Journal article
Ecstasy: commodity or disease?
Journal of psychoactive drugs, Vol.36(2), pp.253-264
06/2004
DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2004.10399736
PMID: 15369207
Abstract
This article evaluates past work on heroin and crack cocaine epidemics by comparing it with the increase in Ecstasy use in the late 1990s. First of all, the authors make the case that there was, in fact, a dramatic increase in Ecstasy use in the late 1990s. Following that is a review of the rise and fall of several different Ecstasy scenes beginning in the 1960s. The most recent rise, in the late 1990s, requires a broadening of the theory of epidemics to include longer historical waves of change, so we do that by reviewing work on post World War II trends in social disconnection and consumerism. We then shift to a marketing rather than a public health framework and look at the nature of the Ecstasy "product," both its good and bad characteristics. Finally, we describe the narrative mechanism, developed in our earlier work, that plausibly explains why use rose when it did, given the needs of the market. The article concludes by discussing the changes this case motivates for our theory, particularly in light of globalized and normalized drug use that at the moment appears to be the current context for illicit drug use.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Ecstasy: commodity or disease?
- Creators
- Michael Agar - Friends Social Research Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. magar@anth.umd.eduHeather Schacht Reisinger
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of psychoactive drugs, Vol.36(2), pp.253-264
- DOI
- 10.1080/02791072.2004.10399736
- PMID
- 15369207
- ISSN
- 0279-1072
- eISSN
- 2159-9777
- Grant note
- DA-10736 / NIDA NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2004
- Academic Unit
- Center for Social Science Innovation; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984094394902771
Metrics
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