Rave parties - It’s just drugs, alcohol and sex

Rave parties - It’s just drugs, alcohol and sex

Mangalore Today News Network

By Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon

Mangaluru, June 5, 2024: Telugu actor Hema, who had earlier tested positive for consumption of drugs during a rave party in Bengaluru, was arrested on June 03rd Monday. The FIR reveals that the party was attended by 73 men and 30 women. The blood samples of 59 men tested positive for drugs while the blood samples of 27 women tested positive. Overall, 86 out of 103 individuals tested positive for drug use. In their raid, the police seized MDMA (Ecstasy) pills, MDMA crystals, hydro cannabis, cocaine, high-end cars, DJ equipment, including sound and lighting worth Rs 1.5 crore.

 
The ravers culture consumers normally choose substances belonging to the same “family,” such as methamphetamines (MDMA and speed) and psychedelic substances (ketamine and LSD), for specific and contextual motives. Rave parties are often characterized by electronic dance music, flashy lights, and the use of psychedelic drugs. These parties have a massive impact on the youth in terms of their engagement with technology.

Club drugs are psychoactive substances linked to rave and private party’s cultures, which have been proliferating since 1990. They have remained, over the years, a challenge for public health practitioners, and enforcement agencies, particularly because of their spread among adolescents and young adults. Participants keep indulging in sex, drugs and alcohol, uncontrollably.

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse in its “Community Alert on Club Drugs” identified four main psychoactive drugs in club drugs or party drugs: Ecstasy (MDMA), ketamine, methamphetamine, and Lysergic acid Diethylamide (LSD). A growing body of international research highlights the use of club drugs to be associated with serious physical health problems and psychiatric disorders, risky sexual behaviour and violence and crime. The health problems associated with the use of synthetic substances include both acute effects resulting from their use and long-term health damage, which is often different for other types of commonly abused drugs. For example, the consumption of illegal methamphetamines has been associated with various acute adverse effects, including anxiety, headache, tremors, nausea, abdominal cramps, sweating, dizziness, and decreased appetite. MDMA, which initially causes euphoria and mental stimulation, can produce adverse reactions such as hypothermia, seizures, and other problems of multi-organ deficiencies. Long-term damage from synthetic drug use, particularly observed from ketamine use, includes addiction problems among chronic users, urinary problems, and other physical forms of harm. In general, consumers with a history of mental health problems are exposed to a higher risk of acute psychological and psychiatric adverse effects, ranging from mood loss, anxiety and aggression, to forms of depression and psychosis.

The French word ‘Loisir’ meaning recreational nightlife, indicates certain music preferences and the choice of particular places of entertainment, as important predictors of illegal drug use. It reaches the stage of raving when the urge to have a good time becomes addiction. The behaviour of cooped-up, out-of-school teens who seek rave parties has been medicalised and given a name. They are suffering from addiction to fun and ’conduct disorder’, Dozens of young people recently have been found indulging in sex, drugs and alcohol. This isn’t new, of course, but the numbers are unusually high and distressing.

The ones who have raved may have problems going into the future because this becomes a new normal for them. Synthetic drug use is often related to night-time loisir. In fact, it has been observed by health practitioners that the use of MDMA increases over the weekends and decreases on weekdays, suggesting a relationship between the “darkness world” of nightlife and the consumption of synthetic drugs. Another important phenomenon, common among many subcultures including ravers, is the polydrug use of narcotic substances.  Many dance club attendees use an average of five drugs at the rave. There is a high proportion of polydrug users in night-time loisir. Polydrug use presents a challenge to public health due to the unpredictable pharmacological, toxicological, and psychopathological effects of the interaction between different substances on vulnerable individuals.

Different reasons often given for drug use are relaxation, intoxication, improvement in socialization, and alleviation of negative moods. The wish to use drugs to feel better with others, as well as to increase the amount of time spent with others, is associated with an increase in consumption. The use of synthetic drugs amplifies the sensations of the rave environment, such as the light and music; facilitates socialization; or creates the sense of “being united”. For some ravers, participating in the rave experience can even become a spiritual journey, which is sought after, to feel a sense of belonging to particular social groups.

Drug consumption appears to be more widespread at illegal self-managed raves and parties. The ravers are continuously listening to music like acid house, goa, jungle, techno songs, which together with the drugs, takes them into a trance. Those who go to these parties go there to get out of reality, there are no other reasons.

Ravers choose substances belonging to the same “family,” MDMA, methamphetamines, ketamine and LSD as psychedelic substances, probably to pursue their specific effects. In particular, ketamine and LSD, act as channels to experiment with alternative worlds, i.e. dissociation from reality, correlate directly with the desire to break away from the routine of one’s day. The link between music, the ability to induce such states, and the intake of psychoactive substances is very close and can lead to seeing rave parties as real congregations of dissociation.

Illegal party or self-managed rave can have a fairly secretive and complex organization behind it. Anonymity is preferred both, by the organizers and the participants. The constant stream of information, music, and colours, can become a sensory overload, which all adds to a distinctly modern sense of freedom and euphoria. Accurate data on the behaviours of club drug users are difficult to obtain due to the illegal and stigmatising nature of their behaviour, as also, ravers may be reluctant to participate in Police investigations and enquiries.

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Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics)

Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com