hand in direct proportion to the heightened frequency of emergency room visits linked to this specific drug. It’s an unnerving statistic that has increased dramatically over the last ten years. Between 2005 and 2011 alone there was a 128 percent increase a related sub statistic of people under the age of 21. While this alarming situation has only persisted, campaigns designed to increase awareness on the dangers of using ecstasy have also intensified and for good reason.

By Robert O. Newman II, ICDAC, ICPS, CIP