Contemporary Drug Problems
September 1, 2014
Ella Dilkes‐frayne
65 citations
Current research on youth illicit drug use often examines 'context' as a mediating factor, but this approach misses the temporality, dynamism, and multiplicity of actual drug-taking. Drawing on Actor Network Theory, the author conceptualizes a drug-use event as a process of successive mediations, where shifting relations bring about transformations and actions including drug use. The article discusses methodological aspects of tracing such events and provides an account of a young man taking MDMA at a music festival in Melbourne, Australia. This approach offers a new way to rethink contextual influences on drug use and could assist harm reduction efforts.
Contemporary Drug Problems
September 1, 2019
Hannes Kettner, Natasha L. Mason, Kim P. C. Kuypers
50 citations
Motives for using novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are largely similar to those for classical psychoactive substances (CPS), except for synthetic cannabinoids, whose main endorsed motive is getting intoxicated without regard to specific qualities. Across 12 substances, the most common motives are feeling euphoric (58.0%), enhancing an activity (52.3%), and broadening consciousness (48.1%). Coping-related reasons are more frequent among female participants, while males indicate a broader range of motives. These patterns can inform tailored educational campaigns and prevention strategies.
Contemporary Drug Problems
March 1, 2002
Tom F. M. Ter Bogt, Rutger C. M. E. Engels, Belinda Hibbel et al.
46 citations
House music was the dominant youth subculture in the Netherlands during the 1980s and 1990s, centered on all-night parties and MDMA (Ecstasy) use. The article reviews the history of the Dutch house scene and examines the psychological effects of dancing while on MDMA, termed "dancestasy." Although MDMA can be physically and cognitively harmful, the dancestasy experience may positively contribute to personal and social identity development in adolescence. Ethnographic studies suggest temporary negative effects on school or work functioning. After several years in the scene, leisure time becomes less important, and young adults resume social responsibilities.
Contemporary Drug Problems
August 29, 2022
Liam Engel, S. Thal, S. Bright
29 citations
People who use psychedelics prefer trip sitters—caregivers who monitor them during a session—to have personal experience with psychedelics or other non-ordinary states of consciousness, knowledge of health and medical fields, and familiarity with psychedelic literature. Forum discussions on The Shroomery and DMT Nexus also reveal a demand for remote trip sitting, where consumers communicate plans online to a sitter who is not physically present, balancing privacy with care. These preferences likely stem from stigma and the value of empathy; trip sitters with lived experience can relate to the effects and help consumers avoid judgment. The findings suggest that harm reduction services should be delivered by peers and should explore remote care options.
Contemporary Drug Problems
March 7, 2026
Måns Bergkvist, Damon Barrett, Johan Edman et al.
1 citation
Psychedelics were included under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances—a key international drug control treaty—due to sensationalized media coverage and Cold War politics, not strong scientific evidence of public health dangers. Concerns about dependency and youth counterculture were amplified, while tobacco, alcohol, sedatives, and stimulants faced less restriction due to cultural and economic advocacy. The United States helped preserve allowances for psychedelic research and plant use, countering stricter proposals from France and the USSR. The article shows how ideological, cultural, political, and institutional factors, rather than evidence alone, shaped international drug policy.
Contemporary Drug Problems
August 28, 2025
Jason K. Day, Michael Th. Grooff
1 citation
The 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances prohibits recreational use of psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and mescaline, based on claims that they pose a serious public health threat due to high addiction and abuse liability and have only limited medical and scientific value. This article argues that these premises are false: psychedelics are not highly addictive or abusive, and their uses extend beyond medicine and science, making prohibition unjustified. Decriminalization and legal regulation also rest on flawed premises. The authors propose communalization, where all adults may freely use psychedelics recreationally, supported by community-based harm reduction and benefit enhancement services.
Contemporary Drug Problems
February 10, 2025
Liam Engel, Mitchell Low
1 citation
Conflicts around the mescaline cacti San Pedro and Peyote arise from tensions between Indigenous cultural practices, psychopharmacotherapy research, psychedelic markets, and ecology. Through autoethnography, the authors reflect on their lived experiences with growing, researching, and working with these plants. They find that powers of medicine and prohibition dominate among diverse stakeholders, but these powers are also met with resistance.
Contemporary Drug Problems
July 10, 2026
Oliver Davis, Sophie Casey
This article offers a skeptical appraisal of Psymposia, a U.S.-based psychedelics watchdog group that helped block FDA approval of MDMA for PTSD in 2024. Close analysis of its "Power Trip" podcast, FDA hearing interventions, and allegations of a "Psychedelic Syndicate" portrays the group as an effective "entrepreneur of psychedelic negativity." The authors argue that Psymposia's sensationalist approach to trauma and narrow view of iatrogenic harm presents its activism as harm-reduction while conspiring to produce "Prohibition 2.0" through "distributed anxiogenesis." The authors claim the group received over $400,000 USD in funding, mostly undisclosed, possibly used for consultancy and media access. They reject the group's position as incoherent and damaging to substantive Left politics, aiming to bring balance to conversations about psychedelic medicalization and decriminalization.
Contemporary Drug Problems
January 19, 2025
Mika Tsupari, Matilda Hellman, T. Tammi
Interviews with 40 Finnish users of classic psychedelics reveal three main reasons for use: as a catalyst for change, as self-medication, and as a device for self-improvement. Users reported positive experiences such as beauty, calmness, awe, connection with others, and mystical experiences, and found psychedelics helpful for depression, anxiety, difficult experiences, and traumas. The authors suggest that psychedelics offer experiences unavailable in everyday life and that their use reflects a contemporary biopolitical project of self-care and individualistic solutions for mental health needs. With harm reduction practices, psychedelic use likely provides more benefits than harm for some individuals.