Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

This policy is being received very critically by certain sectors of society who say thatit is not producing results. According to the critics of official policy, the laws are sorepressive that even the introduction of any action to prevent the dangers in the use ofthis type of drugs at parties could lead to legal problems. In the words of Sueur (1996)“Those who are concerned by the subject may easily be accused and condemned forpresenting it from a favourable angle, most of all by the juridical-repressive arsenalranged against it”.In this same sense, the “Nouvel Observateur” Magazine (Bélier-Garcia, 1996) in anarticle on rave parties and synthetic drugs, censured the French policy as obsolete andinconsistent because, “sooner or later repression leads to a battle”, a reference to thesuccess of some drugs which have already won the battle by being sold as “clean, funand a tonic” and against which any repressive policy will be ineffective. “Nothingseems able to stop such a lucrative market and one which is so widespread, much lessthe inconsistencies of the repressive French policy”.Contradicting the government policy and faced by the growth in the use of syntheticdrugs, self-help associations, formed by users and some non-governmentalorganisations, such as Techno Plus and Médicins du Monde respectively, have taken theinitiative in the field of harm minimisation. As Sueur sees it, the public authoritiesallowed these non-governmental organisations to act because, in this way, the questionof attending to users was solved, without their carrying out any measure which couldcompromise them. At the present time, the official strategy is to cooperate with theseassociations but, really, only in isolated cases and not as a general policy.SPAINIn Spain, the use of ecstasy follows the same upward trend as in the countries coveredup to now although the rave party is not necessarily the scenario. In fact, parties of thistype are not being held in Spain with the same frequency or on the same scale as in otherCentral European countries. Certainly, the abundance of discos and other nightlifeestablishments and the permissiveness inherent in the Spanish night-time opening hoursdo not make such parties so necessary or so profitable. Pop groups or the latest singersare also a hit with young people.As for prevention, there are numerous works published by professionals in the fieldwhich indicate the necessity of adapting the programmes and campaigns to thecharacteristics of synthetic drug use. From what we can see in the documents, suchadaptation means the introduction of risks prevention strategies, on the one hand, andmaking use of communication channels which allow access to the locales where thistype of drug is used, on the other.Facing the new use of drugs, one of those responsible for the Regional Plan onDrugs in Madrid raised the necessity of developing secondary prevention in addition tothe primary prevention being undertaken up to now. Referring to the new use patternsand user typology, he said “All this makes us ask if we should begin to produce196