Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

As we said when speaking of the city of Coimbra, there were certain parallelsbetween both samples. Here are two populations where the consumers are those withthe lowest frequency of use where the effects of ecstasy are evaluated more positively -possibly because by consuming less they and their friends have less problems. TheDutch sample is the one that uses less of other drugs such as cannabis, LSD, cocaineand heroin although more amphetamines are consumed, either combined with ecstasyor in isolation.8.4. LITERATURE REVIEW OF EVERY PARTICIPANT COUNTRY8.4.1. Results of the documentary research in FranceIn France, this phenomenon appears in 1990. The first clandestine raves andproblems with the authorities began in 1991. In spite of the augmentation of repressivemethods, raves increase, are commercialised at discos and continue being organised inparallel. The movement grows and involves thousands of young people.In 1996, the Minister of the Interior Department starts a tough repressive policy.However, the movement continues and reaches the youngest, young people sociallyintegrated, students, employees or individuals looking for a job, who only take ecstasyonce a week, when falling into trance on Saturday nights.When compared with other European countries, the French situation in theaddictions area is almost monopolised by the State and the specialists in drug addiction,since there is a general consensus that drug use causes damages.It is not easy to know how many individuals take ecstasy nowadays in France. Veryfew go to treatment centres. The number of pills collected by the police increases everyyear: 13.911 in 1992, 254.804 in 1994, 273.279 in 1995, more than 300.000 doses in1996 (The Interior Department Ministry, Central Office for the Illicit TrafficRepression.-O.C.T.R.I.S- drug use and traffic, statistics of the years 1998, 1991, 1992,1994, General situation of the National Police, Paris). Researchers calculate that onedose collected corresponds to ten doses already “absorbed”.L’OCTRIS states the strong expansion of this consumption, 1.122 requests made onthe occasion of raves, show an augmentation of 68,7% (Le Monde, 22nd of May, 1996).The association “Techno Plus” estimates that, approximately, a million of peoplehave tried ecstasy. More than half of the individuals who go to raves take ecstasy or/andLSD. That means there are 500.000 young individuals who usually or occasionally useecstasy, after data from “Observatoire Français des Drogues et Toxicomanies” (OFDT-March, 1997).It is a young population, most of ecstasy users (70%) are between 18 and 25 yearsold. On the contrary, the use of cannabis is negligible among adolescents (4%), surely129