Characteristics and social representation of ecstasy in Europe - Irefrea

Another of the subjects where one begins to see the necessity of studying socialrepresentations is that of addiction. There are very few studies published on this subjecteven though interest in studying phenomena linked to drugs from the point of view ofthe theory of social representation is increasing. In this respect, we quote a study carriedout by Basabe and Páez (Basabe and Páez, 1992) on social representations of alcoholin the juvenile population of Bilbao. In this study, the authors attempt to identify thecomponents of social representations of alcohol with the objective of adaptingpreventive strategies to make them more effective. They base it on the hypothesis thatalcohol consumption forms part of a culture shared by young people in which thissubstance is linked to leisure time and celebrations. It means, therefore, seeing thedifferences between the various social groups and what the factors are that lead toalcohol misuse.The study of the social representations of ecstasy also lies within this interest inunderstanding what significances and beliefs there are behind the social practiceslinked to consumption of this drug. We give some reasons below which we believejustify the study of this social phenomena in which ecstasy plays a leading role, fromthe point of view of the theory of social representations.8.2. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS IN DESIGNERDRUGSThe world of drugs has not produced a cultural and social phenomena similar to theone which is appearing with ecstasy and the designer drugs, in conjunction with suchmedia involvement and an important social mobilisation and juvenile culture, since thesixties. Possibly, this phenomena is more apparent in north and central Europeancountries.A search on the Internet led us to find 27,850 references on one single searcher(Excite) related to the word “ecstasy”. However, it is obvious that many of them do notrefer to a chemical substance but also include such diverse topics as sex, entertainment,etc. Logically, this superposition of references is not casual and, since the beginning,great interest has been shown in promoting this confusion. Names such as love drug orecstasy show the interest in encouraging these connections. It was precisely thisconfusion that led to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) introducing achange of name in the scientific media to avoid increasing subliminal publicity,proposing the denomination of Controlled Substances Analogs to refer to thosesubstances similar to controlled products but designed to outwit said control.We are not going to analyse the effects ecstasy produces on consumers, here, sincethat is not the purpose of this present work and, in addition, it is already sufficientlydocumented. We will, however, refer to the relationship which is established betweenthe effects and the cultural and subjective aspect of consumption. It would appear that97