Pereira buying Ecstasy

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Pereira buying Ecstasy

Fifty-two subjects of both genders who had been using ecstasy frequently and recently were interviewed. The instrument was a self-reported and anonymous questionnaire. Among the interviewed users, Ecstasy pills were mainly purchased from friends or acquaintances in order to favor a dancing mood in those places. Most subjects used ecstasy associated to other psychoactive drugs The effects attributed to ecstasy were mainly positive. The assessment of the use of ecstasy as positive also agrees with the findings of the literature. Ecstasy; N-methyl-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; Central nervous system stimulants; Hallucinogens; Psychotropic drugs; Snowball; Drug abuse. E-mail: stella cachola. Keywords: Ecstasy. Central nervous system stimulants. Psychotropic drugs. Drug abuse. Estimulantes do sistema nervoso central. Abuso de drogas. MDMA n-methyl-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine , also known as ecstasy, is a psychoactive drug used for leisure described as having stimulating and hallucinatory effects. These effects stem from its action in the central nervous system, raising extracellular serotonin and dopamine levels. Although there are indications that the chronic use of MDMA damages serotonergic neurons, methodological limitations in the studies already performed do not allow a definite conclusion about its central toxicity in humans. Research carried out in the US and Europe indicate that the consumption of ecstasy is widespread and increasing. Surveys in Europe in found a life-time prevalence from 0. There is a total lack of Brazilian epidemiological data about the consumption of ecstasy and there are no known publications about its use pattern in any city of Brazil up to now. MDMA was synthesized and patented by the Merck laboratory in Germany in , without a definition of its therapeutical finality. Decades later, in the 70's, its psychotherapeutical potential had been suggested in the US and the drug started being prescribed in order to favor the alliance with the patient, to increase self-esteem and to favor insights. Little by little MDMA started being consumed for leisure and in it was declared illegal in the US for all kinds of use. In Europe the consumption of ecstasy has been always illegal and its diffusion started after for leisure purposes, mainly related to rave parties and electronic music. At that time, rave parties were performed in London's port warehouses, in which hundreds of youngsters paid a ticket to dance all night at the sound of electronic music, frequently using drugs, mainly ecstasy. These parties soon conquered more adherents and spread all around the world. They used to occur every two or three months and had fewer and less heterogeneous frequenters than nowadays. They last from fourteen to eighteen hours, the electronic music is uninterrupted, fluorescent panels decorate the setting and they are lightened by black, colored, stroboscopic, and laser lights and mirror globes. The several dancing tracks are directed by DJs who have the highest status in these parties. The pills, mainly originated from the Netherlands, were resold to a selected group of people in night clubs. Being an illegal drug, ecstasy pills are not subjected to any kind of toxicological control. They can thus contain a great variety of substances, including or not MDMA. This is a factor directly linked to ecstasy's toxic potential, which is potentiated by the fact that subjects often make use of it in combination with other drugs. Although it is not possible to know exactly each pill's content, users have the habit of seeking information about its effects and composition with people who had already used a certain 'type' of ecstasy. People who supply ecstasy usually inform customers about the composition of their product; offering for example a choice between pills 'which contain mostly MDMA and those 'mixed with amphetamine''. The popularity and price of the different pills, identified by their color and print drawing, vary according to the produced effects as divulged by their users. The effects of MDMA begin nearly twenty minutes after the pill intake and last from four to eight hours. Although the uncertainty about the pill's composition hampers the interpretation of the effects reported by users, several studies on the effects provoked by ecstasy present similar results. Several unpleasant effects are also pointed out, almost always physical, such as dry mouth and tachycardia. The effects 24 hours after the intake are described as having a more negative connotation, both physically e. Although MDMA is deemed a safe drug, that is, one that does not represent a physical danger, there have been some reports of adverse reactions and deaths related to its consumption. External conditions normally associated to the use of ecstasy, such as intense physical exercise in a hot environment and the lack of hydration, remarkably increase the risk of hyperthermia that may lead to death. Data were collected from June to August As the participants were considerably heterogeneous regarding the use of ecstasy, we adopted as inclusion criteria for our analysis: 1 having used ecstasy more than 10 times in lifetime, 2 having used ecstasy at least once in the prior month. Subjects who had used a psychoactive drug, except for tobacco, for at least 12 hours prior to the interview were not included. At the end of the procedure subjects had been contacted, out of which 52 met the inclusion criteria and are herein called habitual users, therefore defined as subjects who used ecstasy more than ten times in their lifetime and at least once in the prior month. From the remaining subjects, 56 had used