Ecstasy: the Drug that Makes You Happy, Once You Learn from the Other Dopeheads

Ecstasy is the drug that is most portrayed in dramatic CSI-type television shows. Lucy goes out with her friends. They search for a "rave". They take ecstasy along with glow sticks upon entering and begin to dance to the throbbing music. An hour later, Lucy can no longer see where she is going. The room is spinning, and it's not the strobe lights. The next lights the audience sees are those from an ambulance as Lucy is rolled out of the underground party on a stretcher. Her parents sob as a police officer explains the effects of the drug on their daughter and everyone is so sorry that such a terrible thing happened to such a good girl.

This research will attempt to find out among what groups is ecstasy deviant? Do the groups that use ecstasy define themselves as deviant? What is the significance of ecstasy to users? Three theories of social deviance will be used to portray the significance of ecstasy use in society: strain, differential association, and labeling. The question of what approach law makers should make to ecstasy use will also be examined. Is ecstasy normative, appropriate, or helpful in any situations? This research will not explain the health side effects of ecstasy except possibly in reference to labels of ecstasy users or the question of prohibition, decriminalization, or legalization.

A 2003 National Institute on Drug Abuse study found that 470,000 people in the U.S. age 12 and older used 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) within the past 30 days. This was a decrease in use of Adam, XTC, hug, beans, love drug, aka ecstasy from 2002. Sold in urban, suburban, rural areas, college campuses, cities and small towns, a single ecstasy pill can be purchased in the range of $12 to $15. These statistics are realistic stating that the use of this drug is not an epidemic, less than a million people used ecstasy in the entire United States within a month in 2003. This researcher personally only knows one person who has done X, and she died from overdose. It is becoming more and more advocated against in schools and young adults are just not taking the interest in it that they once did. In the 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, "tenth-graders showed significant changes in MDMA use and related attitudes from 2003 to 2004. They reported an increase (+3.0 percent) in perceived harmfulness of occasional MDMA use, and lifetime use decreased, from 5.4 percent to 4.3 percent. In addition, both 10^th and 12^th graders reported significant increases in their disapproval of trying MDMA once or twice over the same period. (1)"

This research will combine social learning and labeling theories of deviance to find that ecstasy use must be learned to be liked and that once a user obtains the label of "raver", they will continue to use. Information from national surveys on drug abuse, existing research on the Monitoring the Future program, and other studies on college ecstasy use will be examined. According to the NIDA, there is no specific treatment for ecstasy abuse. The only option available is cognitive behavioral interventions or drug abuse recovery support groups. Antidepressant medications might also be helpful with the depressive symptoms brought on by the abstinence of former ecstasy users (1). Further funding for the Monitoring the Future Program is highly recommended as is future research on ecstasy use among young adults 18 and older.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL DEVIANCE

Strain theory says that ecstasy use is caused by a tension in the user's life that makes him/her seek escape. Poor family life, stressful college life, insecurity in relationships, or just nervousness about starting one's adult life after high school could all cause one to use ecstasy according to strain theory. The goal of the user is to be comfortable in their status in life, not to be insecure, sad, lonely, or poor anymore. Their action is to use a mind-altering drug at raves, which makes them "happy" for several hours and creates orgasmic sensations with everything one touches. Ecstasy users are rebels because instead of getting a better job, learning to adjust to college life, or seeking relationship counseling, they use a drug that makes them forget about all of it. Users reject the "normative" means and instead do X. Psychiatrists and families of users tend to use this theory in defining the user. The reason users reject the means is often not known to family members or friends until something tragic happens to the user while taking X. In this theory, the user is deviant and is categorized and analyzed by doctors, family and friends.

Social learning is when using ecstasy is learned by other ecstasy users. Being "happy" at raves is an acquired good of those labeled deviant by society. Hardly any users describe their first experience with ecstasy as good. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 times before they "like" it. "It was my second experience of taking E. I took two and had a great time. But the next day when I was at home and trying to sleep I had all kinds of ridiculous thoughts like: the light bulb was some kind of demon that was possessing me and weird figures dancing round my room. It was really frightening at the time (3)." A user must learn how many pills at once to take, how to "bump" (take many pills after another) and how to avoid a bad trip. When these are done, the user will have the orgasmic trip that is described by his/her peers. Users most likely use this theory of deviance because they admit that they do not like ecstasy the first time they use it. They may see the act as deviant until they "get the hang of it."

