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The Use of Ecstasy at Raves
I waited in line for nearly an hour and a half. I finally reached the entrance and I was asked to raise my arms, while I was patted down and my pockets, socks and cigarettes were checked. I felt like I was about to meet the President, with the intense security. As I finally entered the club, the suspense began to rise. This was my first time at a rave party. I looked around and saw people dressed in colorful, bright clothing, holding glow sticks and bottles of water. The music was incredible: loud, energetic and throbbing with bass. The party was called "Adrenaline," and lasted until 8:00 a.m. People were dancing all around and the place was packed. It was extremely difficult to make a trip to the bathroom or attempt to buy a drink. My friends and I decided to check out the place before began our journey into the rave scene. Every room had a different D.J., which made this party particularly diverse. As we are walking through, at least ten different people, all males, asked me if I was looking for any pills. My answer was no, for all of the above, but to my amazement these people never gave up. I couldn't believe the risk the "ravers" were taking to make some cash. My curiosity began to get the best of me…. I am looking around and everyone is completely happy, smiling, hugging, kissing- it was unbelievable the amount of content in a club filled with about 5,000 plus people. I wanted to be apart of this trend and know the happiness that they knew. At one point a girl approached me, wearing a pink wig, bunny ears, tons of creative makeup and an outfit that was colorful and bright. I asked her if she was on "E" and she nodded without hesitation. I asked her, " How do you feel?...
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...ll the effects of MDMA on the human body. Still, rave enthusiasts claim that raves are still about the music and the dancing and that drugs aren't the driven force. Music or medication, the rave trend doesn't seem to be losing any steam and could go strongly throughout the millennium.
Bibliography:
1.) Cloud, John. "The Lure of Ecstasy." Time 5 June 2000: 27
2.) "E for Ecstasy" by Nicholas Saunders. http://www.ecstasy.org
3.) "Ecstasy" by Norman Swan. http://www.abc.net/au/quatum/poison/ecstasy/html
4.) Farley, Christopher John. "Rave New World." 5 June 2000: 34
5.) Randall, T. "Rave" scene, ecstasy use, leap Atlantic. Journal of the American Medical Association. 268: 1507 (1992)b.
6.) "The History of Ecstasy" by Karen Long. http://www.sano.arf.org/geninfo/ecstasy/html
7.) "The History of E." http://www.homestead.com/bongs/XTC.history.home
Raves are often thought of as a “religious experience” displaying the audience as a “dance tribe” causing these electronic dance music culture “as spiritualties of life” (St John 12). There is no denying that the rave consists of “cultures whose participants committed to an ethos most famously expressed as Peace, Love, Unity and Respect (PLUR)” (St John 3). These participants have reported life- changing experiences, transcendence, and even conveying anecdotes of “ascension and re- enchantment” (St John 3). According to Graham St. John, “ [the] rave exemplifies the cultural phenomenon of religion, particularly that which, Bastide regarded ‘instituant’ or ‘savage’ religion rather than the domesticated or ‘instituted’ forms associated with institutional religion,” (St. John 3). Essentially, the rave functions as a religious community but not in the traditional sense; the DJ is thought of as the shaman and the dance floor is the communita (St John 5). Additionally, both the “ecstatic” experiences and ritual framework of raves intensifies the sense of belonging and demonstrates communal characteristics. The ravers experience a reconnection endemic and is considered to be “tribal” by the participants (St. John 9-10). Furthermore, this tribal nature of the ravers allows them to experience a sense of connectedness and inner peace with themselves. When a raver described this feeling as stating, “The MDMA experience makes you perceive by a kind of intuition, the real essence of your being. It’s not something elaborated by your conscious or unconscious mind, it’s something you suddenly realize you know without any doubt. You know the truth because you have experienced it. Now that you know that you, me, everything is one, or God as you wi...
The History of Ecstasy is not as notorious as people make it out to be. According to About.com Mary Bellis she stated,” ecstasy is the common name given to the drug methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA). The history occurred through an simple accident by Mannish and Jacobsohn, two German Scientists working for Merk in 1912 as an intermediate to a vasoconstrictor known as hydrastinin. It was believed to be used as a weight loss drug and a medication that controlled bleeding, but was not heavily marketed, and the paten does not give description of purpose. Further on in 1927 Merck continue to perform experiments on MDMA and perform some animal experiments, noting that the substance had some similarities in structure and effects to adrenaline. US Military use ecstasy in the 1950-1960. The reason for use was under classification but researchers believed it was for non-lethal weapons or just plan interrogation tools.