ecstasy but did not meet frequency criterion a , 76 had never used the drug, three did not meet the criterion of abstinence in the 12 hours prior to the interview and five refused to participate. A comparison between the 76 non-users described above and the users described in our study will be done in other study. We developed a self-reported questionnaire based on two other questionnaires, one of them applied in five European countries and the other one in Australia. The item about the effects of ecstasy was translated from the questionnaire applied in Australia 10 and listed the 83 possible effects requesting: 'From the list below mark the ones that explain how do you feel during the effect of ecstasy' the instrument is available under request. Participants were recruited through the snowball technique, firstly described and formalized by Goodman in , as it was particularly suited for the study of social phenomena in areas of illegality and for the exploration of scarcely known populations. Application of questionnaires: the author of this study personally applied the questionnaire to all participants. Subjects were invited to participate in the study and in case they agreed, they had their secrecy and anonymity assured and received the address and telephone of the institution and of the researcher in charge. Firstly we contacted the initial subjects, who were six subjects already known or indicated by the researcher's acquaintances, with the following characteristics: 'people who frequently visit an environment in which the use of ecstasy is not unusual or uncommon'. In order to assure the heterogeneity of the sample, initial subjects frequented different places and belonged to different groups, social classes, age ranges and sexual options. These subjects were contacted, informed about the objectives of the study and were invited to participate. Each subject was asked to indicate other people sharing the same features. The initial contact with the next subjects, indicated by initial subjects, was performed either by phone or personally in public settings. The researcher introduced herself to the subjects contacted by phone as a psychologist who was conducting a survey about the use of drugs, making clear who had given the subject's name. If consent to participate was given, the subject was informed that the approximate time to answer the questionnaire was 40 minutes and was asked to choose the more suitable time and place and to avoid any psychoactive substance except for tobacco for at least the 12 hours prior to the interview. In the second kind of contact, subjects were contacted in public settings, indicated by already interviewed subjects, who had volunteered to accompany the researcher to places where they introduced persons with the appropriate profile to participate in the survey. Data were collected in those places. The mean age of interviewed subjects was 24 years, ranging from 15 to 37 years. Most of them were single Table 1 presents data regarding patterns of ecstasy use by participants. Most of them had tried ecstasy between ages 18 and 22, two or three years before the interview. Regarding these patterns, most of them stated taking ecstasy usually only on weekends or on holidays In decreasing order, users declared to take the drug in rave parties, in dancing clubs, in parties, at home, in bars and at the streets. Most of them In decreasing order, users reported they had bought ecstasy in rave parties, parties, bars or dancing clubs and in other places such as at friends' or dealer's houses. Table 2 shows data related to the frequency of use of ecstasy. Of note, most users declared keeping their use of ecstasy constant in the last month and in the three months before the interview. As previously mentioned, users as a rule sought information about the quality of the pill they would take. Table 3 shows data about attitudes towards the use of ecstasy and its association with other drugs. Regarding the reasons to use it, dancing was by far the main reason stated by users. An important information is that most participants had the habit of taking other drugs while ecstasy was still having its effect. Among these drugs, Cannabis and tobacco are the most used ones, followed by LSD, alcohol and cocaine, in this order. Regarding the question ' For you, the effects of ecstasy are most of times: positive, positive and negative, or negative ', No subject answered the alternative ' negative '. We performed an additional analysis of the answers to this question. Subjects were divided in two groups: those who stated that the effects were mostly 'positive' and those who said they were mostly 'positive and negative'. Frequencies in which the 83 effects were pointed out in the two groups were then compared. Of note, half of these effects are identical in both samples. They are: 'open mind', 'closer to the others', 'happy', 'at ease', 'unconcerned'. It was an exploratory study without epidemiological finalities. We may reasonably suppose that there are other profiles of users of ecstasy besides those of the current sample. The age range of the surveyed ecstasy users, such as the age in which they firstly tried it, is consistent with the known fact that the use of ecstasy is associated to the youth culture in several parts of the world. The circumstantial use patterns of ecstasy found in our research are similar to those described by researches in Europe 2 and in Sidney. The pills are usually bought from friends, in these same places. These patterns of acquisition and use of ecstasy, closely related to leisure and social activities, suggest that in certain settings its use is accepted, if not stimulated. The acknowledgment that users select the setting and the day of the week to take ecstasy denotes some degree of self-control