Labeling theory gives ecstasy users a name that is stuck with them whether they use the drug once or habitually. A girl trying ecstasy once at a sorority party may experience a bad trip, get hysterical, go to the emergency room, and be labeled as a "raver" the next day in class. That label, now affixed to the one-time user, may affect her decision whether to use the drug again. Once defined, she might as well do what her peers expect her to. In this theory, the user is deviant according to her community and according to herself. She tried something, was labeled, and is now a user because that's what people know her as.

A combination of social learning and labeling theories defines an ecstasy user as one who learns to use the drug from peers and then keeps using it because of an image he/she has acquired as a "raver". Personal experience has shown me a girl who would normally not do drugs overdosed on ecstasy and died. This came after a move to a big city after high school. Starting college, a new job and being away from home in a big city affected this girl surely. New friends in the city affected her decisions, and probably showed her how to like the drug. The result was death, and that label will stay with the girl forever.

EXISTING RESEARCH

Sim, et al.'s study on ecstasy use among college students utilizes the CORE survey and found that ecstasy use has become one of the five most popular and widely available illicit drugs among students. Surprisingly it ranks close with tobacco use on college campuses. The study also says that those who initiate ecstasy may be marijuana users who tend to engage in risk-taking behaviors. (4) This corresponds positively with this research's analysis of ecstasy use by the combined theories of social learning and labeling. If one is known as a "pothead", a college student could go to that person in hopes of obtaining marijuana or some other drug. One could also learn how to like a drug by learning from an experienced drug user (the "potheads").

Yacoubian and Peters' study on the Monitoring the Future Program found that most users were white and tended to have used all other illicit drugs during the 12 months preceding the interview. They suggest that ecstasy use prevention programs should be targeted at this population rather than the mainstream of high school students. (2) The Monitoring the Future Research corresponds with this research in that those who are stereotyped as "ravers" on TV: rich, white, young adults whose only problem is that they are not "happy" with their lives, are those most likely to use the drug. They are labeled as a "rave attendee" and therefore targeted for more research and prevention tactics. This would probably push them more towards the drug as they are an outcast from their "mainstream high school population". Yacoubian and Peter also found that most "rave attendees" had used most or all other illicit drugs in the past year in which they were surveyed. This corresponds with social learning theory in that they learned to enjoy ecstasy probably in relation to how they learned to enjoy the other illicit drugs they had used.

Ecstasy has not been proven "helpful" in any health matter except maybe pain relief. It is only normative to "ravers" and only appropriate at raves.

THE FUTURE

How can ecstasy use stop being learned and labeled? School programs like Monitoring the Future must be funded and placed in high schools and colleges across the nation, without labeling ecstasy use. Those who use the drug should not be patronized or made to feel as if they have dug themselves a hole that is too large to get out of. Legislation to provide funding for school programs like Monitoring the Future must be enacted as most public schools cannot afford such things. Although it may seem pointless to mention, our society needs to look at ecstasy use through a different lens. It should not be labeled deviant as something bad kids do. It should instead be treated as a disease like alcoholism and given attention to the way it is learned.

Future studies on who teaches ecstasy use should be conducted. Many do not know of the problem until it turns serious, like our introductory case of Lucy. Her parents did not know that she was a "raver" until she raved too much. There should be research conducted on what kinds of people teach others to rave and how our lawmakers can eliminate this. Yacoubian and Peter proposed that marijuana user risk-takers probably taught college students to use ecstasy (2), but studies need to be done on who teaches high school students. Unexplored methods of research may be surveys in popular teen magazines. As a once-upon-a-time teen, this researcher knows that high school students get tired of going to drug prevention program after drug prevention program in the high school gym, and usually tuned out any speaker who tried to make learning prevention "fun". Researchers need to find better ways of obtaining this information, because a "raver" doesn't just find these underground parties by him/herself. Someone has to teach them, and that someone is faceless as of 2007.

(1) "NIDA InfoFacts: MDMA (Ecstasy)." (March 2005). http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/ecstasy.html.

(2) Yacoubian Jr., George S.and Peters, Ronald J..Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education (March 2005). 49 (1). 55-72. Retrieved from EBSCO.

(3) "DrugScope: Ecstasy." (August 2004). http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo/drugsearch/ds_results.asp?file=\wip\11\1\1\ecstasy.html.

(4) Sim, Tiffanie, et al. "Psychosocial Correlates of Recreation Ecstasy Use Among College Students." Journal of American College Health (July/August 2005). 54 (1). 25-29. Retrieved from EBSCO.