Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

Within the harm minimisation strategy, the what has become known as the “saferdancing” strategy has had a great deal of success whereby the conditions of the discos,clubs or locales where the rave parties are held are adapted to suit the needs of youngpeople who could be there using drugs. A number of formal and informal standardshave been established, supervised by the local authorities or non-governmentalassociations who review the organisation of the event with the organisers. This type ofoperation was fairly normal in the United Kingdom and Holland (Safe houseCampaign). The rules are adapted to local circumstances but in general take intoaccount (Newcombe, 1992a) the formulating of precise instructions for all the groups,such as police, health services, organisers, etc. that participate, and discussing withthem the legal aspects to be applied in respect of the degree of co-operation supplied,training the people implicated so that they can identify and solve emergencies relatedto drug use, existence of locales with cold temperatures so that young people can cooldown, continuous supply of water, etc.CONCLUSIONSOn the basis of the information we compiled, it is difficult to establish the policy orthe orientation of prevention in each country. In some cases, the campaigns andprogrammes which we have mentioned are specific ones at a specific time or are notrepresentative of all the actions being taken by a country. It is normal that in a situationlike the present one, with such a rapid emergence of a problem in a few short years,actions are undertaken from the simple necessity of having to do something, withouttheir being the result of considered thought. Whatever the scenario proffered by thedescription of the programmes, in the majority of cases, it does not correspond toorganised situations with strong social and institutional backing. But they are a clearindication of sensitivity to the problem and, there is no doubt, they signpost the route offuture action. The harm minimisation strategy in the use of this type of drugs isextremely notable, with different nuances which are rather important at times. It isundeniable that future programmes will have to take this orientation into account eitherto take up an opposing position, adopt it and no more, or extract its more interestingaspects for use in combined orientations.With all these limitations in mind and conscious of the fragmentation of theinformation we collected, we will venture to put forward certain generalisations. Thecampaigns designed on the basis of the harm minimisation intervention model werefound predominantly in those countries where it is the basis of the official drug policy,as in the case of Holland, and in those countries where government policy is veryrepressive towards both traffickers and users -as in France and Great Britain. In theselatter two countries, the preventive initiatives come from non-governmentalorganisations with the objective of harm minimisation.In those countries where the intervention model complies with the objectives ofreducing demand and where the policy on use is not too repressive, the campaignsfollow a mixed intervention model. This mixed model combines both the appropriate212