Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

had not continued. The subgroup of amphetamine users was represented, above all, bycocaine users and to only a slightly less extent, by heroin users. The results of the studyshow that a high percentage of the individuals interviewed, opiate-addicts stated anoccasional use of ecstasy as an experiment or out of curiosity. However, among thecocaine users, the highest number were those who, having once tried ecstasy, continuedtaking it, a minimum of once a week.SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEYSAn interesting survey was made by Ravenna and Palmonari (1996) with theobjective of investigating the characteristics of certain behaviours of juveniles at riskrelated to sensation seeking. The objective was to demonstrate if the search for “gettinghigh” preceded and facilitated the excessive and destructive use of the greater numberof the psychoactive substances. The authors were concerned with investigating thesignificances that young people attribute to getting high, the eventual relationshipbetween the tendency to seek strong sensations and the use of psychoactive substances,the differences in the representation of oneself, users and non-users.To this effect, a questionnaire was used which required an average of 30 minutes tocomplete. The representations of oneself and of the “high” were studied by means ofthe following questions: “Who am I?”, “Who am I when I have taken drugs oralcohol?”, and 10 answers were provided to each one, and “Think about the word high”,and write the first five words or phrases that come to mind”. The answers to suchquestions were analysed and classified by means of three decoder grids. The orientationof the subjects in respect of strong sensation seeking was measured by a smaller versionof the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS form IV) by Zuckerman (1979). The 32 itemswhich comprise the scale are divisible into four subscales:1) Search for adventure and emotion (TAS).2) Search for experiences (ES).3) Disinhibition (DIS).4) Susceptibility to boredom (BS).Other questions were also included, aimed at investigating the degree of importanceattributed to the “high” (measured on a scale from 1 to 4), the frequency of “high”experiences in the preceding month, the frequency of visits to discos in the precedingyear. The answers to such questions as well as to those on sociological variables and onfamiliarity with various substances were used successively as independent variables inthe various statistical analyses.The questionnaire was applied to 117 male students and 103 female students, ondifferent courses at Bolonia University, aged between 18 and 30 years and characterisedby different degrees of familiarity with psychoactive substances; 15% had never triedthem; 23,2% only tobacco and alcohol; 40,5% tobacco and/ or alcohol and soft drugs;21,3% also hard drugs. With regard to the type of drug used, the individuals in the 3rd.and 4th. groups said that in the thirty days preceding the questionnaire, their use was as145