New Directions for Women’s CEO and Executive Director, Becky Flood was recently featured in an article about ecstasy related deaths in the UK and the U.S. on www.demodirt.com. Demodirt.com is an online publication dedicated to providing demographic and psychographic intelligence about Generation Y, Generation X, and Baby Boomers, Mature Adults and more.
No Future in England’s Dreaming?
Written by Galia Myron Tuesday, 09 February 2010 16:12
Young people are dying from drug-related deaths in the UK.
An academic paper from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK contends that the rate of young people dying of ecstasy-related deaths is increasing at an alarming rate. Most disturbing is the fact that most of the deaths occurred in people who were young and healthy, said lead author, Professor Fabrizio Schifano of the University’s School of Pharmacy, in a public statement.
The report, which examined drug use in the UK over an 11-year time period, found the increased use of ecstasy particularly alarming. “These data seem to support the hypothesis that young individuals seem to suffer extreme consequences after excessive intake of ecstasy,” Schifano said publicly. “This is an issue of public health concern which deserves further studies.”
Are US youths also at particular risk for succumbing to this disturbing trend?
“I am not sure the US is seeing the same thing,” says Rebecca J. Flood, MHS, LCADC, NCACII, CEO/Executive Director of Costa Mesa, CA-based New Directions for Women, an accredited addiction treatment facility for women and their children. Flood, who is also the President of the Association of Intervention Specialists (AIS), adds that Ecstasy is also known in the US as MDMA, E, X, Adam, and eccie, and is known as a “club drug” or dance club drug; it is a stimulant and hallucinogenic similar to methamphetamine and mescaline.
“The use and abuse of this drug in recent years varies from city to city and is not consistent throughout the US,” Flood notes. Citing research taken from two studies done by The National Forensic Laboratory Information Systems (NFLIS) and The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), Flood adds that Ecstasy use spread beyond club use seven years ago.
“In 2003 in Atlanta it was reported to no longer be a club drug but was being used by lower income poly substance abusers and the use had spread to the African American population as well,” she says. “In Los Angeles there is an overall decrease in its use.”
St. Louis, Flood adds, saw an increase in use among college males in the form of “party packs,” a combination of MDMA and Viagra. While the hip hop set in Baltimore in 2004 saw an increase in the use of Ecstasy, recent years have seen a decline, especially among Anglo males.
“The use is now wider spread and varies among ages, population and neighborhoods,” Flood explains. “Overall Ecstasy users in the club drug scene tend to be the youngest users. Those that seek treatment generally do so in hospital emergency rooms for adverse reaction and overdoses.” Young people are particularly drawn to Ecstasy, Flood says, because of the “excitement” associated with the drug, and the penchant for the young to take risks.
The changing popularity of any drug most likely depends on its availability and the culture of the population, she notes. Young people can be uniquely difficult to treat, Flood maintains, because they have trouble accepting that they are fighting an addiction in the first place.
Especially challenging, Flood says, is that young people tend to lack “the ability to accept they are not invincible and that addiction can and has happened to them, [the] inability to accept consequences, lack of family support, [and] not wanting to accept responsibility or to change their life style or social circle.” Finally, Flood adds, the universal obstacle to sobriety for this age group: “Peer pressure.”
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