Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

general and only some of them were directed solely at the prevention of ecstasy use orsolely at the dangers of its use, even if ecstasy does appear, by name, in all of them asan example or product to be emphasised among this type of substance. There is,therefore, no specific intervention for ecstasy. In every case, they are interventionsaimed specifically at synthetic drugs use.Reduction in demand or harm minimisation.The single objective of half of the campaigns which we looked at was reduction inthe demand for synthetic drugs. To give some examples; the two campaigns which werecarried out in the Balearic Islands (Don’t lose out on life at high speed and Ecstasy, adrug with the body of an angel and the soul of a devil), three of the French campaigns(the MILDT campaign, Ecstasy. Danger by the Paris City Council and Ecstasy; breaksup the party by the group of media professionals), the Swiss campaign Ecstasy is notinnocent and the House campaign in Holland. The objective of the two Baleariccampaigns and the Swiss one was to dissuade young people from using synthetic drug,giving them information on the dangers involved and refuting the messages which makeit appear that such substances pose no danger to health. In common with these, theFrench campaigns shared the objective of giving information on the dangers of ecstasyand added the warning that using this drug is against the law.The Dutch Naar House campaign was radically different as it did not focus on theprevention of use from a health point of view but on the moral aspects and on life stylewith an underlying religious message. Its objective was that young people shoulddistance themselves from rave parties not merely from drug use and look for a life styleand entertainment more in step with religious values.We found that other campaigns, among them the French campaign by theTechnoPlus Association, the AIDES Association, Project Europe in Manchester,Amsterdam and Hamburg or the British Chill Out and London Dance Safety campaignstook harm minimisation as their only objective. The materials used were aimed atsynthetic drug users in recreational environments and informed them of the dangers andthe means of avoiding them. There was no message in the leaflets transmitting therecommendations not to use these substances.We found other campaigns where the objective combines reduction in demand andharm minimisation such as the ones in Catalonia and in Andalusia in Spain, and thoseof Oporto and The Algarve in Portugal. This type of campaign is aimed at non-users atrisk and users. The material used in these campaigns is primarily informative on thenature of synthetic drugs and their dangers, leaving no doubt as to whether they aredangerous or not to health. In addition, it makes users take on responsibility for theiruse, telling them that if they are aware of the dangers and they still feel like facing themthen, as a minimum, they should take the preventive measures which they are beinggiven.As for Portugal, we do not have too much information in this respect. However whatwe have on the attitude and stances of the Spanish professionals faced with the209