Why Are Club Drugs So Dangerous?
The teens and young adults who take club drugs are generally unaware of the power and potentially deadly side effects of these drugs. They consider club drugs to be “party drugs,” something that will give them a nice high then wear off, like alcohol, leaving them fairly untouched. It is this lack of perceived risk that makes club drugs so dangerous to teens and young adults. Young people take club drugs often without thought, sometimes unknowingly, and generally with alcohol, which exacerbates the drugs’ effect on the body. Through such casual use, young people unwittingly place themselves in considerable danger of suffering a severe, potentially lethal, drug reaction.
Since 1996-97 when drug abuse among teens peaked, overall drug abuse has gradually declined according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. Since the mid-1990s, past-year drug use overall has declined by 37% for 8th-graders, 25% for 10th-graders and 14% for 12th-graders. Generally, teen use of club drugs has not followed this pattern. For example, while little change was found in the use of Ecstasy among 8th- and 10th-graders, use among 12th-grader females increased slightly from 2.7% in 2005 to 4% in 2006.
More alarming is the drop in the perceived risk of using club drugs, particularly among younger teens in the 12- to 14-year-old range. According to the 2006 MTF survey, only one-third (32.8%) of 8th-graders thought it was risky to use Ecstasy, the most popular club drug, “once or twice,” down from 40% in 2005. Only half (52%) thought “occasional” use entailed risk, down from 60.8% in 2005. Disapproval of Ecstasy use among 8th graders also decreased with only 66.7% 2006 disapproving of occasional Ecstasy use in 2006, compared to 75% in 2005.
“We have seen a reduction over the past one to three years in the proportions of students saying that they think using ecstasy is dangerous, or that they disapprove it its use,” said Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the 2006 MTF survey. “Perceived risk is often a leading indicator of changes in actual use. So, when we see a change like this, we take it as an early warning of trouble ahead. … this could be setting the stage for a resurgence in the use of this drug, since use often moves with these beliefs and attitudes.”
Since 1975, the NIDA has funded an annual study that surveys the extent of drug use among 12th-graders. Conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey was expanded in 1991 to include 8th- and 10th-graders. The survey collects data on recent drug use: past month, past year and lifetime. The 2006 MTF survey polled 48,460 students nationally in 410 public and private schools.