over the use and is compatible withthe fact that dependence of ecstasy has rarely been reported up to now. Crack users rapidly develop dependence, link themselves to criminals, cut their social and family relationships and start neglecting their basic needs. A comparison of frequency of use in the month prior to the interview and in the three months before it showed that it remained constant for most users. Among those who did not keep a constant frequency, the number of subjects who reported an increase in their consumption was equivalent to those who reported a decrease of it. This oscillation is foreseeable in a phenomenon, which apparently is so linked to the circumstances of use. Ecstasy's use patterns, that is, preferred place, company and day of the week, are coherent with the main reasons pointed out for the use of the drug: dancing, relaxing, stimulating the senses, feeling happier, felling better with other people. A reason related to psychical discomfort appears only in the sixth place: 'to escape from reality or to forget problems'. It is also interesting to observe that less than one fifth of the participants pointed out 'to have sex' as a reason for consumption, in spite of the widespread notion that ecstasy is an aphrodisiac drug, suggested even by its name. Additionally, still regarding use patterns, the high frequency of use of ecstasy in combination with other drugs should be a matter of concern as the combination of psychoactive drugs obviously increases the risk of toxic reactions. Only a minority of users does not associate ecstasy to other psychoactive drugs. The drug most frequently associated to ecstasy is Cannabis , in different modalities, including charras , skunk and hashish. Tobacco, LSD, alcohol and cocaine or crack, in that order, are also largely used. Users in Europe also frequently associate ecstasy and other drugs, although in a distinct and variable order according to the city. Of note, the association of ecstasy with alcohol is considerably more common in four out of the five surveyed European cities from 70 to Several studies concluded that users of ecstasy were polyusers 18, , what seems to be also characteristic of the subjects interviewed in this research. As the analyzed sample was composed only by habitual users of ecstasy, we expected that most of them would report mostly 'positive' effects and that the alternative 'negative' would not be chosen, what actually happened. Further, we verified that there was congruency between the qualitative assignments of all the effects of ecstasy and the effects actually chosen from the given list. Therefore, subjects who declared that the effect of ecstasy was mostly 'positive' chose, from the effect list, those exclusively pleasant. Subjects who declared that the effect was, as a whole, 'positive and negative' selected from the list some unpleasant physical effects such as ' dry mouth ', ' tachycardia ' and ' waves of heat and cold ', besides the pleasant effects. This congruency gives further credibility to the answers about the effects of ecstasy. Anyway, of note that, as a rule, the effects were described as so agreeable. The results of the survey in five European cities were similar, although in some of them a percentage of the users of ecstasy had considered that the effects were mostly ' negative ' 2. This discrepancy is probably a consequence of the difference in the samples, as in Europe both experimental and former users were included. As most users associate other drugs with ecstasy, we should say that it is impossible to conclude if the mentioned effects are due to ecstasy itself or to the association of drugs. That was also a limitation of the study performed in Sidney, from which we took a list of effects and against which we made a comparison. There are differences and similarities regarding the most frequently mentioned effects in both surveys, for which some explanations can be suggested. There is also the possibility of a cultural distortion causing biases in meaning comprehension, what is inherent to the use of verbal techniques. Anyway, results in both countries seem to indicate that the drug is at least very similar and in both cases inductive of mainly positive effects. Further studies might include investigation of the effects of ecstasy in the days after use, an aspect not dealt with in the current study, as well as of occasional neuropsychological effects caused by its chronic use. Lastly, if we examine the social conditions, the life style, the main reasons for the use of ecstasy and the most frequently reported effects by interviewed users, it is reasonable to assume that when these subjects take it they do not aim at escaping from an unsatisfactory, punitive or frustrating reality. It seems that the use of ecstasy is, for this population, simply a hedonist search, aiming at intensifying the pleasure of listening to music and dancing with friends, in a desire to enjoy themselves the most possible during the weekend. It could also be speculated about how much would ecstasy interfere in the process of psychosocial development. But for teenagers or youngsters living comfortably the only disadvantage resulting from the use of ecstasy may be the day-after depression reported by several researchers. Preventive strategies have also to envisage the training of health professionals for emergency medical interventions in cases of intoxication. Furthermore, it would be valuable a chemical analysis of the most used pills in the cities where the substance is used. Although MDMA has been a proscribed drug in the US since , epidemiological studies have indicated an increase in its use. For them Harm Reduction, a widely used strategy of action in Europe supported by several participants in a recent meeting promoted by NIDA, 27 