Credibility material: Its intake results in adverse medical conditions that are further exalted by its addiction properties that ensure a continued intake of the substance. The drug can be abused through multiple means and is medically recorded to produce short-term joy, energy , and other effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. This ultimately results in numerous psychiatric and social problems; factors that played a major role in its illegalization after multiple and widespread cases of its effects were reported in the country during the 1900s. In addition to this, the drug results in immediate euphoric effect, a property which the National Institute of Drug Abuse (2010) attributes to be the root cause for its increased po...
Adams, Jill U. "A CLOSER LOOK; how Ecstasy Harms; the Drug, Popular at Raves, can make Users Feel
Schrof, Joannie M. "Pumped Up." U.S. News and World Report 1 June 1992: 54+. SIRS "Drugs", vol. 5, article 52.
The story starts with the initial, utopic discovery of Ecstasy and its boundary-lowering qualities, and ends, with varying degrees of speed, with the descent into polydrug abuse and depression.
Drugs and Behavior, Rebecca Schilit and Edith Lisansky Gomberg, Page 62, SAGE Publications, Inc.- 1991
Dutch studies grouped participants into three categories of users: moderate, heavy, and ex-users. Moderate use is classified as less than 50 tablets; heavy is more than 50 tablets; and ex-users were reportedly off ecstasy for at least one-year before the study. Users had to abstain from all drug use for 3 weeks before the study was conducted. The three groups were also categorized by gender and age. The study revealed that MAMA use might result in lowered levels in the density of serotonin transporters in the brain. It also suggests that the degree of those levels was partially dependent on sex. Moderate users of both male and female participants did not seem to lead to a large reduction in the production of serotonin.
Freismuth, M., Montgomery, T., Sitte, H., Steinkellner, T (2011). The ugly side of amphetamines: short- and long-term toxicity of 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy'), methamphetamine and d-amphetamine. Biology Chemistry, 392, 103-115. Doi:10.1515/BC.2011.016
MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, beans, rolls, or just plain X. This drug has a long history, which began almost 90 years ago. In 1912 Merck, a German pharmaceutical company, first synthesized MDMA (Erowid). MDMA was then patented in 1913 or maybe 1914 (patent #274.350) by the same German company supposedly to be sold as a diet pill (The Invention). The patent has no mention of any intended uses of the drug. There are other urban legends associated with Ecstasy, such as in 1953 the US Army tested MDMA as a possible truth serum, but there is no evidence for this (Saunders).
Extensive research has been done on this horrible drug and it very well should be for it is a true problem to America. The way that our people look at this drug is crucial to resolving this problem, because that is all it is a problem. A guy that I was best friends with back in high school recently got caught with 300 tabs, or pills, of Ecstasy in his car and will now probably go to jail for a long time. Don't you think that is a shame?
The increase in the dosage of Ecstasy is partially due to the popularity of raves. Raves are underground parties that are open for nearly twelve hours. As the rave scene expands across the country, the use and distribution of MDMA increases as well. Rave’s party scene has often been compared to as a religion. The DJ is the high priest of the ceremony, dancing is their meditation, and Ecstasy is their holy substance.
“Ecstasy”, a drug with many different opinions and views, is often viewed as a killer, which is a stretch of the truth. The drug is sometimes thought of as one of the worst things in the world, but also as the best. Health issues are a problem and there have been some deaths .The deaths though are no way near the number of alcohol or cigarette deaths. How could such a beautiful word be considered such a horrible thing . Ecstasy can kill, but you can die tomorrow by being hit by a car or getting shot, why not live your life to the fullest. Live everyday as if it were your last, but don’t be stupid about it. Ecstasy does not kill a person, that’s just the excuse they use for ruining their life or killing themselves.
In brief, while ecstasy at one point may have been a facilitator in the field of psychology between therapists and patients, it soon became a facilitator in society between recreational users and death. Ever since ecstasy was introduced to the curious public back in the 1960's, it has become a popular preference among drug addicts. Till this day, teenagers all over the world are being pressured into experimenting with MDMA leading them to a life controlled and regulated by not only ecstasy but other various drugs as well. It is actually quite interesting to see what lengths society will go to in order to attain and maintain a sense of happiness and ecstasy.
The altered states of consciousness produced by drugs presents an all-to-common phenomenon in today’s society. Whether the desired sensation comes in the form of energy, a means of relaxation, or pain reduction, many people go to great lengths and present their bodies to threatening conditions in order to achieve this euphoric “high.” Unfortunately, the use of these drugs very often comes with dangerous side effects that users must learn to manage with for the rest of their life. According to neuroscientists, our entire conscious existence bases itself off of the lighting-fast reactions occurring in our nervous system (Nichols, 2012). Therefore, changing these neurological reactions can permanently effect our conscious being (Blatter, 2012). The physical and neurological effects from the use and abuse of stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, organic solvents, and athletic performance enhancing drugs will be discussed in order to better comprehend why certain individuals expose themselves to such dangerous materials with seemingly no regard to the permanent consequences associated with such actions.