seems to be an interesting and valid alternative to be assessed in Brazil. This program aims at controlling or decreasing the damage caused by the use of drugs, assuming that it the existence of a completely drug-free society is utopic. An example of the action of this program in the case of ecstasy would supplying users and health professionals with information about the effects, long-term consequences, possibility of adulteration of the pill and adequate procedures in case of overdose. Another example would be legally requiring that in places in which the use of ecstasy is common the risks of intoxication be minimized, assuring, for example, enough ventilation and free water supply. Cohen RS. Subjective reports on the effects of the MDMA 'ecstasy' experience in humans. Open menu Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry. Open menu. Abstract Resumo English Resumo Portuguese. Text EN Text English. Introduction MDMA n-methyl-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine , also known as ecstasy, is a psychoactive drug used for leisure described as having stimulating and hallucinatory effects. Methods Sample Data were collected from June to August Instrument We developed a self-reported questionnaire based on two other questionnaires, one of them applied in five European countries and the other one in Australia. Procedure Participants were recruited through the snowball technique, firstly described and formalized by Goodman in , as it was particularly suited for the study of social phenomena in areas of illegality and for the exploration of scarcely known populations. Results The mean age of interviewed subjects was 24 years, ranging from 15 to 37 years. Kish SJ. How strong is the evidence that brain serotonin neurons are damaged in human users of ecstasy? Pharmacol Biochem Behav ;71 4 Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe. Valencia: Martin impressores, S. Alcohol and drug use in UK university students. Lancet ; Increasing MDMA use among college students: results of a national survey. J Adolesc Health ;30 1 Rev Panam Salud Publica ;8 6 Silva A. Palomino E. Neuropsychopharmacol ;19 4 Br J Addict ;87 8 Addict ;92 7 Parrott AC, Lasky J. Psychopharmacology Berl ; 3 Gore SM. Fatal uncertainty: death-rate from use of ecstasy or heroin. Pham JV, Puzantian T. Ecstasy: dangers and controversies. Pharmacotherapy ;21 12 Temporal and social contexts of heroin-using populations. An illustration of the snowball sampling technique. J Nerv Ment Dis ; 9 MDMA 'ecstasy' and other 'club drugs'. The new epidemic. Pediatr Clin N Am ;49 2 Night life in Europe and recreative drug use. Valencia: Martin impressores S. Is the use of ecstasy and hallucinogens increasing? Results from a community study. Eur Addict Res ;4 Crack use in Sao Paulo. Subst Use Misuse ;31 5 MDMA 'ecstasy' consumption in the context of polydrug abuse: a report on patients. Drug Alcohol Depend ;52 1 Patterns of drug use among young men in Piedmont Italy. Drug Alcohol Depend ;64 3 Forsyth AJ. Places and patterns of drug use in the Scottish dance scene. Addict ;91 4 Bailly D. Tables 5. Stay informed of issues for this journal through your RSS reader. PDF English. Google Google Scholar.

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Pereira buying Ecstasy

My name is Gregory and I am an addict, grateful to be in recovery since May 23, I became a gang member, drug dealer and thief. Crime, drugs and poverty had a grip on me and many of my family members. From the s through the s, my Dad and Uncle sold drugs. My mom became addicted to heroin, crack and alcohol and eventually, she died of AIDS-related complications. Since I was11 years old, I lived mostly on the streets. By the age of 14, just to survive, I became a weed, angel dust and LSD dealer and later I was a heroin and cocaine dealer. I made a lot of money, but as a dealer my family never said to not get high on your own merchandise. It was more like 'get high on the best merchandise. After a few years, a few arrests, prison and the spending all my money on attorneys, I soon became chronically-addicted, homeless and destitute. I was buying drugs from the same people who I used to employ. Over the years, I have been to 17 detox programs and joined a methadone maintenance program for 10 years. I even smoked crack and shot heroin in the bathrooms of three methadone programs. I also joined several harm reduction programs to get clean needles. I also participated in research studies to get drugs. I became both suicidal and homicidal. At that point, I signed up for another research study and I asked the harm reduction program to enroll me in a therapeutic community TC. Then I prayed and asked God to choose. I went into a TC for two and a half years. On my Mom's birthday I got off of methadone. I used the principles that I learned and went to work in the substance use and abuse fields. Over the years, I have managed several programs and started a consulting business on the side. I received much training and used it as a way to help me commit myself to long-term education. I also obtained a bachelor's degree and then a master' degree in public administration. I opened my own business three years ago. I got married and many of my groomsmen and guests were individuals in recovery. I own a home and my recovery friends come over for BBQs. Life still has its ups and downs, but it is an extraordinary life because of the recovery process. So just for today I am recovery. Comments or Questions? Send us an email: \[email protected\]. Privacy Policy Disclaimer Accessibility. My story begins here May 23, My name is Gregory and I am an addict, grateful to be in recovery since May 23, My name is Gregory. This is my story. What's Your Story? Gregory Pereira My story begins here

Pereira buying Ecstasy